Google Hangouts Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

"Google Hangouts" is one of my favorite features that Google has to offer.  You can send text messages, make phone calls, have video chats, or do live Hangouts on Air that are archived on YouTube.  Is there a method of online communication that they've left out? I can't think of one.  I use the Chat feature every day. Think of how awesome texting on your phone is- quick, back-and-forth conversations that take little or now time to write and send.  "G-Chat", as it is frequently called, is just the same, except the chat window shows up at the bottom right of your computer screen.  If you're in Gmail, the Chat feature is already turned on.  Check out this link to get started.  We as a tech team use G-Chat if we need a quick, short response from someone.  When notifications are turned on, that person hears a sound when a message comes through, and doesn't have to look through emails to find it.  This is useful when someone may be in a meeting or teaching a class, and wouldn't necessarily check email but may glance at a message that pops up.  To make things even more fun, you can use Bitmojis (For anyone NOT using these, you should be! They can bring fun to even the most mundane of messages.  We have a school secretary who will write entire messages with Bitmojis, and it is hilarious.)  One nice feature is that you can turn off the history of a chat once you don't really need to see it anymore.  This is nice if we've chatted about passwords or certain bits of information that folks don't need to see.  We can turn off history, and the conversation will NOT be archived.  Otherwise, I love that I CAN find conversations by using the search feature in Gmail. When I search for a keyword or phrase, like "pinging printers", gmail will bring up both emails and G-chats with that phrase.  Google is the master of search, so it makes sense that you should be able to search through your own content via multiple pathways.

Overall, Google has figured out how to facilitate easy conversation for FREE in ANY format (online chat, live video, phone call...).  Content is archived for future reference or can by viewed on YouTube if Hangouts on Air was used.  Communication is INSTANT and in REAL TIME.  This means that EVERY classroom has a FREE window to the world, to experts, to sister schools...  This means that an authentic audience is available for student work, bringing so much more meaning and motivation to everything they do.  Google's mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" definitely shines through in their Hangouts feature.

*Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Hangouts using the rubric is my own thinking.