A couple of weeks ago I spent a very enjoyable day at the LikeMinds Conference in Exeter. What is LikeMinds? Well I’m not completely clear to be honest. I attended because it was local, because some of my inspirational network locally were going and because Molly Flatt was speaking. Molly Flat - who is she? Well I came across Molly when I discovered that I had missed the event last year and while trawling the post conference stuff I came across either her talk or maybe a blog post ( I don’t remember so well that far back). But through that I discovered her blog and her wonderful writing. Molly also writes for the Guardian. Molly is a Word of Mouth Marketer (WOM) and works part time with 1000heads. Deep down though she is a journalist and aspiring author. She talked at the opening plenary session and I expected her to champion the ‘conversations’ that happen though the raft of social media platforms, and specifically Twiter, but she talked instead about the innovation of the ‘book’ and why sometimes you just have to let the dust settle before you write your thoughts and ideas down. She introduced us to a magazine called ‘Delayed Gratification‘ and celebrated the idea of ‘slow journalism’. Thank you Molly for that reflective but insightful session. Slowness is something to be cherished is our increasingly fast paced world. This blog post is an example of that - it was drafted on the train on the way home but took weeks to make it onto the big wide web thingy. To continue on this slow theme  I am currently reading ‘The Discovery of Slowness’ by Sten Nadolny. "The Discovery of Slowness  is a novel by Sten Nadolny, written under a double conceit: first, as a novelization of the life of British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, and second as a hymn of praise to "slowness," a quality which Nadolny’s fictional Franklin possesses in abundance." Wikipedia This ‘slowness’ thing is catching on in lots of disciplines (slow food, slow journalism, slow design and even slow cities)  primarily as a response to the way in which most things in life are speeding up. I’m interested in slow learning but I don’t yet know what that is - apart from being diametrically opposed to fast learning which is what most of my clients seem to want these days. What else occurred at Like Minds? Glenn Le Santo shared some anecdotes and stories on the death of the journalist’s business model. Seems like lots of business models are under threat these days. Just ask the Greeks or the Italians. We ended the plenary session with a debate around the proposition ‘Are all Companies now Media Companies?’ The general consensus is that companies are having to be much more hands on when it comes to managing the information that they create and the conversations that they have with their customers. Glenn wasn’t impressed with the idea that you can sell something and talk about it all at the same time but that’s the way the smart companies are going. If you create and develop the conversation you can shape the behaviour of your customers in ways that simply aren’t possible using traditional media levers. Following a nice lunch hosted by James Whatley of 1000Heads I attended an ‘immersive’ on Online Video delivered by the dynamic duo of Stephen and Roger from Watershed PR. Now being an e-learning guy I have been increasingly interested in using video as an integral part of an online learning experience but making a video is much harder than it looks. Just check out the number of people (and budget) it takes to make a Hollywood movie and you get the picture (sic). The dynamic duo took us on a high speed tour of some of the things you need to think about when you want to make a video to promote your business. Visual storytelling featured strongly but also simple tips on scene setting and drawing viewers into the action. I can’t watch my local TV news reports now without visualising the storyboard. How sad is that? I expected some innovation in the format of the conference but in practice it followed the same old conference formula with a plenary followed by some break out sessions (called ‘Immersives’) with a final plenary at the end. We did get to lunch at various locations around the lovely city of Exeter with the speakers which was a nice touch. A more inspirational format might be more appropriate for an event which is supposed to tap into the zeitgeist. Many years ago when I was in the Technical Writing business I attended a series of innovative but brilliant conferences in Europe. Called the FORUM Conferences they relied on a lot of interaction between presenters and delegates. They used ‘idea markets’, ‘immersives’ and championed the ‘rule of two feet’. It sounds quite chaotic I know but the quality of the conversations was amazing and the whole thing worked in a wonderfully human and organic way. Idea Markets will again be a cornerstone of the conference. Developed 30 years ago by Ulf Anderssen and Lars Forslund in Sweden, INTECOM’s Ideas Markets have become recognized as the ideal way to present and exchange information. Rather than have delegates sitting in docile rows listening to a speaker deliver information in a one-way setting, in an Idea Market everyone participates in an interactive exchange of ideas. It’s exhilarating and refreshing! Finally LikeMinds is a social media savvy organisation so it wasn’t unexpected that Tweeting would be a feature of the event. Thankfully though the ‘backchannel’ didn’t feature too heavily and we were spared a Twitter wall. I never did get to download RokkMedia’s custom Like/Dislike app and I don’t know how well it was used during the event - with no reliable WiFi connectivity wasn’t brilliant but sometimes a little disconnectedness makes life more pleasureable. Is this the last slow word on the Like Minds 2011 conference? Maybe, maybe not.

