5 Google Tools Teachers Underuse (And How to Start)
Most teachers use Google Docs, Slides and Classroom daily. But Google Workspace for Education includes several powerful tools that most teachers never open — tools that could save hours each week and unlock new classroom possibilities.
1. Google Forms — beyond the basic quiz
Most teachers use Google Forms for surveys and simple quizzes. Far fewer use its more powerful features:
- Section branching: depending on a student's answer, Forms sends them to a different section. A struggling student sees extension support; an advanced student sees challenge questions. All in the same form.
- Locked quiz mode: turns any Chrome device into a locked-down assessment environment. Students cannot switch tabs while the form is open.
- Linked Google Sheets: responses flow into a spreadsheet automatically — combine with Apps Script to send personalised feedback emails or generate reports with no manual work.
2. Google Jamboard / FigJam
Google's digital whiteboard (Jamboard) has been discontinued but FigJam is the suggested replacement — and it is excellent. Students can collaborate on sticky notes, diagrams and drawings in real time, on any device. Use it for: collaborative brainstorming, visual note-taking, mind mapping and group project planning. Free for educators.
3. Google Sites
Described in more detail in our class website guide, Sites is the fastest way to build a teacher resource hub, class website or student portfolio platform. The key underused feature: the ability to embed any Google Drive content (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, YouTube videos) directly on the page — all updating automatically. Build a curriculum resource library once and it maintains itself.
4. Google Keep
Google Keep is a free note-taking and task-management tool. Teachers underuse it as a classroom tool: post a Google Keep note as a task for students in Google Classroom. Students check off items as they complete them. The teacher can see completion. Also excellent for: teacher planning, lesson ideas collected on the go, voice-memo reminders that transcribe automatically.
5. Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture hosts thousands of artworks, cultural artefacts and historical images in extremely high resolution — close enough to see individual brush strokes. Its classroom applications are wide:
- Art Styles experiment: match a photo to the art movement it resembles.
- Virtual museum tours: 360° walk-throughs of major museums worldwide — free, in the browser, no VR headset needed.
- Historical image archive: searchable by period, subject, culture and colour palette.
- Colour palette tool: enter a colour and see artworks that feature it — an unusual creative writing or art history entry point.
Getting started
Pick one tool from this list and give it a five-minute try before your next planning session. Set a reminder in your calendar: "Try Google Keep for my to-do list this week." Incremental adoption is far more likely to stick than overhauling everything at once.
