Google Meet is upping their game in the world of video meetings. If you want the full story on Google meet you can find it here.
During this past school year, Google has been catching up with other video conferencing tools and they have taken the feedback provided by the millions of teachers around the world to make Meet a better program for everyone.
Let's take a look at several of these updates:
Classroom Moderator Controls:
- End Meeting for ALL - I have already seen this come through on our domain. When you click on the leave meeting Icon you will see this message. You will be able to end the call for everyone, preventing students from staying on a call after the teacher leaves.
- Mute ALL - This one is already available in our domain as well. Navigate to Meeting details and you will find the Mute All button. NICE!
- Host Controls on Mobile Devices - If you are a mobile device user in Google Meet, then you will now see HOST controls. This is really nice for those who do not have great internet connections at home but their Cellular is good.
- CO-HOST - YES! We have been waiting for this one for awhile. Coming out later in 2021 we will see all teachers on a Google Classroom will share host controls. Now you will have more control over who is monitoring when one teacher is deep in the lesson. This will be great for those classrooms with Co-teachers! Teachers will still be able to allow students/admin to join but now both teachers will be able to control these features.
- Calls starting in Classroom - Any calls starting in Google Classroom, students will not be able to join before the teacher. This feature has had a few issues, which we are hoping this update will fix. Only teachers and students within the classroom will be able to join, and anyone else will have to request to join. This is a little different then setting up your quick access controls from a calendar meeting, or from Meet,google.com.
- Student Engagement - Students will be able to use emojis and change skin color to interact during a Meet. This is a great way to encourage all students to participate in some way. Teachers will have full control over when reactions can be used, but it will be a great way to get immediate feedback.
- Breakout Rooms - Teachers will be able to set up breakout rooms ahead of time in a Google Calendar. Allowing for smaller focused student group interactions and less time setting up those breakout rooms during class.
- Transcripts - Transcripts will be available later in 2021. Teachers will be able to share transcripts out with students, teachers and admin. This will allow students and teachers to review lessons from the day and maintain records if needed.
- Performance Updates: Meet will update it's Audio/Visual Optimization to allow for it to run better when WIFI is not the best. This will allow for better performance while multitasking and reliability improvements.
As with all updates, some will hit our domain earlier then others, but many of these will roll out later in 2021. For an easy to use guide take a look at the graphic created by John R. Sowash of Chrmbook.com.
Did you miss Part 1 or 2? Google Workspace for Education Updates Part 1
