Google Meet has honestly been a life-saver these days as we all try to navigate this new digital classroom. I know there has been a big debate about whether zoom or google meet is better, and I’m here to tell you why I love google meet and how you can use it to your advantage.
Now to be fair, my district has prohibited Zoom because of privacy reasons for our students, but I also far prefer Meet. I honestly am the biggest fan of anything G-suite so this should come as no surprise that I’m team Google. Since this is run by Google we have the benefits and manpower of how quickly Google moves to improve things for their customers and we have seen this now. A recent feature in google classroom, is that you can generate a Google Meet Link for just that class in the settings, which is super cool.
Now, before I get into the best things about Google Meet, I think it’s a good idea to go over some helpful hints to protect you and your students.
- Make sure you have a time limit link so your students cannot enter the chat without you (I will talk more about this later)
- For your own protection, I think it’s a good idea to record all meetings. If you have no fear of a pop-in observation in your real classroom, you should have no fear of recording Google Meet. Not to mention, it resolves any issues of he said, she said and is clear evidence in case any disciplinary actions need to be taken. If you’re on Tiktok like me, you’ve seen how crazy these virtual classrooms can get!
- Be sure that all students have left the chat before you leave. If you don’t, your students could stay in the video chat you created and do who knows what. If your students won’t leave, you can remove them.
Things I love about Meet
1. Features within the call
I love all of the traditional features that come with most video chat sites and how easy they are to use for Google Meet. It is extremely easy to Mute, Turn off video, remove people, share your screen etc. The ease with which you can navigate Google Meet is fantastic.
2. Generating Links
It’s really easy to generate links for Google Meet. Like I said earlier, they have made it even easier now by adding Google Meet right into Google Classroom. You can also sync with your Google Calendar to make reoccurring Google Meets with a single link you can provide to your students.
3. Appointments
You can also use your Calendar to create appointment slots that your students can easily sign up for. This not only makes it easy scheduling for you, but it’s on a platform that students already know, and is synced to their school email. They can even set up a reminder for themselves that they have a meeting with you scheduled, so they don’t sleep through it!
All of these things and more are reasons to love Google Meet and use it as a resource in your digital classroom. If you don’t know how to do any of the features I mentioned above, try watching my youtube tutorial below that will take you step by step through the process!
Happy Teaching 🙂
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