Holy Heck Hangouts on Air is Happening.

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Yep, today I am going to be talking about another venue that I use to deliver Tech professional development (PD) to my teachers, Google Hangouts on Air (HOA).

I can’t say enough good things about Hangouts on Air. It’s easy to use, allows you to have an unlimited number of viewers, viewers don’t have to have a Google Plus account, and if your viewers do have a G+ account they can even submit questions in realtime to the presenters. Oh, did I mention that HOA also records your transmission and stores it on Youtube so that if someone misses the PD they can watch it whenever they want! CLICK HERE to see our first HOA.

So what are PUSD’s Tech Tuesdays? They are an hour long technology PD on any technology topic that applies to our district. Teachers can participate in the PD three different ways:

1. They can signup to view it in person here at our office. Yes, we record with a live audience!
2. They can view the PD live remotely via our Google Plus event page. While the event is being broadcasted our remote viewers are able to submit questions, give thumbs up (and down), and applause to the presenter(s).
3. After the PD is over HOA records the entire broadcast and posts it to our YouTube account where we can go back and edit the video and repost it for anyone who would like to watch the PD later.

As of right now it is just myself and my colleague Harmony doing all of the presenting, but I have built a Google Form that is live and as soon as I open it up people can sign up to present on tech that they are using in their classrooms.

Recommendations

1. Test, test, test, and then test one more time before going live with a HOA PD. Our first broadcast went off perfectly, but we had practice a lot before going live. Our second Tech Tuesday wasn’t so lucky. We had a feedback loop that caused a really annoying echo, which leads us to the next point.
2. Have a second (or fourth in our case) computer setup that is running as a remote viewer so that you can test the audio that your audience is hearing. Don’t forget the earphones!
3. Get yourself a good microphone. Nobody wants to listen to a baseless tinie voice for an entire PD.
4. Make your lower-third in the toolkit. They just look cool and up the production value.