10 ways to use Google Plus in the classroom
Circles
Obviously you are going to want to create a circle for your class and guide them through making a circle for the class as well. But as cool as that is, it doesn’t stop there. You can also make a circle for announcements and important links and drop any posts in that you know you may use every semester. Then you just find it in the stream for that circle and repost to your current class when you are ready. You can also create circles for students by category. I tend to keep theatre students with me from class to class so I have created a circle for current theatre students who might want to receive updates about upcoming events at our theatre or other’s in the city.
Photos/Video
Because photos and videos are dropped into albums, privacy settings allow you to make albums that only certain circles can see. As long as you are sharing the album content to your circles, currently google is not limiting the maximum storage limit. This means that I could drop all my students videotaped speeches into an album and share it to the class in a fraction of the time it would take me to do it any other way. Remember too that your photo albums are not limited to photos but to .jpegs. This could include cartoons, charts and graphs, or any other image that you might want to share with them throughout the semester.
Google Talk
Because google is already part of my “always open” tab club it is much easier to set up a place for students to initiate a quick chat session through google rather than the ANGEL chat client or Skype. Students know that I am often available but I also set up specific times that I hold virtual office hours when students can get in touch with me online. Make sure you take advantage of the status setting. If you are busy, say so rather than having a student hanging on wondering if you are ever going to answer.
Ability to control notification methods
Google+ alllows the user to determine just how they will be contacted with new material has been posted, messages sent, photos tagged. Students/Faculty can choose the in browser notification, email or text message or all three. This allows students to find the method that best suits their information streaming system rather than them finding a way to work around the system provided by the LMS.
Mobile apps
Google+ now has a mobile app available for iPhone and for Droid. I’ve been polling my classes for the past two years on how many students own a smart phone. I have seen it grow from about 20% to over half in that period of time. At the beginning of the semester my students have to provide me a written back up plan (Thanks Jill!) and at least half for the past two semesters have listed their phone as part of that plan. Google+ works well under mobile interface as well which gives students another option to customize their content delivery if they wish.
Group Work
By creating smaller circles students can work in groups. Guiding them through adding a circle with only their group members and you, the instructor, allows you to see the chatter of all the groups in your course stream without having to manually go into each individual discussion and see what is going on. This is a similar method to creating Teams in an LMS but the content stream is much more logically organized and happening in real time. Also students can see when the other is online and initiate meetings and chats within the course itself.
Google Docs and Calendar
A great add-on to google+ is the ability to upload/edit/create documents within the system as well as scheduling events. This could be a particularly productive place for students doing collaborative work to house documents that add to a larger project or simply to access the syllabus when necessary.
Hang outs
Video chat is still one of the untapped frontiers simply because of the technology hurdle. I think that the gap will be closing quickly. But for now, for those students who CAN video chat, you can hold actual office visits virtually and seamlessly. Hosting synchronous chat is something that is growing in popularity and google+ seems to be a great option functionally, but we may have to wait for the common technology curve to catch up a little bit. Still, if you can video chat, do it.
+1
How do I know that my students are even reading the posts I’m publishing? That’s where the +1 has a brilliant secondary function. I can see everyone who +1’ed a post of mine. Requiring students to +1 a post when they’ve read it allows me to keep track of who is engaging with google+ and who isn’t. This can also give you an early heads-up on students who are beginning to falter. We all know it’s much easier to catch a student at the beginning of this curve than after it’s gained some momentum.
Visual Identity
One thing that LMSs are doing really wrong is lacking a method for students to give themselves a visual identity. phpBB software has been around for over a decade and forums learned very early on that one of the key components of creating identities online was the avatar. Whether a student has a photo of themselves or a picture of a sunset or papa smurf, people remember identity better when there is a visual image tied to it. Identity leads to connection. Connection leads to community and learning.
This is an extremely preliminary list. I am hoping over the next month or so to find out other ways that I can make google+ work for me and my students.
Edited on 4/16/2012 to add that I did eventually pull my online classes from Google+. You can go here to read about why.
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The Theatre Professor
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Circles and Hangouts were the first two things that made me think, very soon after getting into Plus, that this social network would be wildly suitable for teaching and learning. Thank you for this summary, and I am looking forward to reading about more ways you’ll find for use of Google+.
Thank you for this post. I’ll be forwarding it on to my wife who is a high school teacher. This could be very helpful!
Angel is such a cyber-toad. This sounds more like software that works the way I need it to work. Tnx M…
[...] 10 Ways to use Google Plus in the Classroom Google+ can easily be incorporated in the classroom. Here are 10 Google+ features and ideas one educator has used that work for her and her students. [...]
Thankyou very much for the efforts. I still see a lot of problems with g+ in the classroom though.
How do I get data from the administrative systems of my school into g+ and the circles?
How do we secure content and details about students, so that it wont fall into the wrong hands?
And finally: I am looking really forwrd to when we will start sharing learning content suitable for g+ as well.
But Still: This is great ressources for educators!
I think you have some excellent concerns Michael. I don’t use Google+ as an exclusive LMS. I do not handle grades there and there is no way to import data. All of that stays in our LMS. The only thing that is in google+ is the student’s names which they can only see each other. I don’t think that google+ was set up to handle more of that data than it does. Any other data students use is up to them. Personally I don’t see this as any different that a teacher using a wiki or any other sort of external teaching tool. As long as steps are taken to preserve privacy it’s an excellent addition to an LMS.
Obviously we do agree! It is improtant to remember this, since I often meet teachers that would like all the free services, instead of the professional services, which eventually gives both students and teachers a hard time.
[...] Google+ easily be incorporated in the classroom? Here are 10 Google+ features and ideas one educator has used that work for her and her [...]
Only for above 18′s though…
For sure. I talked about that in a later post about implementation. 10 things to think about before adding googleplus to the classroom. It is certainly a concern for those who are teaching K-12 but also a concern for higher ed teachers who might have dual credit students in their courses. Fortunately google did state that their intention is to lower it to 13+ eventually.
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Michelle,
I am very impressed with your article. I am working with a professor right now and am using 100% social media to manage our classroom. We have found so much success working with G+ and find that it is an amazing tool for our students to engage and openly communicate. What is unique as well is that this class is an online class so all of the communication has been happening with G+. Great article and I look forward to reading more about your success on G+. Feel free to check out our website http://www.elysianpro.com/asubis402. This website is where we allow students to see the major course material. We only use our LMS to capture grades. I think that what we are doing is going to change the way education is managed. Social media is what universities have been looking for but don’t know how to use.
Thank Bryan. It has been a remarkable start up. I feel like I must be boring people most days because I cannot stop talking about how different it is in G+ compared to the ANGEL LMS. I’ll check out your site!
As stated above, still not available to under 18. I rolled it out to class only to discover this.
Professor, thank you for sharing your insights.
Google+ is relatively new to me so your input is appreciated. Looking forward to learning from you.
Great posting! Thanks for the brilliant ideas!
Cheers!
~Gwyneth
The Daring Librarian
So when will Google make Google+ full blown App for Education?
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