Smart Technologies Joins Google Education Partner Program
Smart Technologies, the makers of
Smart Boards and other collaboration solutions, has joined Google's Education
Technology Partner Program.
Google partners with companies that have optimized their products for the Google Apps for Education platform and
devices. Google selected Smart Technologies for the partner program because of
the "cohesive integration" between Google Classroom and Smart Amp collaborative learning software,
according to information from Smart Technologies. By joining Google's Education
Technology Partner Program, Smart Technologies will receive greater access to
Google's development tools and support.
Google Classroom is part of the Google Apps for Education platform and lets
teachers administer their classes and communicate with their students. Smart
Amp is software that lets students create content and collaborate on devices
such as Chromebooks. According to information on the Smart Amp site, students
can use their Google Apps for Education user name and password to sign in to
Smart Amp, so they don't need to sign in to the platform and the software
separately. They can then use the software to chat with each other or draw and
to embed images, video and Smart Notebook content into their collaborative
workspace.
"SMART amp builds on the Google Classroom experience by providing a space
for students to complete projects collaboratively," said Greg Estell,
president, Education at SMART Technologies, in a prepared statement. "Teachers
can use SMART amp to group students, take and pass control of the workspace and
draw attention to what other groups are doing by presenting their material to
the whole class. SMART amp includes formative assessment tools and allows for
teachers or students to embed, extract and play a Notebook file on any
device."
Further information about integration of Smart Amp with Google Classroom can
be found on Smart Amp's
site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].