Yesterday was my first Google Hangout with Leecy, David, Ed and Mary. It took a little time to get the hang of it (!), but once we started it was a very pleasant and informative experience.
For one thing, it is great to “meet” people face-to-face, so to speak.
Anyway, we discussed the importance of technology in adult education, and I explained how I use WhatsApp and Facebook in my Distance Learning ESL program, as an example of a useful addition to any class.
Up to ten people can meet in a hangout, and I am now able to add Hangouts to my course for students who need face-to-face classes.
We chatted for about an hour, and the only thing missing was the coffee and pastries!
I recommend that everyone take a few minutes to open a Hangouts account, and contact Ed or David about the next session.
Paul
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One of the ideas we discussed in our hangout on Monday was the idea of having nonformal digital hangouts together weekly if people feel that would be helpful. The idea would be to have a very finite topic each week and allow our community experts to share tips, tricks and methods as well as everyone sharing thoughts about how our learning can help our learners find more success. For example, it seems reasonable for our first couple weeks focuses on the Google Hangout interface and methods to get learners easily into using the tools and features effectively. It was very apparent that there were challenges for many in getting going on Monday and that experience, in itself, taught us that we may want to develop a guide or "getting started" document to help people dive into these experiences. All of us learned quite a bit on Monday and we all wanted to have more experiences like this. The hope is that others might be interested in exploring opportunities together in short bursts.
We would aim for 30-60 min sessions and those sessions would be recorded for others to view if they are not able to make the live time scheduled. The live events are set up so that everyone can watch the event as a spectator. Spectators can see and hear all the conversations and can participate in the chat very much like many webinar participants can. For those that wish to go live and vocal (and who does not want all that fun?) we can add up to 10 live participants in a session. If you are shy and just want to lurk, the spectator role is nice and safe and lets you still play and learn.
It was discussed that it may be best for people's personal schedules if a weekly hangout was set always at the same day and time. With that in mind, it would be great to hear from people that may have interest. What day and time would work for you? Leecy shared that 4-5pm EST seemed to be a time people liked in data she has gathered recently. Weekends are often sacred times for many out there. I personally like Wednesdays because it is the middle of the week and I would like to have something mid week to look forward to every week. What days / times might you like? Perhaps we run a number of days and see how many show up? Is a nonformal digital sharing of the minds something people would have interest in?
If you have any interest, could you take 30 seconds to fill out this form? It just asks for your name, what day(s) and time(s) you feel might work best. If we get data in by Friday midnight that indicates there is interest, I will draft up a Getting Started Guide this weekend to help facilitate everyone being able to participate that wishes to. The participants in Monday's session were all excited about the possibilities!
Good day everyone, I have good news and bad. The good news is that I have a draft copy of a Beginner's Guide to Google Hangouts available. If you see formatting errors or the Google Doc does not open correctly for you, I suspect there may be some difficulties with your settings on your browser (browsers are programs that let you see the content on the Internet). This PDF version will open on most any system, but it is not updated every time I make changes to the document.
Now for the bad news. I had hoped to dive right into weekly hangouts every week starting this next Wednesday. After looking through my appointments and schedules, I found some conflicts and need to postpone a weekly effort until July 6th when I should be able to have a weekly hangout experience with more consistency. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to look though the Beginner's Guide to Google Hangouts and try to connect to individuals to get comfortable. In that way, when we start up in July, more people will have comfort with the tool and more people should be able to participate in the wonderful collaborations we can have. If any would like to experiment with hangouts, feel free to start chatting with me (ohgeer@gmail.com).
In the meantime, if people have experiences to share as they explore Google Hangouts, we would all love to hear your experiences.
Thanks so much, Ed! Not to worry about the schedule.I'm wondering if you might provide us with a tentative menu of items to be covered, starting in July. Hat's off in you direction, Leecy
Leecy, I love the idea of having a schedule of some sort so people might best plan their time. I am conflicted a little bit in that I really wish the field at large to help drive the direction and even pace of things. With each week being just an hour of time, I am sure people will find opportunities to reflect and contribute ideas and "just in time" learning requests.
I will have a webpage done up this week with a schedule of 4-6 sessions I think would logically flow well for people. There will be a link on that page for suggestions and like most things in life, those topics that get more suggestion requests will probably move to the front of the line. :)
I will drop a link to the webpage when it is built. In the meantime, if people wish to share thoughts and ideas about what might be needed out there, that is always nice to hear from people.
Great plan. Let's hear from others here. What would you like to see/learn more about? Leecy
Good day everyone. As promised earlier, I have created a webpage with information about a weekly hangout for all educators titiled "Hanging with Ed(ucation". Think of it as a informal, digital gathering where we can all share thoughts, ideas, practice and questions with each other. The right column of the website has a suggestion form and everyone is encouraged to add topics you wish to explore with others in this weekly forum.
Sessions are only an hour and all participants can contribute text input. For those that wish to have an active mic in the conversation, you are encouraged to email me to share some ideas of what you would like to contribute in the week's topic. There is a limit of having only 10 voice activated panelist in each session.
The link to this week's event is here: https://plus.google.com/events/catfs51gmjoiqvuns7n6gmo29eo
Please share this event with anyone in education you think would like to be part of short, weekly support and discussion for educators at all levels and all subjects. If you have any questions of me, please email me or you can post questions here as well. I look forward to Hanging out with the great educators we have here in in the LINCS Forums.
Fantastic, Ed! I'm so glad that you are offering everyone this opportunity. I will also post provide a link to this discussion in our main group, Diversity and Literacy, so that more people can experience the tool and the information you will be sharing. Wonderful. Thanks! Leecy