<<A response from someone who works in education.>><p>This actually is a HUGE deal for teachers and schools, and it will provide a LOT of value.<p>One of the largest frustrations teachers have with going paperless is managing the workflow of assignments. Learning management systems like Blackboard or Moodle were often a feasible solution to this issue, since teachers could share files for download and students could upload finished assignments.<p>Google Apps for Education products (namely Google Docs) disrupted this. Because Google Docs allows teachers to have access to student work (collaborative editing), it allows him/her to give feedback and support throughout the entire creative process.<p>That's a very big deal, and it makes the [upload/download] features in Blackboard or Moodle less useful. Plugins that allowed access to Google Drive folders were built for both of those tools (as well as others- like Schoology, Edmodo, Haiku, Canvas, etc.) but they stopped short when it came to managing the workflow of creating, sharing, organizing, and collecting collaborative files in the Google Apps ecosystem.<p>In 2011, Hapara [ed tech company, graduated iK12 accelerator, <a href="http://hapara.com/" rel="nofollow">http://hapara.com/</a>] entered the scene. Their tool laid on top of Google Apps products and streamlined the process of managing classrooms by giving teachers or administrators a bird's eye view of all student work- their files, recent activity, etc. That workflow problem was solved.<p>However, not every school is willing to pay for the advanced features of Hapara- so there still wasn't a free solution that every teacher could access. Some of the team at the NY-based school charter network New Visions for Public Schools built and released some of the scripts they were using to manage processes [<a href="http://youpd.org" rel="nofollow">http://youpd.org</a>]. Some of the more popular scripts included 'Doctopus' [to manage assignment creation/collecting] and 'Flubaroo' [to automate the grading of quizzes created in Google Forms].<p>Again, the workflow issue was solved. However, a lot of teachers weren't tech-saavy enough (yet!) to utilize all of these scripts of piece-meal all of them together to build a comprehensive solution.<p>So yes, this is a huge deal, because it allows teachers to easily manage the tools they are already using (and they are definitely using GAFE products- literally tens of millions of students and teachers have access to those tools).<p>Also, as an aside-- I've noticed comments that say, "teachers do not want to create assignments" or "teachers would go white seeing a room full of kids with their laptops turned away". Please do not assume that most teachers are resistant to learning how to use digital tools. Schools are dealing with a variety of issues related to this shift, including weak infrastructure, broken and outdated equipment, lack of time for training, lack of a shared vision and implementation planning, lack of support, negative media coverage, etc. If any teacher is resistant, it is likely because he/she hasn't had enough support to adapt in a meaningful way yet. This is a BIG change for teachers and it completely changes the fundamentals of how many of them have operated. Think about the last time we went through a shift this dramatic... the closest thing to what the Internet has done for education is probably what the printing press did for education. That's a big deal, and there are going to be growing pains.