Once again, thank you very much for your comments, ideas, and questions about Google Translate, YouTube, and Books that are always very rewarding and challenging. For this week blog, I would like to maintain the spirit of social networking putting Google+ for teaching and learning on the discussion table!
Did you ever use Google+ for social networking of any kind? What about Google Groups? Did you find any relevant difference between using these two to any social networking you use?
To tell you the truth I am a heavy user of Google Suit apps, but I do not use Google+ or Groups even though I have it set up to be used. One of the reasons why it's because I already use LinkedIn for professional-social networking and Facebook for pure social networking, of course, I also use different texting/video apps for it as well. On the other hand, I connect with my students by email or through our classroom LMS but don't socialize with them in any way that is not school related. I think it is crucial to keep professionals and personal lives separate as it is mentioned in one of this week reading articles. So, in other words, I don't find the advantage of having to take care of multiple networking sites at this point.
What is your opinion about this? How, if you have a way that works for you, I could use Google+ or Groups in a way that it can be beneficial for my adult ESL classes? All ideas are welcome!
For those that never experience the use of Google+ or Groups or wants to know how can this impact classrooms, here are some information I found in the web. I hope you enjoy it as I did.
https://www.good.is/articles/why-google-is-an-education-game-changer
IT MAY BE A TIME FOR A CHANGE!
For those that never experience the use of Google+ or Groups or wants to know how can this impact classrooms, here are some information I found in the web. I hope you enjoy it as I did.
https://www.good.is/articles/why-google-is-an-education-game-changer
IT MAY BE A TIME FOR A CHANGE!
Hi Kennia, I have never used Google+ or similar apps for any educational purposes. After reading your opinion about the app, I see myself using it very soon. Thank you for sharing your encouraging thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's is great! If I can, in any way, help other to explore and learn new thing toward a better education for him/herself and others, then my goals are being accomplished. Thank you for sharing, and please let me know if you figure out how can you use it for you educational purposes.
DeletePersonally I think that using social media in the classroom is a positive thing as long as teachers monitor it and keep it under control.
ReplyDelete-Alex
Hi Alex!, and you are totally right. Sometimes, if I find myself with too much to do in my ESL for adults class, so I prefer to integrate social media to those lessons that aren't too heavy. As you said, social media in the classroom can be very positive as long as the teacher has control over it and it is connected to a meaningful part of the lesson.
DeleteThank you for commenting.
I've never used Google+ or Facebook for a class, but one professor had us use Google Hangouts. This offered an experience similar to Facebook, but we didn't have to share all of our personal info/photos with classmates as we would have had to do had we used Facebook.
ReplyDeleteHi John! Thank you for your post.
DeleteI am not an expert on Google+, but I can say that it has some advantages over Facebook in classroom use and that is actually one. I have a coworker that has a Facebook account for her class and she mentioned that because all her students use it for personal stuff, it was kind of hard for students to understand that personal and classroom were, in this case, separated. Now, she says, its ok, but she is looking into Google+ as a better confidentiality option for students and teacher.