When brainstorming for our project, my group and I decided to use Google Hangout. We all had very little experience with Google Hangout but heard that it was one of the most convenient to use, especially since we had all been communicating through Google Docs anyway. When using Google Hangout, I was first confused on how to enter a 'Hangout' until one of the members in my group sent me the link. However, once I got into I found it fairly easy to use. I liked how whomever is speaking in the Hangout is in the center of the screen. This makes it easier to understand what is going on. We also experimented with sharing screens and trying to share YouTube videos. I don't think we actually got the YouTube feature to work but I'm sure we will try that next time. I think next time I would also make sure that my internet connection is strong. Unfortunately I was in an area where my internet connection wasn't that great so I kept getting kicked out of the session and was freezing. This was frsutrating to me and I'm sure to my group members but once it stopped it was very easy to work together. We easily uploaded our Hangout to YouTube and adjusted the settings to it is private.
I think there are many ways I could use this in a classroom. For one, this is great way to track progression and work being done within groups(as we are doing now). This would be a great tool to use in a foreign language classroom because you can record students using the target language with each other. However, I think that this tool works best for what we are using it for, distant learning and online learning. We are all located in different areas of the country and can easily collaborate as if we were all sharing one computer(especially with the share screen feature).
Below is a screenshot that I stole from my group member Suzanne, we didn't get a screen shot of what Google Hangout really looked like but you will be able to see what it looks like in the YouTube video image below.
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