Teaching with Google+ Hangouts

2 August, 2012 by 5 Comments

Last night I experienced my very first ‘Public  Google+ Hangout.’ This is what I learned from the experience:

Teaching with Google+ Hangouts

How NOT to teach with Google+ Hangouts

  • Go Public. For the first ten or so minutes, I was alone in my Hangout. Then, one after another, people started arriving. At first, I was excited. People were coming! Then I quickly started to feel overwhelmed. In total, 38 people came and went during the session. That was too many. (For me.)
  • Don’t Set Rules. I didn’t set any ‘group’ guidelines. (I wasn’t expecting to need them!) People were talking at the same time, some were singing, some were messing around, and some weren’t talking at all.
  • Don’t Plan. I did have a plan, but due to the large number of people in the Hangout, it quickly got lost.
  • Don’t teach about muting, or other buttons. I assumed everyone participating would know how Google+ Hangouts work, so I didn’t bother to teach the tool. (How to activate the Chat button, mute button, etc.) and how to use them effectively.

On Teaching Online

Today I enjoyed reading 100 words of wisdom from 7 online ELT Teachers - really great advice there for those who are teaching online. I feel that most of the advice fits for Google+ Hangouts as well.

How to Teach in a Google+ Hangout

  • Circles Only: The session would have worked much better if I had limited my hangout to one of my specific circles.
  • Circle New Contacts: if you’re building a list of prospect students, pay attention to circling any new people who enter your class if you go public. After my 60 minute session, I took five minutes to go through the list of attendees and circle those who I didn’t already know. (And who I would like to interact with again in the future.)
  • Moderate: I was trying my best to be a good host, and in doing so I let a few clowns survive longer than I should have. If you sense someone is messing around, invite them to play nicely once. If they don’t comply, kick them off or block them. Immediately.
  •  Gain Experience. This week I plan to find and attend a G+ Hangout by someone who has more experience than I do. I want to feel and see them in action and see what I can learn for my next one.

Over to you: what have you learned from Google+ Hangouts? Online classes? 

 

Filed Under: Blog, How to Teach, Spark: Take Your Teaching to the Next Level Tagged With: ,
  • http://www.facebook.com/gmachlan Louis George Machlan

    Great post AAron, am re-posting it now in Edupreneurs Club on FB. It will be interesting to see if/how you grow with hangouts. I found them unsatisfactory both as an attendee and as a teacher. Particularly that I could not schedule in advance and share the link.

    • http://www.epicenterlanguages.com.mx Aaron Nelson

      Hey Louis,
      Thank you for the re-post! Would you be so kind as to share the link, your FB site sounds like it would be an interesting place to hang out in. :)

      I am really just testing out G+ Hangouts. Not sure what to make of it yet…OR G+ for that matter.

      Re: scheduling events: did you notice the little ‘Events’ button on the left? I think it is new, and it could be what you were looking for? (Not sure if it allows you to promote a link to a future event though…I’ll try it this week and see what happens – like a true Entrepreneur, right?)

      Thanks for dropping over Louis, I hope it won’t be the last visit.

  • yoshifumi murakami

    Hi. Thank you for your great post. I’m very interested. If you have recorded your session, is it possible to share the URL?

    • http://www.epicenterlanguages.com.mx Aaron Nelson

      Hi sorry about not responding to you before – we didn’t record the hangout, but you’re more than welcome to attend the next one which will be tomorrow at 9pm central time. Hope to see you there!