Google Meet

Google Meet is our tool for video calls, with students and among staff.

Quick start

You can use Google Meet right away on your computer, phone, or tablet. It is part of the Google account of every student and staff member. There is no harm in going to meet.google.com and playing around. Make a meeting and give it a random nickname for now. Even with just you in the meeting you can practice turning on and off your microphone, using the chat window, recording the Meet, and ending the meeting. Sharing your screen is one of the few features that can be unintuitive, so it would be good to practice it first.

Going deeper

Using Meet inside Classroom

You can set up a single Meet that runs continuously for each Classroom. When students log into the Classroom, they can click on the link for the Meet and be present immediately. As of August 2020, there is nothing keeping students from entering this Meet whenever they want, even if the teacher is not present. Google has promised a fix to this sometime in September; for now, as a teacher you will want to weigh the pros and cons. If is is a problem, you can reset the meeting code for each session, and hide it until you are ready for students to join.

Turn on Meet for your class:

When you turn on Meet, a unique video meeting link is created for your class. Students use the link to join your class video meetings.

Go to classroom.google.com.
Click the class Settings .
Under General, click Generate Meet link.
A unique Meet link appears for your class.
In the top-right corner, click Save.

Show or hide a Meet link:

When you turn on Meet, students can see the link on the Stream and Classwork pages. You can hide the link from students until you want to share it. To share the link, you can make it visible again, or add it to an assignment or question.

Go to classroom.google.com.
Click the classSettings .
Next to Visible to students, choose an option:
- To make the Meet link visible to students, click the switch to On position .
- To hide the Meet link from students, click the switch to Off position .

You can read more about this on this page

Turning on and off your microphone and video

The first time you use Google Meet you may be asked to give the site permission to use your camera and microphone. Once you do, you can use the buttons along the bottom to turn you microphone and camera on and off. This applies to all the users: If you turn off your camera, no one can see you. If you turn off your microphone, no one can hear you.

Troubleshooting or change microphone or speaker settings

These days we may have several cameras, microphones or speakers to choose from when using Google Meets. This page shows you how to select the proper device.

Mic on/off — Hang up — Camera on/off

Changing your views

You can find these options via the three dots in the bottom right of the screen. Choose "Change layout."

The changes you make to your views do not apply to everyone else. They only change what you see. If you click on a the thumbnail video or image of someone in the meeting, you can bring them to the foreground — on your screen. This does not mean that person comes to the foreground for everyone else. You can also change the layout in several ways. This also only applies to what you see. Everybody else can change their own layout as they see fit.

The Tiled view, informally known as the "Brady Bunch" view, is available here and lets you see up to 16 participants at once.

Sharing your screen

On a computer:
1. Click "Present now."
2. We recommend you use "new tab sharing feature" to share content from a Google Chrome web browser. Click on the link to see a 2 minute video on how to use this cool new feature.
3. Alternately you choose to share the desktop or one window from other browsers such as Firefox. Either approach is most appropriate when you want to a single web page or document. If you do choose one window, you will see thumbnail versions of all the windows open on your computer. Click on one.
4. You will have to know that whatever you do on the screen is visible to the people in the meeting, while your microphone continues to broadcast. The sound from your microphone will mix with whatever sounds your screen is making.
5. When you are done sharing, get back to the Meet window and click "Stop Presenting."

Notes:

This is one of the functions that is most likely to make teachers feel unsure of what they are doing. You can practice this in a Meet with no one in it, and probably should until the flow feels natural.
This will not work well on a device like a phone or a tablet. For one thing, you will not be able to monitor your students. It also has flaky performance.
Although you might wish to show your class videos in this way, the outcome is far too choppy to make it worth trying. You will need to send your students links to any videos you need them to watch.

Using a document Camera with Google Meets.

This page shows how to use the IPEVO Visualizer software with Google Hangouts which is very similar to Google Meets

Recording your Meet

If you click on the three dots in the lower right, you get a menu of options; the top one is to Record meeting. When you want to stop recording, go back to the same place. The resulting video will go to your Google Drive.

Managing students

The supervision tools are limited. You will have to rely on teaching your students to respect the space. Here are your moderation features:

You can turn a student's microphone off (but they can turn it right back on again).
You cannot turn a student's video off.
You cannot keep a student from typing in the chat window.
You can remove a student from the meeting.

In other words, if a student is using the tool inappropriately you have to talk to them about it.

Controls

In the top right of the window is an icon of people, marked with the number of people in the meeting. If you click on that, you will see thumbnails for all the people in the meeting. Clicking on each one will give you some options:

Clicking directly on that person's thumbnail will pin them. That means they get the foreground on your screen.
You can mute a participant by clicking on their microphone. You cannot unmute a student. You cannot stop them from unmuting themselves.
Finally, the last button enables you to remove a student.

Etiquette

The fact that Google Meet offers limited controls over students' behavior can be a blessing in disguise. Just as in the physical classroom, you need to establish rules and expectations and hold students to them.

This list of Google Meet Social Norms, from Littleton Public Schools in Colorado, is a suggested starting point. If you want to amend it, you will need to use File > Make a Copy from within Google Docs.

Copy of Google Meet Online Guidance for Teachers and Students

Leaving a meeting

As it stands, you have to be very careful about how you end a meeting. If you just hang up, the students can stay and do whatever they want. If you make sure they all leave, then end the meeting, the door is closed and the students can't come back in until you rejoin the meeting.

Questions

Protecting Student Privacy

You should review the following Slide Deck for examples about how to protect student privacy when using online tools such as Google Meets.

What about Zoom?

Zoom requires a software install for all participants to work properly. There have been a lot of concerns with security and privacy. Google Meet, while on the plain side, is available right in the browser for all VISD users and complies with the laws around student privacy.

Can I invite people from outside the class?

You can, but your nickname won't work. For outside users (e.g., parents), start up the meeting, then click on the nickname in the lower left of the screen. That will give you a chance to copy the invitation to send. When they join you will get an alert so you can let them in.

More Resources

Portland Public Schools has this more extensive support page, including etiquette guides for students.

Google's official support page.

Google's more friendly introduction.

Google Meet is in rapid development. This page tracks the latest feature additions.

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