Google+ Hang-out
Three fellow MAODErs and I spent over an hour 'hanging out' - technical term in Google+
Once you have the software loaded it was extraordinarily intuitive.
You speak and your image takes the main frame.
Easy to share docs or type messages. (or was it guys?)
Without a moderator it wad more like very old friends in a bar abroad, except that one person was sitting on a bed, chatting with hubby alongside, eating yoghurt and behaving as if we were all perched on the end of the bed or doing our teeth in the bathroom.
Like nothing else you are bringing people into your home.
I became immediately consciousness of needing a shave.
I had expected to have some choice over whether to appear in vision or not.
At least I wasn't in the bath, though people did wander off to the bathroom or to make a coffee/answer the phone, as you would do if chilled out in your own home. Weird to feel so drawn into the context of each person's 'learning' space. A cat jumped on this bed and I started a chain reaction whereby we all reached out and through the frames to stroke it - the worked too.
We talked shop, a TMA due on Monday, held up charts to the screen etc: no thought of needing a headset or separate webcam, more a case of adjusting the lighting and seating arrangements.
Will this change expectations of students who use Google+ when it comes to online tutorials?
Yes, this was like being in the room with each of these people. We have of course never met in person before but were behaving like siblings at a second cousin's wedding.
Comments
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Google+ looks really cool. Pity it is only available to a select audience at the moment. Thanks for sharing it.New comment
It isn't so select. I can invite another 100 having been started off. Give me your email and I'll invite you in then you're off.Great hangout, thanks!
It was a great hangout. It's lucky that I remembered to even put some clothes on before switching on the light, so comfy was I on bed! But it's great that we can meet up like this, and have a nice chat.
I will admit, I was surprised when we started talking shop, since I had set up the hangout simply to test this amazing new tool... and was expecting to just 'hang out', testing tools and stuff! But I actually picked up some very interesting pointers about the TMA, and by reflecting on my own work so far, managed to clarify my thoughts, and remember other quotes I meant to use... for example one of your blog comments, which is what I'm actually here for, so tatty bye!
PS, what do you need permission for?
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Permissions are important because in an open environment anything can be grabbed and shared. The reality is that this is the nature of the environment. It must be extremely rare that someone takes content and mashes it up in an unpleasant or inappropriate way. Another point, some people wish to be anonymous or hold back some details, for example someone studying without their employers knowledge as they plan to leave, or ex-partners or may be giving them and their friends a hard time, even adopted children (admittedly unlikely to be studying with The OU) ... But if, for example, a child had appeared in shot ... Or, not that any of us Re doing so, cheating ! Sorry, the imagination is running wild as I slip further into fiction and an idea for a short story.New comment
AN dI suppose those are pluses for Google+ since it can't be recorded and therefore come up to haunt us. Except when people take and publish screenshots, of course!