[Invitation to participate] Read Along on: Classroom Pilot (Global Opp)

[Kristal]

Hello admins, 

Please read more to sign up for our upcoming pilot program! 

Read Along is Google’s speech based reading app for children. It has an in-app reading buddy called “Diya” that listens to students read aloud stories, offers assistance on pronunciation when they struggle and rewards them with stars when they do well – guiding them along as they progress. You can try out the student experience here.

With the new Read Along on Classroom feature, teachers can easily create reading assignments for Grade 1-5 students effortlessly and track their progress on reading such as: accuracy, fluency and comprehension - all within Google Classroom. 

To know more and participate in this pilot, and provide us insights and feedback, please complete this test application sign up form. Please note that ONLY ADMINS are eligible to fill this form on behalf of their domains.

If eligible, our team will reach out to you soon with next steps on how to participate. For more information check out the FAQ doc. Our team will get back to you with next steps upon reviewing your application. Feel free to reachout to Aanchal for additional questions: aanchalbindal@google.com

Best,  Aanchal (on behalf of the Read Along team)

[steve]

This looks very interesting, so I went to turn on the Read Along app just to try it out and got the message about it's data collection being such that under 18 years old must have signed parent consent to use it. Is that going to change as it moves out of beta? It seems odd to have such an education specific app not respect student privacy sufficiently? 

Thanks.

[Kim_Nilsson · Accepted solution]

Steve, that's just the standard CYA warning you get when enabling any Additional Service.

Also, for anyone outside USA, and especially inside the EU, it's irrelevant, as our national laws apply, and not US law.

Anything not among the Workspace core services are not covered by the Workspace for Education agreement, and get the same wording.

[Kim_Nilsson]

But, I agree with you.

ALL Education related features SHOULD be listed under the Education umbrella, and covered by the same agreement and privacy rules.

[jeongjoon]

언제 파일럿이 끝나나요? Education Plus를 적용하는 학교들에서 Read Along이 아직도 보이지 않습니다.

[Kim_Nilsson]

I just recently received this email.

Hi there, 

Thank you for participating in the early access program for Read Along in Google Classroom. Your feedback has been invaluable to us.

The early access program has ended now and we are happy to share that Read Along in Google Classroom is now generally available globally to all Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus users with an assigned license 

What’s next:

• [Action needed] Please share this Exit Survey with teachers who used Read Along and encourage them to complete it, preferably by Friday, July 12th. Below is a ready to share email draft for you to share with Teachers if you wish to do so.

• [Reminder] In order for all teachers to have access to Read Along in Classroom, you need to ensure 
  

• All teachers are assigned a license from Google Workspace Teaching and Learning Upgrade, or Google Workspace for Education Plus; 

• And Read Along is turned on in the Admin Console under Google Workspace services. 

• If you haven’t switched ‘ON’ Read Along for your domain or a part of it, here’s how to do so. 

• No other action is needed from your end. Teachers who could use Read Along previously will continue to have access to the feature if they have Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus license assigned to them.

• You can read more about the feature on our Help Center

Thank you again for your participation,

Biswa on behalf of
Google for Education

Below is a ready to share email draft for you to share with Teachers at your domain:

---

Subject: Thanks for participating in the Read Along in Google Classroom Early access program 

Hello Teachers!

Thank you for participating in the early access program for Read Along in Google Classroom!

The Google team just communicated that: the early access program ends today and Read Along in Google Classroom is now generally available globally to all Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus users with an assigned license. You can read more about the feature on the Help Center.

[Action needed] As the last step: please fill in this Exit Survey  

 https://forms.gle/Ea43oQyajkNZRqwSA 

Your feedback so far has been invaluable to the Google team, so would really appreciate it if you can respond to the survey before July 12th, 2024. The survey will take less than 10 minutes of your time.

Thank you for participating in the program!