Google+: A Helpful Guide for College Students and Teachers
Everyone is talking about Google+ these days! The newly launched social networking platform is similar to Facebook in someways, but definitely has some unique features to it. One of the questions I keep hearing is, “Should I bother with it?” My answer, in short, is yes! Here are some of the features and benefits to Google+ that I foresee being beneficial to college students and teachers:
Circles: Circles allow you to segment your connections into a variety of categories, which are referred to as circles. For example, you could have a separate circle for each of your friends, family, teachers, students, colleagues, and so on. The benefit of circles is that once your connections are placed into a category, you have the ability to share certain content with one circle exclusively, or all circles if you choose to do so. So if you have pictures from your weekend that may not be appropriate for your teachers or colleagues to see, you have the option to only share them with your friends. Facebook also offers something similar to this, known as lists, but this Google+’s version is much more user friendly since the first thing you do when you have a new connect is place them in the circle of your choice.
Hangouts: A hangout is a group video chat for up to 10 people. People can enter and leave as they please. Hangouts are ideal for a teacher’s ‘office hours’ for those students that need extra help or even study groups.
Sparks: Sparks is basically a search engine that pulls in relevant content that you can share with your circles. To get started, click on the “Sparks” tab and begin choosing information that is of interest to you.
+1: You’re probably familiar with the “Like” button on Facebook. Well, this is Google’s version of it. If you +1 something, you’re letting other users know they should check something out. +1 is great because it allows you to see what your connections in other circles have posted and +1, all within the same site!
I can see Google+ becoming a great tool for the classroom in the near future. The ability to interact with students and teachers all within one site is one of its best features. Also, the site is much cleaner than Facebook… there are no ads or games, which keep users from getting distracted. Are you using Google+ in your classroom? Let us know how you’re using it – we’d love to know!
