As a Google Certified Trainer we are required each year to complete a recertification process and this year it included creating an account on a new service called Workbench. It turns out that in late 2019, Google purchased Workbench as a new tool ideally suited for educators to “discover great lessons and rework them to use in their classrooms.”
Put simply, Workbench is a platform that offers a simple way of sharing lessons with your students. Lessons can be shared via Google Classroom and are tracked in Workbook via the workbook feature.
The interface is pretty easy to use. Type in a search term and you are presented with a list of matching lessons. You can filter by subject, grade, standards and event hardware and software.
Workbench has also partnered with many educational technology providers to create what they call “Channels”. If you click on the menu in the top left of your screen and choose “By Channel,” you will find channels for a variety of software and hardware including the popular STEAM products such as Sphero, Dremel, Sam Labs, Parrot and littleBits. Each channel has a growing number of lessons contributed by teachers and providers alike.
Here is a selection from Oxford University Press:
Signing up for Workbench is easy. Click the signup button and use your Google account to login. You will be asked to set up your account as a teacher and once completed, you can begin to create lessons.
We are in the very early days of using this tool but I think it shows great promise. If you are looking for new ways to extend Google Classroom you should check out this new tool for yourself.
Google Certified Trainer