Learning & Leading Through Technology

‘Hangout’ with Your Students Using Google

LEARNINGconnections

Multidisciplinary 26, 36

Tip 28

Apps 29

English Language Arts 30

Digital Citizenship 32

Professional Development 34

We’ll come clean right now. Despite the love-hate relationship we sometimes have with Google’s ever-changing features, we both firmly believe that Google Apps for Education facilitates connected, collaborative, and creative learning environments. And now that Google+ is available to K– 12 institutions, some educators are asking good questions:

• Should we be incorporating social software into our online learning environments? (Yes, we realize this sounds like an antiquated question to some people.)

• What are the instructional uses?

• What are the professional uses for educators?

• Does it require a modification to our school’s internet filter or our acceptable use policy?

• What do administrators, teachers, and students need to know when choosing to set up their Google+ accounts?

If you’re considering rolling out Google+, here are some suggestions for how to do it, along with some implications to consider.

Choosing Google+

There are many ways for students to interact online, including using learning management systems, blogging tools, and social networking sites. Before choosing any tool, consider the return on users’ investment. They should be easy to locate and simple to navigate, and they should allow users to interact in efficient ways. For example, in traditional learning management system discussion forums, students might read more responses if the comments are easier to see because they wouldn’t have to click around so much, and they might respond more frequently to comments if the tone is more conversational. It also helps if the tool is something students are comfortable with and are already using.

We think that as a part of Google Apps for Education, Google+ meets this criteria and provides students and educators with a place to engage in meaningful interaction using real-world tools. It doesn’t hurt that Google+ is part of the same suite of tools as Google Drive, Gmail, Sites, and many other frequently visited apps.

Exploring the Features of Google+

If you’d like to try using Google+ in the classroom,
here are some features to explore:
A “circle” in Google+ allows users
to classify who they interact with.
Once you create your circles,
then you can easily choose which
circles to share posts with. It is
similar to a contact list in Gmail,
but with some added bonuses. For
example, as a teacher, you may want
to create a circle for your first-period
class. Then it becomes easy to send a quick reminder about
tomorrow’s test to only those students. You could just
email the group, but Google+ allows you to create interac-
tive spaces that go beyond the basics of posting questions,
answering questions, and posting related content.

Similar to Facebook’s group pages,
Google+ Communities offer a place
where groups can communicate,
post, and share files within a
group. You can choose managers
and members and invite specific
users. Say, for example, you are
starting a new unit and you want
to engage students in brainstorming
and anticipatory activities. Members—both teachers and
students—can respond and incorporate their own digital
content, or content from other sources, which requires
students to synthesize the relevant information they find.
The communicative and collaborative sharing features of
Google+ Communities allow students to engage in a topic
or content in different ways, and it allows educators to fa-
cilitate supported discussions, inquiry, and sharing.
Circles