You never know when it's going to hit the fan. Take these steps to avoid trouble.Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Ways To Protect Yourself From Client Issues

Christmas is fast approaching and I’ve been asked again this year to write a guest blog article for the E-Learning Network’s advent calendar of e-learning insights, advice and stories. I’m not sure what to write about this year but I thought I’d share my contribution from last year on ‘Storyboarding’. There’s a free storyboard template in it for you if you manage to get to the end! The storyboard is the vehicle by which conventional e-learning gets done, but the storyboard is a much misunderstood thing both by those in the e-learning business and by customers. The problem is that everyone does storyboarding in a different way. Some even abandon the storyboard altogether in favour of the rapid prototype (more on this disruptive approach later). One of the problems with the storyboard is that it has to perform so many functions throughout an e-learning development project. Here are some of its possible tasks: It acts as the scoping vehicle (have we included everything?) It may provide initial visuals for client review It determines the level of interactivity though the programme (and therefore determines the amount of effort required to build the end product) It provides the main review document for the client and the subject matter expert (SME) It contains all the final on-screen text or voice-over script for client review In may contain low resolution versions of all the photographs and images that will appear in the final programme. It is used as the key briefing document for the development team. Clearly this is a big ask for one document. And to make matters worse the audiences are so completely different - the client who is paying, the SME who is looking for accuracy, the project management team who are assessing effort and the development team who are looking for a clear brief on how it should be built. Of course in many cases the storyboard is supported by additional documents but these are often left by the wayside as the client focuses on the tangible visual feel of the storyboard. So we recognise that the storyboard has to achieve a lot so how should it look to achieve this massive task? The Visual Storyboard I’ve worked on a vast number of e-learning projects over the years and either though experiment or dictate (my client has forced me to use their in-house approach) I have tried a broad range of approaches. As a visual person (aren’t most instructional designers visual) I favour the visually rich storyboard built in PowerPoint (or any other graphics and layout friendly software). Now, just because I use PowerPoint does not mean that the storyboard should look like a PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint provides us with a blank canvas - what we put onto that blank canvas is limited only by our imagination (and the imagination of those who we work with). Having opted for the visually rich approach there are two possible avenues open to us. We can adopt a realist approach or we can adopt a sketchy approach. The realists use actual photographs , proper fonts and smart layouts. Sometimes these storyboards looks almost like the finished thing. If you are developing with a rapid tool such as Articulate or Adobe e-Learning Studio they probably will be the finished thing. The sketchers on the other hand use rough layouts, basic outlines, silhouettes and  often placeholders for images and graphics. Which would you prefer to review as a client? It’s a tough call - some clients get the sketchy approach - they recognise that it is the first step and can see how it can be developed towards the final product. For me it isn’t a simple choice between one or the other. It depends on your natural way of working as an instructional designer, and on the preference of the client (and indeed the rest of the development team). I prefer to start with the sketchy approach since this lets me work quickly and focus on the learning and the learning interactions rather than the look and feel. One of the strengths of this approach is that it also provides more scope for the designers to add their magic. However in some cases this approach can come unstuck - some e-learning  companies operate a production line and the last thing they want is too much autonomy on the part of the designer. Sometimes I will build an early sketchy draft - review this with the development team and the client - then translate it to a more realistic version before it is signed off for build. The Script Storyboard But what if you (or your client) doesn’t do the visual approach