Today was the first full day of ACE-NETC in Indianapolis, IN… at least for me. The ACE-NETC conference is a place where Extension communication and technology specialists get together and help each other get to the next level. It is always great to get together to visit with people with whom I have been working virtually over the past year.
I started my day with a presentation by John Dorner from North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension. Dorner gave two presentations this morning, and I attended both of them. They were both on Google products. The first was on Google Drive and Google Applications. He then presented on Google+ Hangouts.
Google Drive and Apps
Dorner explained NCSU uses Google Apps and Gmail. Besides his ncsu.edu account, he also has an extension.org account, which is also supported by Google Docs. He primarily uses his edu account for day-to-day work and uses his extension.org account for his national work with extension. He can get to all his stuff on Google from any computer with internet access. He exclaimed that it is easy to share documents with others. No more email attachments. Everyone is always looking at the most current document. Since he began using Google Docs, he rarely uses Microsoft products.
He started his presentation by focusing on drive.google.com. He noted users can upload any file type. Users can subsequently download these files in their native form, or they can convert them to a Google file type and work on them directly.
A helpful feature I hadn’t really known about is the ability to search Google Drive for any files shared with a specific group, such as Extension. I was not aware of this feature. This is a significant find. I also learned a bit more about Google Templates.
Google Documents
Dorner demonstrated you can upload a Word document and convert it to a Google Doc or upload a Word document and leave it in that file type. Google can convert a PDF document with OCR technology. He pointed out that the word processor does not have all the features of Word but has 90% of the most common features. Google Docs is not the best tool to write a newsletter, but he would use it to write the articles.
He also demonstrated the power of collaborating on a document. This is a wonderful way to create meeting minutes.
Google Spreadsheets
While demonstrating the spreadsheet application, he showed us a function called unique. I had never used it, but I could immediately see the potential. He uses it to keep track of classes, attendance, and ratings.
Google Presentations
With the presentation application, you can export the file in several formats. He also showed that you can have the speaker notes on a different screen. Finally, you can include the presentation in a webpage using the embed code.
Google Forms
Dorner mentioned he uses Google Forms for many reasons. One benefit of using a form is that you can embed it in another webpage. The system allows you to summarize forms easily. You can also require people to log in to access a form, thus capturing additional demographic information.
Google+ Hangouts
Later in the morning, Dorner showed us how to initiate meetings with Google+ Hangouts. He began by demonstrating simple one-on-one sessions and the various ways of creating a Hangout. He then moved on to creating a Hangout with multiple people. Unfortunately, bandwidth problems disrupted the session. I learned you can also call a phone number with Google+ Hangouts.
He showed us how to create a hangout with a Google event. With the advanced event options, you can tie the hangout to a YouTube broadcast. Here shared a checklist to help guide through the process of creating a Google Hangout: http://go.ncsu.edu/hangoutchecklist
When holding a larger event, he recommended having a moderator to help answer and field questions.
Dorner also demonstrated many of the Google+ Hangout features:
- Screensharing
- Window capture
- Remote desktop
- Document sharing using Google Drive.
- Slideshare
- Google effects
- Symphonic whiteboard
- Youtube
As usual, I walked away knowing more than when I entered the session. John Dorner had a great session.
