Amazon Echo, a smart speaker developed by Amazon.com, is capable of voice interaction, making to-do lists and setting up reminders, with streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic and other realtime information.
Google, the internet giant best known for its ubiquitous search engine, is venturing into teacher training with a hot new program that has educators around the nation fighting to get in.
So far, about 200 teachers from around the country have been selected for intensive training in the latest ways to work the internet into daily life in the classroom. Teachers learn how to do everything from setting up classroom blogs to incorporating Google Maps, online videos and student-created podcasts into their daily lesson plans.
Google pays for the training. In exchange, the newly-Google Certified teachers agree to take what they've learned back to their school districts and share it with fellow educators, including many who are struggling to keep up with their tech-whiz students.