at all? Well the most popular alternative is the straightforward written script. This is a much more word focussed approach - think Tolstoy or Dickens rather than Picasso or Monet. This approach is favoured by some clients because it keeps more obviously to the message - which is often more simply conveyed in words than images. Images are interpretations and these can be subjective. These script storyboards are usually developed in a word processor and they therefore get the benefit of all that fancy review and mark-up functionality that exists in a product like Word. As they are purposely light on imagery and layout these scripts will often contain lots of ‘described interactions’ (the instructional designer describing a learning interaction rather than actually visualising it). Some clients do seem to feel more comfortable with this script based approach but transforming the script into an engaging visual e-learning experience can be a real challenge - there simply isn’t enough visualisation done to make the job of the designer and developer straightforward. Usually they need considerably more input at the briefing stage. No-Storyboard at All Finally we have the ‘no storyboard’ approach. How does this work? Well it’s hard to describe but it requires a degree of collaboration and insight that aren’t quite so important using the conventional approaches. The concept behind the no-storyboard or rapid prototype approach is that all clients really want to see is the final thing - and if we can show them what that looks like really early on then we can dispense with storyboards altogether. This is a good concept but it has some problems. We still need some way to capture all the content, and the designers and developers still need input from the instructional designer so in practice there is often still a rudimentary storyboard - it’s just that it’s not seen or reviewed by the client but becomes an internal design document only. This approach actually works for me - I’m a big fan of building something quickly and showing the client quickly (warts and all) but it can be tough to implement in a conventional production environment - things are continually oscillating between the instructional designer and the build team and this can seriously mess-up the project schedule. However time lost at this prototyping stage is usually regained again at client review. Usually the client is much more satisfied with the end product earlier in the development cycle and there are therefore less costly changes towards the end of the build. Which Approach is Best? So which approach works best? Well there are of course strengths and weaknesses for all three but here is a guide to help: Use a visual storyboard when:  The client gets visuals You are using a rapid development tool You need to work quickly You are planning lots of learning interactions You are developing a new course template Use a script storyboard when: The client is precious about the words the SME has provided When proofing the message and the text is critical (e.g. for regulatory purposes) When you are working with a law firm (seriously) You are simply working to a pre-defined course template Use no storyboard when: The client is completely naive when it comes to e-learning When you are attempting something unconventional such as a game or complex scenario You are experimenting with your design and development team (trying new learning interactions or a new player for example). Clearly as instructional designers we all have our favoured way of working but it’s also critical that we work in a way that is transparent for both the customer, the SME and the development team. It’s important to recognise that the storyboard is only a representation of the final product. Early on it may look a bit rubbish but as the team works towards the final goal it will crystallise the thinking and the design. Imagine the storyboard as the rough underpainting of that final masterpiece. One day our storyboards may even become valuable in their own right! What works best for you? Are you a no-storyboard fan or would life be hell without it? In the spirit of Christmas, I’ve attached a Visual Storyboard Template for you to use/modify as appropriate. PowerPoint e-Learning Storyboard Template

Summer is here, a great time for rest, relaxation and exploration - and I don’t just mean for kids! It’s been a great year and we’re planning even more greatness for September, including a relaunch of and some new directions for this blog. Stay tuned!

Most instructional designers have not been taught how to conceive abstract visuals, so here are some guidelines.Post from: The eLearning CoachWhich graphic should I use?

