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Rice + Leadership
January 19, 2012
Introduction:
Veronica Rae Saron
is a Google Student Ambassador at
Rice University
. This is the last post in her four-part blog series, Rice+, in which she's shared the various creative ways that the Rice community is using Google+ to enhance their world.
On campus, Google+ serves as a fantastic tool for clubs, especially club leadership.
At Rice, we don’t have sororities or fraternities, but we do have residential colleges, a social unit that just begs to organize itself into Circles. I have a “Will Rice” circle, since that’s my residential college, and I also have a “Sid Rich” circle, which is the residential college where I advised during orientation week. A cool feature that integrates Gmail with Google+ also turns my Circles into labels for my emails - so for example, if someone in my “Will Rice” circle sends me an email, it’s automatically labeled that way without needing to set a filter!
Read more about how to organize people into Circles
here
.
These circles help me to organize my social life and my academic world!
Not only do Google+ Circles help out immensely with organizing club members, but Hangouts of course provide a means to conduct meetings more easily. Usually, club executives meet in person, but if ever a meeting needs to happen on short notice, Hangouts are the best option. Even more commonly, though, group members might not even be on campus at the same time, which can be a problem if you’re on a team that needs to meet frequently, like a group working on a web startup...
The Rice University founding members of SimpApply.com – one of a large handful of tech startups coming out of our university – have discovered Google+ Hangouts and use them extensively. Since some of their team members graduated last year, before Hangouts it was difficult for them to keep in sync. Says co-founder Abhishek Nag:
“The main video display makes it clear who is talking, and it’s especially useful when we have energetic discussions (AKA shouting matches). The 'Extras' features work great for us, and if there's ever a tense moment in the course of our meetings, we can always bring in the mustache.”
The team members of SimpApply are distributed across 5 cities and 2 timezones, and Google+
Hangouts allows them to work effectively on their startup despite the distance.
I know that I’ll be using Google+ Hangouts plenty over this winter break in order to coordinate next semester’s plans for our campus’s celebrateART festival as well as to solidify the events for the club of which I’m the president, the Rice Academy Society. Seeing as both projects involve leadership from a lot of my peers, Hangouts will definitely be a critical tool for planning next semester.
Have you used Google+ Hangouts and Google+ to facilitate projects and leadership opportunities?
Posted by Veronica Rae Saron, Google Student Ambassador
Rice + Academics
January 10, 2012
Introduction:
Veronica Rae Saron
is a Google Student Ambassador at
Rice University
. In this four-part blog series, Rice+, Veronica will share about the various creative ways that the Rice community is using Google+ to enhance their world. Stay tuned for the second post in this series, which will be published in January.
We have only just begun to scrape the surface in terms of the impact Google+ can have on education. At the bottom of this post I’ve included links to a bunch of resources that talk about Google+'s new role in education, but first I would like to share with you the ways in which some of us have used Google+ at Rice.
+HANGOUT OFFICE HOURS
Right away, Hangouts emerged as a great tool for professors for virtual office hours. Rice is a small university of only about 4,000 undergraduates, which means that most of our classes have less than 40 students. Most of the time, it would make sense for students to talk to professors in person either before, after, or during class. However, for many professors and students finding time face-to-face is difficult, like in the introductory engineering and pre-med classes.
Professor Hafner uses Hangouts to talk about physics with one student.
By the time the Hangout has finished, many students have dropped in and out.
Professors like Jason Hafner of the Physics department are using Hangout technology in order to orchestrate more efficient office hours. Even though he’s an extremely popular professor among the students and enjoys teaching, he’s also very busy with research. By setting a certain window of time during which he is on a Google Hangout, his students can drop in and ask a question. With the “Hangouts with Extras” feature, which includes an online blackboard and Google Docs, students can even have the answer explained in more detail. While Professor Hafner waits for students, he can catch up on work and maximize his productivity.
Professor Hafner is looking forward to using the Hangout office hours feature next semester, in particular for his Physics 102 class, which has over 300 students enrolled. He’s already put together a
Physics 102 Google+ Page
that he plans to use!
