Google Chromecast – a little tool with lots of potential

James has taught in special needs since he qualified in 2009. He specialises in working with post-16 students running a Life Skills curriculum, looking to develop their social, communication, life and vocational skills to help them take an active role in the community. He is also responsible for curriculum development, focusing on finding suitable accreditation and adapting it to allow all learners to achieve.

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I have been fortunate to get my hands on a Google Chromecast over the Christmas period and have been exploring what the potential of this device could be for use in the classroom.

Google Chromecast is Google’s attempt to make it easier to bring web video to your TV via the use of their dongle. This plugs into an HDMI port on your telly and projector and allows you to send videos, music and other files to it via Andriod and iOS devices using Chrome browser on you computer. There are a limited amount of apps that take advantage of the Chromecast - YouTube, Netflix, Google Music, to name a few - however, this list is increasing. The function that I am quite excited about is the ability to stream an open tab in the Chrome browser and the potential for this. I will explain more about this later but first I am going to look at how to setup the Chromecast and then how it can be used in the classroom.

Photo credit: Scott Beale - image has been edited