Today’s the day! We’re back! It’s the first day of the new school year for 2014-15! Entering the third year of my re-imagined K-4 Computer Lab program, they key word is "evolve." We’re keeping what works (and discarding what doesn’t) in relentless pursuit of the best possible mix of elementary technology skill instruction, guided inquiry learning, and applied engineering concepts. Let me set the stage for you for the new school year! New State Technology Standards Coming Over the past several months, I have had the privilege of serving on an New Jersey Department of Education committee tasked with updating the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Technology. The last update was in 2009; so much has changed since then! Mobile devices are everywhere; connections & collaborations between students and classrooms are easier than ever; and a surging "maker" movement is encouraging kids to do everything from tinker with broken toys to design for 3D printers and even learn how to write code. These trends and more are reflected in the recently published draft standards for technology, and in the work we will be doing in my classroom this year. Say Hello to Google Classroom In grades 2-3-4, my students will be using a brand-new tool from Google (just launched in August) called Google Classroom. We are among the very first schools in the country to leverage this new application at the elementary level. Google Classroom will make it easy for students to access and turn in their work while raising collaboration to a whole new level. This short video will give you an idea what Google Classroom is all about. Entering Our Third Year with Engineering is Elementary As the basis for the "STEM" emphasis we incorporated into our elementary Computer Lab program two years ago, Engineering is Elementary continues to provide us with a flexible, robust and powerful platform for guided inquiry learning. Just ask any NCS Elementary student what they remember most about my class last year - I will bet their response will be an EiE project! These wonderful units, purchased with grant money we received in 2012, combine beautifully written and illustrated stories with sound explorations of the Engineering Design Process, culminating in hands-on engineering activities the kids love. This short video does a terrific job explaining the program, its focus and benefits: The Importance of Foundation Skills  I often say to students that keyboarding is the single most important skill they will acquire in my class. We will once again be using the online Typing Pal service (grades 2 & up) and a variety of other web-based programs to provide students with a solid grounding in keyboarding skill. For students younger than Second grade, we focus on what we call "keyboarding awareness," which basically is a working understanding of the basics of a keyboard’s layout, location of the "power" keys (including enter, escape, shift) and when to use each hand to type a letter (as opposed to finger-specific reaches.) Foundation skills also refer to effective utilization of a mouse (this is becoming more and more important in my class as handheld devices overtake traditional computers in the home), the ability to log onto a Windows-based computer with an ID and password, traversing network drives & managing files, printing, and word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database skills (taught both with Microsoft Office and Google Apps.) The School-Home Connection Students come to my class once a week for 40 minutes. Let that sink in. Once. A. Week. 40 minutes! We have, as you can see, a TREMENDOUS amount of work to do every year - and extending learning at home is a HUGE help. Whether it is keyboarding practice or working with Google Apps or even exploring the learning activities on my grade-level Symbaloo pages (KDG | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th), every little bit helps. I often hear, too, of students going home and replicating the EiE STEM projects we’ve undertaken. (Sorry about the mess, Mom & Dad - but that’s real learning, too!) Simply put, we are partners in your child’s education. Thank you in advance for your help! That’s all for now. Let’s get busy! Mr. Jarrett

I’m currently working with a client on developing an online programme that is partly about a key business process and partly about a software application that supports that business process. We are using WillowDNA’s Pathway platform to deliver a mix of learning activities organised as a ‘learning pathway’. The interactive bits are developed in Articulate and we are using Camtasia for software walkthroughs. We are also using lots of short videos produced in house featuring key people in the business (including the CEO) and also stories from users in the field from across the worldwide business. In the last couple of years the use of video in e-learning has grown significantly. In the old days video was way too bandwidth hungry for corporate networks and it was also very expensive to produce. The bandwidth restrictions are now much less stringent and suddenly there are devices all around us that will capture high quality video and tools that will allow us to publish that video simply and quickly. This morning I reviewed a 30 minute video which contained some ‘to camera’ pieces from the leadership team. The footage was completely unedited and so contains practice runs, people looking away from the camera, asking the cameraman questions and even joking with the camera team about the mistakes they are all making. Now I know that our task is to remove all the mistakes and end up with a something that looks professional (the way the BBC would do it) but it dawned on me that by taking out the less professional bits we also lose a lot of the humanity. The unedited video made me smile - I warmed to the CEO making mistakes and joking about it. I know that the final edits will get across the message succinctly but will the whole thing feel authentic? For me this feeling of authenticity is critical for successful learning experiences and sadly it’s one of the things that almost always gets edited out in e-learning programmes. When I deliver a face to face workshop there are lots of authentic bits included - by accident more than by design. We may tell a joke or share a story or just laugh about something that has come up in a Q&A session. I think it’s important that we strive to keep this authenticity in online learning as well. When it comes to video, speaking ‘off the cuff’  to the camera is so much better that using a script. It may feel a bit scary and there will be some pauses and moments of imperfection but overall it will feel much more authentic.

