Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Google Communities Help You Grow

It's time . . . do it now!  Click You+ at the top of your Gmail screen to join the increasing number of educators growing and learning in Google Communities.

By completing your profile in Google+, you become eligible to participate in Google Communities. What is a community?  A Google Community is a virtual gathering of individuals who build relationships around a niche or a topic of interest.

After completing the Google+ profile, look for the house icon at the left side of the screen labeled "Home" and click.  Drop down to the green Communities icon and click.  on this screen, you can begin to search for specific communities in the search field or browse the many communities listed.

Reasons why teachers should participate in Google Communities:

  1. Make new connections. Communities you meet and learn from others with similar interests whom you might have never met before or who may have never noticed you otherwise.  Be noticed!
  2. Integrates with Google tools such as Drive, Docs, YouTube, Google Earth, etc.
  3. Allows you to share content including photos, documents, videos, links and more.
  4. Have live Hangouts to discuss and meet live with others in your community.
  5. You can edit your posts at any time.
  6. Only community members can comment on posts. With the mention of a member's Google Plus name in the post, that person will be notified of the comment (+John Doe).
  7. Categories allow you to post to particular topics.
  8. Create "events" within the community and invite other members--know who will and won't attend.
  9. Users with inappropriate intentions can be removed by a moderator.
The best community members share relevant content that initiates discussion, and participate in conversations by offering comments and 1+s on posts.