How Google took over the classroom

The tech giant is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

The sixth graders at Newton Bateman, a public elementary school here with a classic red brick facade, know the Google drill.
 
In a social-science class last year, the students each grabbed a Google-powered laptop. They opened Google Classroom, an app where teachers make assignments. Then they clicked on Google Docs, a writing program, and began composing essays.
 
Looking up from her laptop, Masuma Khan, then 11 years old, said her essay explored how schooling in ancient Athens differed from her own. “Back then, they had wooden tablets and they had to take all of their notes on it,”