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Based on web blog by Audrey Walters written on July 26, 2011.
After recently learning about Google Plus, I thought this article about the Google hangouts provided with Google Plus was an interesting topic to learn more about. This article begins by emphasizing how the privacy options of Google Plus may be better suited for educators over other well established social networks of Facebook or Twitter. It appears that Google Plus would support this by separating your group of students into its own network circle of friends. In addition, Google hangout service allows up to 10 people to participate in a video chat, which is provided after downloading this free browser add on through Google Plus. Comparisons to Skype are made, which appears to be similar to how this free hangout service can applied to educational situations. I think this is a great social networking idea as you combine the services provided with Skype with the social networking aspects of Facebook and Twitter. I can see the potential for having multiple services offered through one website, which I like this idea very much. I have enjoyed using Google reader very much and now I hope to add Google plus to my list of Google websites I enjoy. I was planning on getting into Skype more, but I think this website will provide me with one less website to reference for my technology needs.
Walters, A. (2011, July 26) How are Educators Using Google Plus Hangouts? [Web Log Message] Retrieved from http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/how-are-educators-using-google-plus-hangouts/
GoogleHangout sounds like it would be another tool that teachers could use in order to provide 24/7 access to students. It is good that you can separate your friends into various categories, unlike Facebook. I think that as time continues on, technology will continue to help teachers provide more engaging opportunities for students and learning will continue to expand beyond the cinder block walls of schools.
ReplyDeleteThe one issue is that there are so many options to choose from for teachers to provide to students. There has to be a limit. If a teacher has a wiki, a blog, a website, a GooglePlus account, and other tools, there is not enough time in the day to also grade, plan, teach, coach, and actually live...