+CIRCLING-UP EDUCATION
Since I’m a Mathematical Economic Analysis and Film Studies double major, my classes tend to be small. Therefore, it isn’t usually necessary to attend office hours since emails to my professors serve that purpose. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t use Google+ for my academic needs.
Not going to lie, I’m a bit of a nerd, and I genuinely love the coursework for my two majors. So, what better way to engage with my majors than to have Circles dedicated to them? My
“Your Marginal Benefit Circle”
is a Circle devoted entirely to economics – I follow economists and economic enthusiasts of all opinions on that feed, and I frequently read the articles that they post as I procrastinate doing my problem sets (one of the parts about being a math econ major that I don’t like).
Also the photo and film communities on Google+ are thriving. I keep fantastic photographers like
Thomas Hawk
and filmmakers like
Brad Kremer
in my
“Film/Photo Gods Circle”
, which feeds my creativity and inspiration when I need a boost. Even when I just want to procrastinate, it’s fun to flip through
Trey Ratcliff
’s photos and gawk in awe.
My "Film/Photo Gods" stream (above) tells me the latest in photography and films,
and my "Your Marginal Benefit" stream (below) takes care of my economic knowledge.
+MORE
Of course, it’s no surprise that across the Internet, educators are taking advantage of Google+’s sleek and sophisticated interface to enhance learning worldwide. Here are a few examples and links that talk about the newest innovations in Google+ education technology that you can engage with and learn about:
Google+ for Universities
Stanford’s
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class
is entirely online and uses Google Hangouts for worldwide office hours
This
UNL professor
uses Hangouts for office hours
Boise State student Taylor Bell wrote a
blog post
about how he uses Google+ at college
18 ways
teachers can use Google+ Hangouts in education
Learning Solutions
guide to Google+ Hangouts with Education
Do you have any other ideas about how to integrate Google+ with education? Or, do you have links that feature Google+ and education? Share them in the comments below!
Posted by Veronica Rae Saron, Google Student Ambassador
Rice + Virtual Career Panel
January 3, 2012
Introduction:
Veronica Rae Saron
is a Google Student Ambassador at
Rice University
. In this four-part blog series, Rice+, Veronica will share about the various creative ways that the Rice community is using Google+ to enhance their world.
The best part about being a Google Student Ambassador is that if you have ideas about a new way to use a Google product, you can immediately take action. From
flashmobs
at University of Wisconsin at Madison to an
entire school holiday
honoring Google+ at DePauw University, we ambassadors have had the unbelievable opportunity to capitalize upon the exciting technology that is Google+.
Julia Stiglitz speaks about her TFA experience
from Google's Mountain View office.
In November, I coordinated a virtual career panel for
Teach for America
(TFA) using Google+ Hangouts, the 10 way video-conference feature offered at no charge. TFA is one of the most popular national nonprofits for undergrads to join after graduation. Last year it received over 46,000 applications and only accepted around 10% of their applicants! However, a lot of students wonder not only about the teaching experience itself, but what sorts of career paths the corps members decide to take after they’re done with TFA. Do you continue to work toward bettering education in society? Do you work in the private sector in consulting, or maybe even in education technology with a large company like Google?
Using a projected screen with an active Hangout, interested students attended a virtual panel featuring TFA former corps members across the country who, after their time with TFA, have taken on diverse career paths:
Ann Best, 1996 Houston Corps Member, TFA, Chief Human Resources Officer, Houston Independent School District
Tia Lendo, 2000 Eastern North Carolina Corps Member, Worked at: Teach First, McKinsey & Company, Google
Robert Lundin, 2000 Houston Corps Member, Worked at: YES College Prep School, Teach for America
Rich Crandall, 2004 Bay Area Corps Member, Worked at: Stanford Design School
Julia Stiglitz, 2004 Bay Area Corps Member, Worked at: Teach For America, Google
It was so much easier to hold this virtual panel via Hangout than organizing a live-in-the-flesh event! We were able to bring speakers who would not have been able to join us otherwise!
