How do you stay in touch with your students when the school is closed? In case of a temporary school closure, children and teachers miss each other as well as the structure of the days they normally spend at school. Therefore, it’s good to have a way to stay connected and offer an alternative kind of structure and stability. But how what is the best way of communicating remotely with your students? We found that a lot of schools choose to use Google Hangouts Meet as their communication tool.
Why choose Google Meet?
- It’s free for Google Workspace for Education users
- You can have up to 250 participants in a video call
- You can hear and see each other
- It’s easy to join a meeting with one link for everybody
- Google Meet is available for Chrome as well as iOS and Android devices
- Record your call and save it to Google Drive
- Live-streaming for up to 100,000 viewers, so that you can stream a lecture
- Turn on live captions to help students focus
What can you use it for?
- Give live instruction to your students
- Pre-record a lesson instruction and share it
- End the school day with an open mic for students to tell how they experienced the day, their work and how they feel
- 1-on-1 sessions for students who don’t have access to Wi-Fi all day, which you schedule through Google Calendar
Set some ground rules for using Google Meet:
- Students need to have access to Wi-Fi and a device.
- Who is talking? For example: In the first five minutes the teacher speaks. During this time, all others mute their microphones. The teacher appoints who is up next.
- Use the chat. Your students can ask questions without having to use their microphone and disturb instructions. You can see their questions in the Chat and decide when you want to answer which question.
- Use set times. Don’t use Meet for the entire school day. Children need off-screen time as well.
Ready to start? Let’s do it! We’ve prepared a step-by-step guide for you. Download the Google Meet User Guide now for free!