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.
Time needed: 5 minutes.
How to use Google Meet video calls within Google Classroom
- Open Google Classroom and view the class settings
Open Google Classroom, select the class you want to start the Google Meeting with, and click the settings cog at the top right of the screen.
- Generate the Meet link
Scroll down to the General section and click the Generate Meet link button. If you want to make the link available to students immediately, click the Visible to students button.
- Copy the link to share with students
Click the link you just generated and you will have two options. Click Copy, to copy the link to share with students, or Reset, to refresh the link.
- Done!
Now, when you and your students click the link, you will be taken to a live Google Meet video confernce which is tied to your Google Classroom class.
For more information, take a look at Google’s support pages.
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.
