Dive Brief:

• Amazon and Google released a handful of free teaching tools this week, offering opportunities for virtual reality, screencasting, online quizzes and online collaboration for course materials.
• EdSurge reports Google’s new suite of tools include theExpeditions App, which features more than 200 virtual reality expeditions; Cast for Education, which allows Chrome users to share their screen wirelessly; and Quizzes in Google Forms, which has auto-grading and analytics capabilities.
• Amazon Inspire aims to create an online space for educators to upload, categorize and share open source resources, peer-review content and put it into collections, according to a write-up from CNET.

Dive Insight:

In a market with a dizzying array of technology tools teachers can bring into the classroom, the release of more free options from trusted companies may be welcomed in the education community. More than 10 million students already use Google Classroom in the nation’s schools.

Amazon Inspire, as a clearinghouse for open source resources, serves as the company’s contribution to the U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign. The goal of increasing the quantity and quality of open source content is to reduce the cost of learning materials for schools and increase the likelihood that high-poverty districts have access to high-quality content, increasing equity across districts. Giving teachers the ability to peer-review content may help sort out the good from the mediocre in Amazon Inspire, one key challenge in choosing course materials.

Recommended Reading

EdSurge: Google EDU Releases Expeditions and ‘Cast for Education’ Apps, Intr... 
CNET: Amazon unveils free educational tools for teachers