Okay so now we’ve gotten invitations to the beta-release of Google+. And of course, so have many others. We have our circles, and our opinions and ideas are beginning to form. So are the ideas and opinions of many others. The Chronicle of Higher Education also has a blog post about the potential for classroom use, with a wealth of comments from interested, opinionated folks.
Let’s bring out the old K-W-L list for a next step breakdown.
1. What We Knew Before Google+
Some faculty like using Social Media in their classes. Whether it’s Facebook, or the social media tools available within Blackboard, or something in-between, the ability to share information easily among a group of students and faculty is desirable.
We all use Social Media socially and professionally. Sometimes the social and professional paths cross. Sometimes that’s not the best idea.
2. What We Wish We Knew About Google+
-Will it ever be possible to “Hang Out” with more than 10 users? Right now, Google+ Hang Outs might work for synchronous office hours, but difficult to schedule a webinar for a class.
-When will the API be available?
-When will it be out of beta? If Gmail is any indication, it could be a while.
-What about an iOS app? Those of us with Androids are happy, but we’ve got iPads and iPhones and iPods (oh my!) here too!
3. What We’ve Learned About Google+
-It is easy to share information with distinct groups of people, aka your Circles. It’s also easy to share with individuals – simply type @ and then the beginning of their name for an auto-dropdown.
-We like the G-Talk/Google Voice/Video integration. Or as Jim says, “I’m sold”.
-We’re finding the transition from the “Like” button to “+1” choppy. But we’ll get there. It has less emotional attachment than actually “Liking” something. And we “Like” being able to go view all of our +1’s. We like that very much.
-Sharing photos from Picasa is really easy. Those of us who were using Picasa already are pretty happy.
We’re all looking forward to Chapter 3.
nice post! surely it’s going to take quite a while to get used to it. Here’s a nice graphical rep of what we know so far… http://goo.gl/rniNM
I honestly think this could work. Although the buzz feature has been dropped by google already, there still is room for one more giant social media network.
Facebook, mark zuckerberg, watch your a$$es 🙂
Interesting stuff, I read about it a lot recently and Im happy that I found also your article.