http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/27/why-lectures-are-dead-or-soon-will-be/
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, Jul 29, 2014

As a test of Tony Bates's assertion, go to Codeacademy and try it out for an hour, and then come back. OK, back? Now ask yourself, could you even stand having the same content delivered to you by lecture? Keep in mind that you would have to do another hour's worth of work to practice it and actually learn it. And that's why the lecture is dead as a learning device. But, as Bates remarks, "This does not mean that lectures will disappear altogether, but they will be special events, and probably multi-media, synchronously and asynchronously delivered. Special events might include a professor’s summary of his latest research, the introduction to a course, a point mid-way through a course for taking stock and dealing with common difficulties, or the wrap-up to a course." The point of a lecture isn't to teach. It's to reify, rehearse, assemble and celebrate.

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Early Review of Google Classroom
Phil Hill, e-Literate, Jul 29, 2014

The fade-to-black transition in the slide show was so distracting I couldn't finish (yes, it's that bad). And that's the main problem I can see with Google Classroom - tight integration with Google tools. This is great if you love Google tools, but I find that other companies do user interface better than Google. Also, other companies don't spy on you (as much or as pervasively).

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