Best practices of mobile app design applied to mobile learning and performance support.Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Tips For Designing mLearning And Support Apps

Mom and Dad, are you looking for a fun, easy project to do with your daughters … to spark their interest in coding and 3D printing? Made with Code and Google have created a cool, easy-to-use website that anyone can use to design a nifty bracelet then have it 3D printed and shipped for FREE. Yes, FREE! Here’s the link: https://www.madewithcode.com/project/bracelet. Read more, here, too. UPDATE: APPARENTLY SINCE I GOT MINE, THIS SITE NO LONGER PRINTS AND SHIPS THE 3D BRACELET! BOO! HOWEVER, YOU CAN STILL DESIGN THE BRACELET AND THEN CHOOSE ‘DOWNLOAD 3D BRACELET FILE,’ WHICH NCS PARENTS CAN EMAIL TO KJARRETT@NCS-NJ.ORG FOR PRINTING! And here’s what the bracelet looks like, modeled by Gumdrop, our class mascot Webkin! Have fun!

When you're designing learning experiences, long-term memory is your ultimate destination. We need a user's guide.Post from: The eLearning CoachLong-Term Memory: A User’s Guide

Just came across this and wanted to share - what a fantastic selection of projects and activities for the classroom as well as the home! Rainy/cold winter days will be upon us soon, so, get your craft sticks, glue guns, rubber bands, propellers, wheels, straws, etc., ready for some fun! Click the image above or this link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/.

I watched the BBC documentary about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last night. It wasn’t especially enlightening. The story goes something like this; Psychology major with computer science skills puts the Harvard facebook online (a facebook is a book of photos of students produced by each college) It becomes really popular with students Other local universities like MIT want to join in Zuckerburg and mates think; "This could be big!" They drop out of college and move to Silicon Valley There are other social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo and Friendster but Zuckerburg’s focus on the psychology rather than the code pays off Facebook becomes the social network that everyone uses So why does everyone use Facebook? The simple answer - because everyone uses Facebook. There is no benefit in using a social network that isn’t used by your friends. I’m on Google+ but precious few others are. I like Google+ it has some really cool features but without the people it’s a waste of time. Q: Why does everyone use Facebook? A: Because everyone uses Facebook. When I first started using Facebook I really didn’t get it. Whenever I went to my page there was stuff that other people were doing - weird! Of course I soon understood the concept of the ‘wall’ - there was always something happening even if I hadn’t bothered sharing any content myself. Twitter takes the same approach - your ‘timeline’ is always being updated even if you don’t tweet much yourself. When I ask people about Facebook their understanding of it in technical terms is very limited but at a user level it’s easy to use and the psychology of it is very clever. The simple ‘like’ button for example made it so much simpler to indicate personal preferences. Google adopted the same approach with search - the mainly white page with a single search box hid the complexity of Google’s complex technology. Clearly simplicity is key when you are going for world domination. Until now I have always considered Facebook to be a mainly friends and family networking tool but maybe I should create a Designed for Learning page and see what it’s like to be a business on Facebook. Please ‘like’ this post…to help further my research.

