Unit 6: Bring Meetings Online

Google Hangouts has many capabilities. I know the basic premise, but this unit focuses on its capabilities more in depth. This includes using Google Hangouts for online meetings, sharing your screen with others during a Hangout and managing bandwidth to maintain call quality on a Hangout. The most important skill I learned was sharing my screen:

Share your screen

1. On your computer, open Hangouts at hangouts.google.com or in Gmail.
2. Select someone from the Hangouts list or search for their name or email address. When you find the person you want, click their name.
• To start a group video call, for each person in your group, type in their name and tick the box before their name.
3. Click the Video icon .
4. At the top right of the video call window, click Options .
5. Click Share screen.
6. Choose to share your entire desktop or your browser window.
7. Click Share.

Make In-Person Meetings More Effective

Step one of making a meeting effective is making sure everyone shows up on time and is free. This can be done by using Google Calendar.  Step two is making sure everyone is prepared with the correct documents, including an agenda. This can be done by attaching a shared Google Doc for the meeting. Lastly, a Google Doc can be created during the meeting with minutes and any action items to follow up. Using Google Docs for keeping minutes is a good idea because:

• It lets every
• one in the meeting contribute if they want to
• Google Docs are hard to lose and easy to find
• They can be emailed to people who may have been unable to attend the meeting
• They can be set up so that some people can edit them and others can just view them

Use Hangouts to Hold Meetings Anytime, Anywhere

Hangouts are easy to use because it’s integrated with Gmail and Google+ contacts. The uses for Hangouts are endless and include:

• Curriculum planning with other teachers in a different school
• Speak to parents who are unable to attend teacher conferences
• Tutor a student who cannot come to class because of an illness
• Teach a class if students are in different locations

One great aspect of a Google Hangout is if chats are started, the next time you chat, the conversation will continue. This way, no information is lost. This information includes links and attachments. To manage bandwidth with so many people, there are a few tips. Two tips include manually reducing the video quality to a power setting or turning off the camera to just have a voice call.

Summary

The features of Google Hangouts and Google Calendar seem endless. A new “trick” I learned was the, “Find a Time” feature in the Calendar. This feature gives the ability to schedule a meeting time that fits to everyone’s schedule. This saves a ton of email correspondences concerning everyone’s availability. Hangouts can be conducted not only from a desktop or a laptop, but also a cell phone. Google does not limits itself and its capabilities!