The flier that we put up around Rice's campus
to advertise the virtual panel.
I worked with Google, TFA recruiter Sandra Nunez, TFA student ambassador Audra Herrara, and Rukayat Giwa, a former Google intern at UC Berkeley to put on the event. We were able to have two audiences in lecture halls at Rice and at UC Berkeley. Each lecture hall had a projection of the panel for the audiences and a computer with a webcam so that the audience could ask the panelists questions. The event was wildly successful, with many students in attendance commenting afterward that they had learned something new.
“As a student interested in education reform, this event was incredibly informative,” said Alex Pena, a junior political studies major at Rice. “It was interesting to listen to how the corps members’ related with each other a lot based on their experiences, and how TFA was clearly a transformative experience in their lives.”
“Google Hangouts was the catalyst that allowed us to see these panelists’ shared passion,” declared Liz Jackson, a senior math major, “The panelists’ different locations across the country presented a wider variety of viewpoints and life experiences.”
Sandra Nunez, Rice Univeristy’s TFA recruiter, also had positive comments regarding the event:
“I’ve been a campus recruiter for two years now, and we’ve never done anything like this before. Teach For America produces bright leaders who can go into a variety of professions after their time in the classroom, and hearing from our friends at Google and elsewhere really demonstrated that.”
The panelists’ passion for bettering America’s education was clear throughout the dialogue, and the opportunity to witness such a discourse would not have been available for the Rice and UC Berkeley students if it were not for Google+’s incredible ability to connect people. After all, the panelists were located across three different time zones, and yet they were able to speak from the comfort of their own homes!
Do you have ideas about how Hangouts can revolutionize the college events or recruiting efforts for organizations? Let us know in the comments below!
Posted by Veronica Rae Saron, Google Student Ambassador
Extra special thanks to Tia Lendo, Rukayat Giwa, Sandra Nunez of TFA, Audra Herrera (Rice Class of 2012 and Rice TFA Ambassador), the Rice Academ Society, and our fantastic panelists for helping to make this event take place!
Rice + Global Socializing
December 20, 2011
Introduction:
Veronica Rae Saron
is a Google Student Ambassador at
Rice University
. In this four-part blog series, Rice+, Veronica will share about the various creative ways that the Rice community is using Google+ to enhance their world. Stay tuned for the second post in this series, which will be published in January.
Now that the semester at Rice has finished up with a grueling finals period, we Rice Owls are looking forward to eating home-cooked food, sleeping in our own quiet bedrooms, not having to wear flip-flops in the shower, and of course, hanging out with our high school friends.
But for my peers and for me, being physically distant from our high school friends didn’t mean that we couldn’t still hang out with them while still at college, thanks to Google+ Hangouts. Hangouts are especially fantastic for students at Rice, because our university attracts students from all across the globe. In fact, the screenshot below features my friend Stephanie hanging out on Google+ with her high school friends from Taiwan, who are now at universities in Taiwan as well as across the United States. The 10-way, free video chat allows them to still be goofy together despite being far from each other.
Rice University freshman Stephanie uses Hangouts
to keep in touch with her friends across the globe.
I even use Hangouts to communicate with my college friends, especially when I’m far from them during breaks, like in the next few weeks!
Even though two of my friends and I are miles away from each other
over this winter break, we're able to use Hangouts to catch up and chat.
Even over the last summer, my friends and I jumped onto the Google+ bandwagon and used Hangouts to keep in touch and be with each other virtually. This was perfect for us because even though I live in New Jersey, most of my college friends happen to be scattered all around Texas. I mean, a lot of the time when we’re together in real life, we’re relaxing and watching YouTube videos, which we can also enjoy over Google Hangouts. In fact, my friend Josh used Hangouts to watch YouTube videos with his high school friends across the country throughout last semester.
In the middle of last semester to relieve stress, Josh and his friends
catch up over some cat videos on YouTube via Google+ Hangouts
How do you use Google+ to enhance your social world?
Posted by Veronica Rae Saron, Google Student Ambassador
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