A half dozen principles for designing text for learning.Post from: The eLearning CoachDesigning Text-based Information

UPDATE 9/19: Whoa, Nelly! We’ve been INUNDATED with responses from interested partner classrooms! Want in? Please fill out this form if you haven’t already. THANKS!!! Hello, Grade 2 teachers … in the USA and around the world! We’re Northfield Community Elementary School in southeastern New Jersey and we’re looking for five partner classes to work with us this year on various collaborative projects. Our great state of New Jersey’s technology standards include the following for second graders: 8.1.2.C.1: Engage in a variety of developmentally appropriate learning activities with students in other classes, schools, or countries using electronic tools. And so, we need YOU and YOUR STUDENTS! What for, exactly? Great question! We’re open to ideas. We’re about ready to kick off a neat blogging project on empathy. That could work. We also have plans to explore the environment (a compare & contrast with your neck of the woods would be super easy and could go in a lot of directions). We can use Skype, Google Hangouts, or services like appear.in or meetings.io. We’ve got a pretty awesome STEMLAB (my K-4 technology education classroom) in which we do lots of cool projects that could also be fun to try together. The sky’s the limit. Really! Meet my Second Grade team. Who’s awesome? They’re awesome! From left to right, that’s Mr. Dave Supp, Ms. Fay Crooks, Mrs. Mary Kay McGlynn, Mrs. Michelle Seals and Mrs. Sindy Baker. If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know me, I’m the K-4 technology teacher here at NCS. I see these fine folks and their students once a week (2:00-2:50pm EDT, approximately) but these collaborations could easily be worked into YOUR schedules. What do you think? Interested? Got any questions? Fire away! Leave us a comment below. Fill out this form! We’re looking forward to working with you and your students! Best, Mr. Jarrett

Learn how to use a PPT grid to improve your eLearning graphics.Post from: The eLearning CoachDesigning With A PowerPoint Grid

Just came across this article about programming resources for kids … there are tons of these lists, but I found this particular one worth sharing because several of them are new to me … we’ve used Scratch and Tynker … Alice is for older kids (advanced upper elementary & middle) … many of these tools are available as apps as well as websites. Check them all out and see which your kids like best (personally I think Tynker is the strongest in the group.) Enjoy!

This is the online version of the Pecha Kucha presentation (20 slides of 20 seconds each) that I gave at the e-Learning Network (ELN) event in London on 21 October 2011. I’ll be at the next ELN event in London later this week (Friday 9th December) where the subject will be; "Writing great copy, storyboards, and scenarios for e-learning". It will also be the grand final of the 2011 Pecha Kucha competition. Hope you can make it!

It's easy to change the look and feel of Articulate courses using player skins. See my results.Post from: The eLearning CoachArticulate Presenter Skins: A Review

Had an awesome day, perfect weather, amazing exhibits, talks and food - reflection post coming soon - for now, check out the pics!

When we design an online learning programme one of the first things we do with clients during our Learning Design Day is to try and define the audience as accurately as possible. We try and identify who they are, what they already know and also what their motivation is for learning more. Sometimes we manage to identify a specific group that will particularly benefit from the learning but more often than not we end up trying to design something that works for everyone. I guess this is one of the downsides of e-learning - because it’s so easy to train so many the temptation is to push it out to as wide an audience as possible to justify the cost. BUT this is a flawed approach because instead of speaking directly to our key target audience we end up being bland and ineffectual. That’s why this article from B2B marketing agency Velocity caught my eye and makes a lot of sense for those involved in learning design too: Marketers are instinctively inclusive. Our default is to set our crop-sprayer on the widest possible setting, covering the largest possible audience for everything we do. If a single piece of content can cover more than one target audience, why not go for it? It saves time and money and raises your Return on Content. Unfortunately, it’s not always a good idea to try to kill two birds with one content stone. In fact it’s rarely a good idea. Here’s why: Link: When Target Audiences Clash

