How to use Google Meet video calls within Google Classroom

It’s Zoom, but Google!

Last week I reported that Microsoft quickly rushed out it’s own stripped back video conferecing service to keep Zoom at bay, and this week Google has done the same.

Google Meet, and Google Hangouts, have been around for a while, but it’s only in the last few weeks that having video conferencing services built into learning platforms has been a priority. Zoom has been spreading like a, well…but the app has had a spate of security concerns and blunders which has turned many schools away.

Answering demands from schools, Google has now built Google Meet directly into Google Classroom, providing Zoom like powers to every teacher.

Google Meet Updates

Google has also pushed out a series of updates to support teachers using Google Meet:

• Approve requests to join—During a video meeting, only the meeting creator can see and approve requests to join the meeting from outside of the school’s G Suite domain. If a teacher creates a meeting and wants to include guests with an email address that’s outside of their school domain, make sure they stay on the call until all external guests have been approved to join

The following updates have started rolling out and should be available to all G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers within the coming weeks. 

• Manage participants—Only the meeting creator can mute or remove participants.
• Prevent meeting reuse—Students can’t rejoin the call if teachers are the last participant to leave
  a nicknamed meeting

Interestingly, when I tried to access the meeting using Microsoft Edge, which Google Meet claims to support, it didn’t work. Instead I was presented with further options which suggest that students can also connect via a standard telephone call.

Have you used Google Meet with your students yet? How did you get on? Share your thoughts in the comments.