Preparing for a Synchronous VID: a Google Meet recap and update

-

by Tracey Brown, OIT Teacher Specialist

A lot of airtime has been dedicated this year to talking about the new world of virtual instructional days for weather and other unplanned events. Maybe you are still unsure if you’re ready. Most teachers seem uncertain about Asynchronous days. If that is you, check out the January 17th Planning for Asynchronous blog post by Kerri Lambert. But if you just want a refresher on how to teach synchronously, this post is for you!


The number one tool in your teacher toolbox for a synchronous VID is Google Meet. Below is a recap of tools and features you may need to dust off and brush up on. Also, it has been over a year since we had to rely on this tool daily for instruction. There are some cool new tools that you and your students should know how to use, and you should know how to manage before they take over your virtual classroom environment.

What's New in Meet

Push to Talk - To unmute yourself, press and hold the spacebar. To mute again, release the spacebar. Feature is off by default and must be turned on in the user's settings.

Meet Reactions - Emoji reactions are now included on the Google Meet toolbar in between Raise Hand and Present Screen. 

Transcripts - Transcripts can now be captured for your video call. Transcripts include words spoken by any participants in a meet, but not the chat. To capture a transcript of the chat, the meeting must be recorded.

Chat off - Meeting hosts can turn off chat for all attendees.

Mute all - Meeting hosts can mute all participants in the People tab.

Cohosts - Meeting hosts can make other attendees a cohost; especially useful if you have a co-teacher in class. Cohosts have host controls including mute all, polls, etc.

Classic Favorites and Best Practices

Nicknamed meeting - Important!! Prevents non-AACPS accounts from joining your meeting. Changes the meeting code each time the nickname is used preventing students from re-entering the meeting after class.

Closed Captions - On the Meet toolbar for all users. Take the time to show students how to turn it on. Offers live translations to several languages. Must be turned on by individual participants; not a host control!

Tab vs. Window vs. Entire Screen:
Tab is best for sharing audio and video, but participants can only see that one tab. 
Window shares any tabs within that window, like if sharing apps in Chrome. As you navigate from one tab to the next, your participants see what is on your screen within that window.
Entire screen shares with your participants whatever you see on your screen.

Attendance - automatically sent to the main hosts email address when the call is ended for all. Report includes timestamps for when everyone joined and left.

Water fall - a great equity tool to give every student a voice! Turn on chat, ask a question, have all students type their response in the chat, BUT they don't hit enter to share it until you tell them to. Everyone's response comes in at once, so they aren't borrowing each other's ideas.

Tip for Success:


We all know the expression practice makes perfect. If you are feeling anxious about our first virtual day, maybe it is because you haven't taken the time to practice with your students. Using a digital tool like Meet is not like riding a bike, if you don't do it, you don't remember! Find 10 minutes during your homeroom, advisory, or other class period to have everyone join Google Meet and remind them of proper class etiquette. It will pay off tenfold on the first virtual day! 

Popular Posts

Book Studies in Brightspace

-
Image
By Melissa Connelly, Behavior Specialist & Brightspace Campus Champion at Belle Grove Elementary, and Stacy Langhirt, 1st grade teacher and former eCoach, Severna Park Elementary Books clubs about technology, really? Yes! It was an awesome experience. When asked to facilitate a class during the summer of 2021, feeling a little burned out on technology we asked if we could try something new. Guess what the answer was a  resounding, YES. That is how a five week technology book study came to be using our new LMS, Brightspace. Facilitating a book study about tools and technology that we have available to us everyday and that our students are familiar with just made so much sense. We were able to share a wonderful text, Eric Curts' Control Alt Achieve: Rebooting your Classroom with Creative Google Projects ,  that was rich with ideas on using Google Workspace for Education in the classroom and we had conversations centered around those ideas that helped all of us to grow as e...
Read more

Computational Thinking: Its really not that scary!

-
Image
By Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Computational thinking. It’s one of those current, hot educational phrases that leaves most teachers scratching their heads and thinking, “Does this really apply to me?” Especially when most articles and books stress its relationship and importance to computer science.  However, the more I read, the more I’m convinced that computational thinking extends to all content at all grade levels. After all, at its most basic, computational thinking is all about the process of problem solving. And let’s face it, that’s something we all do, all day long!  So what exactly IS computational thinking? By definition, computational thinking is the process of breaking down complex problems down into parts, recognizing patterns, and devising a solution. It has four pillars or processes: Broken down into the processes, computational thinking seems a lot less intimidating. I mean, even cleaning the house can be broken down into comp...
Read more

Who to Follow on Social Media

-
Image
by Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist In OIT, we are often asked how we learn “all this stuff” and how do we keep up with all the changes across our platforms. There are several ways, but one of our favorite ways is to peruse Twitter when we have a moment. This allows us to get information from one place and in the small snippets of time- and it doesn’t fill up our inboxes! If you are on Twitter and looking for people to follow, here are a few that we recommend. It’s no secret that OIT supports a variety of instructional applications and yes, sometimes it can feel overwhelming! But, many of the programs we subscribe to are active on Twitter. Not only do they tweet out updates or upcoming features, but also showcase ways educators across the country are using their products with students. This is also a great way to find out about learning opportunities such as webinars or conferences. Following the companies gives you the best of both worlds- updates and inspir...
Read more