Mrs. Sundra, Elementary Art Teacher What do you get when you incorporate artistic design element(s) into a STEM project? Why, a STEAM project, of course! This year we are trying something new - seeking opportunities to integrate Art (taught by Mrs. Sundra, shown here) into various STEM projects. Mrs. Sundra and I see a lot of potential here! We are starting with two third grade Engineering is Elementary STEM projects: Catching the Wind: Designing Windmills A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes In each case, Mrs. Sundra is going to work with her students (BEFORE they come to my class) on a project that will be combined with what we’re doing in the STEMLAB. Specifically, for the "Windmills" project, our plan is for the kids to create colorful, imaginative "wraps" which will be glued to the outside of the windmills they’ll be making out of OJ containers, wooden dowels, styrofoam balls and craft sticks: For the "Parachutes" project, kids will be creating artistic designs on the gigantic commercial coffee filters we use for the chutes themselves: I’m also super excited because this collaboration means EVERY STUDENT gets to MAKE AND KEEP their own project! (In the past kids have had to double up.) This is going to complicate things from a storage and organizational perspective, but, we’re resourceful, we’ll make it work somehow! And, very special thanks to the NCS PTO for funding the supplies we’ll need to get this done! I have a feeling this is the start of a great collaboration between my classes and Mrs. Sundra’s! Stay tuned for more! Mr. Jarrett  

There are lots of free assets and content on the web for the eLearning tribe. Here are some of the best.Post from: The eLearning Coach10 eLearning Freebies

Hello and welcome! It’s been a while since I’ve posted - lots of changes to the blog this year - and with this entry, I’m introducing a new category of posts called "Quick Takes" - brief highlights of an activity, tool or instructional practice I think is worth sharing. To kick things off, I’d like to start with our experiences to date with Google Classroom, which is new this year. Overall I’m happy with Classroom’s initial release. In particular, I like: how easy it is to assign, receive and return work; that the site is fast, uncluttered and easy to navigate; that the mostly text-based user interface (UI) is spartan (but that’s classic Google); that it is free and integrates (obviously, duh) with Google Apps. The students like Classroom. They have told me they enjoy: using it to get assignments; how it looks; the "Turn In" button (as opposed to ‘Share’); and the cool graphic at the top. Let’s dive in a little deeper… Building Announcement/Assignment posts are in reverse chronological order, which is logical, I guess, but does induce a lot of scrolling. (Pro Tip: if you want a particular post to stay at the top of the page, post it LAST, until Google adds ‘sticky’ functionality.) There’s no ability to import students. Ok, so, joining via code isn’t that big a deal, even for elementary students. But I’m a big believer in .CSV uploads and building rosters and saving other people time. The sparse design is both a pro and a con. It’s what we expect with a 1.0 release from Google. It’ll improve with age. The limited themes make things hard for elementary, and you can’t upload your own banner graphic yet. Using It seems like lots of clicks are needed to get students from assignments to the actual documents. I’d like to see direct document access with a single click. The lack of "Mr.,  Mrs. or Ms." prefixes is a minor annoyance (the kids are dumbfounded when they realize I have a first name.) Connection errors, which we have seen with some regularity, are (so far) easily overcome by refreshing the page. Once the student starts working on an assigned document, the teacher has access and can comment in real time. Students can create documents within Classroom and they will automatically be made available to the teacher. Workflow If a document, spreadsheet or slide deck is desired as part of the assignment, it has to be created prior to the announcement. It’s easy to then tell Classroom how to handle it (make individual copies, make a read-only original, etc.) So far, students have: Joined my Classroom Accessed assignments Turned in assignments Up next: creating original documents, collaborating with peers on a single document Conclusion Again, overall, I’m happy (we’re happy) with Classroom. As we use it for more and more projects, our comfort level will only increase! We looked at Haiku Learning last year, and though we were seriously impressed, we simply didn’t have the budget for it. I doubt Classroom will challenge Haiky Learning, especially given its functionality for older students … at least, for now. Best, -kj-