CLASSROOM DEBATE: Hacker News, an online community known for its intellectual (and sometimes smug) debates, has captured a delightful gamut of reactions to Google Classroom, touching on issues of privacy, practicality and even "self-determined social contract." Europeans seem aghast that school data would be entrusted to a private company, while IT admins on the other side of the pond appear to welcome any alternative to Blackboard and Moodle. Programmers don't trust Google's promises to not touch the data, while schoolteachers praise the tool for ease of use. We'll give the last word to Mike Lee, co-founder of edshelf: "If this causes anyone to release even better software for teachers and students, that's a great thing."
