With the surge in COVID cases, we are back to emergency remote learning in Toronto. The last time this happened was after March break in 2020, where we did not return back to face to face learning for the rest of the school year. On Monday, January 4 2021, all students in my district will be temporarily learning remotely and consequently, educators will be teaching remotely. Our understanding of virtual learning has changed and so have the digital tools we are using. In this post, I wanted to summarize the new features of Google Meet to give you all a refresher.
Accessing Google Meet for Students
The easiest way to set up a Google Meet for students is to use the meet link in the Google Classroom banner. The meetings created from this link will force participants to use their district accounts so that you can identify who is in your meeting as well as creating meet urls that will disable and not be able to be accessed before or after the meeting. If you are using another virtual platform, you can create nickname google meet links that function in the same way using the format: 'https://meet.google.com/lookup/NICKNAME' where the nickname is a unique set of letters that will create a specific room for your meeting.
The educator must be the first one to click the meet link in the Google Classroom banner to create the room. If students try this, they will receive an error message. Once you click on the link, Google Meet will launch in a new tab. The google meet url is now active and students will be able to join the meeting. Quickly check your video/audio settings, turn on virtual background or blur if needed and then click join now.
Host Controls in Google Meet
Once you are in the meeting there are lots of new features that you have access to as compared to last spring. Virtual/blur backgrounds are a new feature which you can access before joining the meeting or during the meeting. This is really helpful for participants in the meeting to only showcase their homes if desired. In terms of display, the tile view has been expanded to included 49 tiles, so a whole class can be seen at once and you can also included your webcam as part of the tile as well. Note when screen sharing, the number of tiles is reduced.
In terms of host moderation, there is a new (blue) icon at the bottom tool bar which houses the host controls. Here is a central spot to turn off the chat and screen sharing functions for the participants. Note that the host educator will be able to use these still. Also in the host controls is the ability to turn off quick access. When quick access is turned on, it allows participants in the district to join the meeting automatically. If quick access is turned off, all participants will need to ask to join the meeting, where the host educator can admit them or deny them. This is great to prevent ant unwanted guests in the meeting as well as before the meeting has started if you are taking a moment to get prepared.
The latest feature to roll out for Google for Education districts is the hand raising feature. This allows the participants to indicate they have a question and would like to unmute. A visual/audio prompt occurs as well as a raised hand icon will appear participant's video as well as in the participant list.
There are lots of other great features that make Google Meet a great tool for web conferencing, but the one that stands out for me is the ability to access the same features on different devices. Whether you or your students are using Windows, Macs or Chromebook devices, the features work on each of the platforms. This ensures that everyone can participate and have a similar experience in your virtual learning space.
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