Nowadays, education is becoming more innovative and interactive. Recently OHS has made the decision to adopt Google plus for teachers to use it in lessons, for homework, and much more. Many people– including me at first– didn’t understand how this works, or knew if it was a good idea or not.

The change to using a Google platform is recent. Previously, as many know the students used eChalk to get their homework, and post Word documents instead of handing in papers and what not. Now with the change, it can do the same, be a little more interactive with the social media aspects, and is also cheaper. The High School will soon be removing eChalk, and strictly using Google.

For teachers and students, Google plus opens a wide variety of learning opportunities and new ways to hold a classroom. Teachers can create discussion groups with students in their class about any difficulties or for extra help. Google hangouts allow up to 10 people to video chat with each other. This allows for review sessions and things the teacher wants to show to available students to better understand material. Google hangout technology recognizes the person who is speaking and blows up their image larger than the other people’s images allowing for ease of understanding. The setback is if the student doesn’t have a webcam or computer, they might have some problems using this exciting new school feature. All of the Google plus communities, pages, and student profiles are private. Which can help keep the lessons and students and teachers personal info private.

I got to sit down with some teachers to talk about what they think about the new Google platform and Google plus integration. Mr. Battista, who teaches Physical Education, thinks it’s a great idea for learning and looks forward to setting it up for his classes. While Mrs. Kafer, who teaches chorus as well as other musical classes & activities, thinks that it will provide greater opportunities for learning, but is worried that Google’s privacy system may become faulty at some point. Mr. Dobelle, who teaches Living Environment & Physics, thinks that it’s a great idea for a new program that would save money. Mr. Piazza, one of the guidance counselors, is looking forward to learning more about the program. He said that it’s a good idea to implement technology into learning for both students and teachers. I haven’t used Google plus personally, but from what I’ve heard from students and teachers, I’m looking forward to using Google plus as a part of my teachers’ lessons.

Overall, Google plus can be an exceptional tool for education. Unfortunately for others, it will just part of the lesson, due to a lack of resources.