Rants and Raves about teaching with Google Plus
There is a lot of chatter online about using google plus as a teaching tool. I am right there with you. When I first got my invite it was instantly clear just how much that it could do to enhance the online class experience for my students. I dove in head first and launched it with my class that started two days ago. In the resulting time (really, the google plus process started much earlier) I have learned a few surprising benefits and some pitfalls that I had not fully anticipated. I promised an update, this is it.
Rave: Students talk to me and to each other. More. Much much more. And it’s the kind of chatter I hear before and after class. They talk about where they work and their kids. They share photos. They are getting to know one another well past the introduction forum which is rarely visited after the first few modules have passed. Whether this is the open communication channel, the ability to see photos/avatars of other classmates or just the novelty, it is providing a depth to the class that is invaluable. Classroom community.
Rant: There is a lot of up front work and a flurry of “getting started” maintenance. Beyond getting every user to set up an account and then add you to their circle, I realized yesterday that many of my students had not fully added their other classmates even though the class had all provided their Google+ URL. Doom. I went through the posts and assembled all of the URLs in one page and posted it in ANGEL. I sent out an email with the link to the page and then set out an announcement on google+. But it definitely a much higher maintenance situation than I anticipated. Clicking the “Limited” link next to the student’s post shows you who they shared it with, both in a list and a total number. It’s good to be checking those frequently to see how your students are doing.
Rave: Easy! I kind of fell in love with how easy it is to check it, communicate and update the students. Seriously, this alone is almost worth everything else. I’m an iPhone addict and I found myself checking in during short breaks and responding, answering messages, and sending out information rather than just making a note to myself to do so after I got back to my office. Right now I am in the process of building a giant fruit for our upcoming play so my office time is really limited. Checking in from the theatre helped me keep an eye on the conversations throughout the day rather than sitting down now and going back through post after post.
Rant: My iPhone is doomed. I am currently teaching one accelerated course with a manageable size group of students. But if a discussion is a “post once, respond twice” that is a lot of posting. I think if I had the phone set to it’s current setting and was running 2-4 online classes it might blow up. Literally. Apple shrapnel. I hate to turn off push notifications though. Sometimes the post is a student that really needs my attention. So I’m torn. I’m not sure what the solution is unless I could tweak settings to send a message only when I get certain types of posts. Right now my phone is going off about every 2 minutes. Poor thing.
Rant: No nested comments. I have a feeling this is coming soon but we really need it. Seriously, it’s a game changer.
Rant: Google chat shows the other chatters your email address. I have mixed feelings about this. My gmail is my personal one. Though I don’t really mind, I still kind of do. (Well, I said I had mixed feelings.) Mind you, it does say that this is something they are working to change. I just hope they do it soon.
Rant: So do messages through google+
Rant: You’re students probably don’t realize. I’m very enthusiastic about google plus because I have had a lot of experience in online class and I can really appreciate the things that google plus brings to the table. Students without a lot of online experience don’t and to some it can seem like an additional inconvenience.
In the end, I’m still very much pro-google+. Honestly, it does add a community quality to an online class that the LMS just can’t deliver on. I am anxious to see how the class and the next semester play out. With a few tweaks google+ could be darn near perfect and once I installed some choice extensions for chrome, particularly the one that allows me to collapse comments, the interface became extremely pleasing.
Final Rave/Rant: Your students will see everything you post to public. Even blog posts that are sort of halfway about them. (You guys are awesome!)
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