Last week in the Ideas for Using Technology series I talked about utilizing pictures to spread the word about your group’s events on Facebook and Twitter and encourage fellowship after the event is over. This week I wanted to give you an idea for doing leader’s meetings over breaks using the new social networking site Google+.
It can be really difficult to set up leadership meetings during breaks when students are at home and not nearby, but sometimes it’s really necessary to get together and start planning for the upcoming semester. This is where websites that offer free video conferencing can come in. Many services (like Skype) charge you a monthly fee to video conference with more than one person, but Google’s new social network, Google+, provides free video conferencing for up to 10 people.
Google+ is much like Facebook, but has a few different features to make it stand out. One of the most useful features is their video conferencing called Hangouts. If you don’t have one already you’ll need to create an account with Google, which will also give you a Gmail account. You don’t have to use your Gmail account if you choose not to, you’ll just be signed up for both automatically. Once you create an account go to your Google+ home page and click on “Start a hangout” on the right hand side. You can then invite people to join your hangout.
One of the nice features about the video chat on Google+ is that it automatically recognizes who is speaking and switches their video to be the biggest face for everyone to see. Right now there aren’t too many other features available other than the ability to share your screen with others, but it looks like they may be adding Google Docs integration and a way to share notes soon.
For now, Google+ is simply a great way to quickly set up video conferencing with multiple people, but there are other services that offer more features for free if you need them. After doing a quick search on Google the website Oovoo offers free video conferencing for up to 6 people and you can send files of up to 5MB for free as well. Another one I came across for free is BigMarker. I haven’t tried out either of these so I can’t recommend them, but I have used Google+ without any problems.
What do you think? Could you see a service like Google+ being helpful for setting up leadership meetings during breaks?