Running head: HOLIDAY HANGOUT 1

Holiday Hangout

James Stull

Azusa Pacific University

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Holiday Hangout

Google Hangouts can be a great tool for the classroom, however, as with all technology,

there may be some hiccups. Over the weekend, I decided to have a “hangout” with my family to

discuss a plan that my wife and I have been talking about for the upcoming holidays. On Friday,

I called my sister and my father and asked them to participate. They were all in and excited to

get to see the whole family together, even though it would it be just a virtual experience. We

came up with a time, which was a little difficult because of the 3 hour time difference, and I

asked them to download the Google Classroom app. Knowing that my father is not the most

“techy” person, I assured him that I would call 10 to 15 minutes before our hangout to make sure

that he could successfully join. I felt confident that I had everything in order to complete the

task at hand.

The morning started out great. I set up the group and sent a link to everyone that was in

the group. I decided to call my sister first because she would be the easiest to help, if she needed

it, which she didn’t. Then I called Dad and unfortunately, he was already struggling. We

worked on getting him in the hangout and after switching devices three times, we finally were

able to download the program and get him on the chat. I then sent the video invitation to each

person and expected everything to be ready to go. To my disappointment, it wasn’t. An update

on my father’s computer needed to be done. We did this and after 40 minutes of jumping

through the necessary hoops, we finally started the chat!

The actual chat was amazing. I had the opportunity to see my sister’s children, which I

hadn’t in a long time, and she was able to see mine. We discussed our idea for Christmas, which

was to save money and go on a 14 day cruise to Hawaii and celebrate the holiday all together.
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Not everyone was on board, but I think we were able to communicate a lot better and we were

able to simultaneously include everyone, where just over the phone, you may not be able to

include the children in the conversation and hear what they would like to do. We then decided

that we needed to use this technology every holiday that we were not able to get together.

Google Hangouts could definitely be a great tool in the classroom. Despite the problems

we had, which were to be expected considering this was the first time we used the technology, it

was an effective communication tool. In regards to my classroom, setting it up during the end of

one period, for the next day, would enable me to work out the kinks ahead of time and enable me

to successfully get the students on a chat and complete the task. I love the idea of having the

students talk about a lesson or project with the class at the other middle school in our district.

Students could pass on ideas and/or insights that might really help with the understanding of the

new material. I would definitely use this in my class.