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Welcome to the Information Technology Page. The IT department is here to help students and families with any technical questions or issues you may have. As we embark on this new journey together into a higher level of technology in our school district, we want to equip all families with the resources and support you may need. 

Our page will be updated regularly with content, videos, and information so please check back frequently for information. 

If you have questions that are not answered here, please feel free to reach out to the IT Help Desk.

Google Classroom Tutorial for Students and Parents

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom is a class-organization platform that incorporates Google’s core G Suite (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and other Google products) so students can access everything they need for a class, including homework assignments, group projects, files, and even Google Hangouts to chat with the teacher or the entire class. Classroom also includes optional “Additional Services,” including YouTube and Maps, which a school administrator can choose to enable as part of your kid’s Classroom tools. Google Classroom isn’t a learning tool, like IXL, Khan Academy, and other providers of educational content: It’s designed for organization and collaboration. 

How do you set up Google Classroom?

Your kid will get an email invite from their teacher with a link or a code they use to join a class. They’ll be directed to classroom.google.com, where they log in (using either their school-created account or their personal Gmail account) to access the class (or classes) their teacher has added them to. Each class is private to the people the teacher has personally invited, including the students enrolled in that class and other teachers. Once your kid has joined a class, they can use all the features the teacher has enabled for that class, including class schedules, assignments, announcements, and even teacher “office hours.”

Can you use Google Classroom at home?

Kids can access Google Classroom from anywhere, including from their phones, when they download the Google Classroom app. 

Can Google Classroom be used for cheating or chatting?

There’s nothing to prevent students from opening up other tabs, such as Wikipedia or Google Search, while they’re using Google Classroom. Kids can potentially see other students’ work within the platform, too. If they’re taking a quiz in Google Forms, however, teachers can disable access to other resources using a feature called Quiz Lock.

As for chatting, yes. Kids can interact with other students and even teachers by text and video using Google Hangouts. Chatting can be a distraction, but there have also been some reports of kids cyberbullying other students in Google Docs shared for group projects — partly because it’s a place no one would think to look for that kind of behavior. If the chatting is getting out of control, your kid can shut off Hangouts and remove people from a shared document. (To do this, click the Share button and then click Advanced at the bottom of the window. Click the X next to the name of the person you want to remove. If the document was created by someone else and you don’t control it, have your kid make a copy and not share it.)

What are the safest settings to enable on my kid's Google Account?

If your kid uses a personal Gmail account for Classroom, you can adjust their privacy settings on their Google Account page. (If they have a school account, consult the administrator for help on what settings you can control.) Keep in mind that in order to use Google Classroom, your kid must share certain information, such as their name and photo. Take a look at these settings:

  • From the Personal Info page, you can view the information that others can see about you. You can set this information to be viewable to yourself only. 
  • From the Data & Personalization page, you can take the Privacy Checkup to find out what information you’re sharing and limit it. You can also go through your Activity controls and see what data Google is tracking. If you “pause” activity, Google won’t track it. 
  • From the People & Sharing page, you can see contact information and what information you’re sharing on Google Services. 

How does my kid find out about new stuff posted in Google Classroom?

Your kid will receive an email when the teacher posts an announcement. These emails come through your kid’s email account, not in Classroom. Classroom doesn’t alert you when an assignment is due; to keep track of deadlines, kids need to check the class calendar. 

Is my kid supposed to be chatting with his classmates during class time via Google Classroom?

Maybe. Teachers may assign collaborative projects, such as a group research paper in Google Docs or a group dialogue, where students comment on each other’s work. But if the class isn’t using the tools responsibly, a teacher or administrator can turn them all off. 

How tech savvy do I need to be to help my kid with Google Classroom?

If your kids are younger, it’s probably a good idea to have some familiarity with Google’s G Suite so you can help your kid upload documents, check the calendar, and do other tasks. It also helps to know how the programs work so you can at least describe the problem to a teacher if anything goes wrong. Older kids may not need any help. Google Classroom is designed to be easy to use, and there’s lots of online help.

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is the use of digital-communication tools (such as the Internet and cell phones) to make another person feel angry, sad, or scared, usually again and again.

Examples of cyberbullying include sending hurtful texts or instant messages, posting embarrassing photos or video on social media, and spreading mean rumors online or with cell phones.

If you’re trying to figure out whether your kid is being cyberbullied, think about whether the offender is being hurtful intentionally and repeatedly. If the answer is no, the offender might simply need to learn better online behavior. If the answer is yes, take it seriously.