Google+ Hangouts for Absent Students

Student absences have been a big problem at my school this year.  Consequently, this has caused an increase in learning gaps from students missing critical learning experiences in the classroom.

So, I devised a way for absent students to actively participate in classroom activities using Google+ Hangouts.  It works like this.  Before each class, a teacher will login to his or her school Google+ account on a laptop computer (with a webcam) and invite all absent students to “Hangout”.  As long as the absent students have access to a device with a webcam and the new Hangout App, they can accept the Hangout invitation and join the class in real-time.

This opportunity empowers absent students to communicate with teachers and classmates, and collaborate on assignments from home, or anywhere else in the world.

Watch the video demonstration below to fully understand this concept.

Story from video

"Once upon a time, students who were absent from school missed critical learning opportunities. Every Day, students who were home sick, or were on vacation, were unable to participate in classroom activities.  One Day, Google launched Google+ Hangouts for people to learn and collaborate together.  Because of that, I discovered a way for absent students to actively participate in classroom activities using Google+ Hangouts.  Because of that, absent students are now able to view teacher instruction in real-time, collaborate with classmates on live documents, and video chat to engage in meaningful conversations. Until finally, no students ever had to be absent from class, again!"

Google Apps for Education

I will say that the implementation of this idea will probably work best for those schools who have already deployed Google Apps for Education. That way, teachers and students can participate using their school Google accounts.  However, this can still work if a teacher has a personal Gmail account, and invites students using their individual Gmail accounts.  It is also recommended that permission is granted by parents and administration. 

Join me in using this innovative idea to make sure that our students are still participating in meaningful learning experiences, even when they are not in school.