Announced last week and rolling out some changes after a rough start, Google Buzz is a social integration and messaging tool, designed to add social networking to Gmail. Can we use it for e-Learning?
If you haven’t seen Buzz, or if you don’t have Gmail, this video (http://www.youtube.com/v/yi50KlsCBio&hl=en_US&fs=1&) will give you an overview. I’ve set up a Buzz (http://www.google.com/profiles/vestjeremy#buzz ) as an example that you can try out – feel free to join in the Buzz by adding comments. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1: A new Buzz
Buzz quickly sparked a flurry among bloggers, with some writers enthusiastic about the new service, and many others not too happy with it. Google announced almost immediate changes to the way Buzz works (mainly in response to privacy concerns), and has continued to refine the features almost daily. However, developers have already created a number of Buzz plug-ins for WordPress and other apps.
How can we use Google Buzz for education?
While Buzz has not yet found its level, let alone universal acceptance, it is not too early to start looking at possible ways in which the new service might be used in e-Learning. You could think of Buzz as a platform for PLEs (Personal Learning Environments), for example. In the Buzz example referred to above, I’ve included several types of exchanges to illustrate some of these possibilities.
1. Twitter & Facebook-like conversations
One thing that I really do like is the open-ended conversations you can start on Buzz. This is somewhat like posting status updates on Twitter or Facebook, or like posting an email without a “To” line. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2: Conversations on Buzz start out looking a bit like mini-blog posts.
The conversation will be asynchronous, but it will also be easier to follow than a similar thread on Twitter, you aren’t limited to 140 characters, and you aren’t forced to see every inane comment that someone makes about their lunch.
I could see this type of conversation working well for online courses. You have the ability to choose who can see the conversation. This kind of control will be necessary for most educators.
2. You can set your conversation to private
Setting conversations to private might be the main reason educators are excited about Google Buzz. It’s a very easy process – just click Private on the drop-down menu when you set up the conversation with your first post.
3. You can create groups
Having the ability to create groups will be huge for teachers. You could think of groups as classes and you can add anyone you want to that private group. To set up a group, click Private and “Create a new group.”
Figure 3: Groups are easy to set up in Buzz.
4. You can share media
When you post, you have the ability to insert text, links and photos. This will be necessary in education and is one of my favorite parts of Facebook.
5. Use Buzz for course marketing
Google says that public posts will be “indexed instantly” and may show up in Google’s real-time search results. So I would use Google Buzz as a way to market your new courses and news. Make sure you are using great keywords and point the URLs to your individual courses.
6. Add social feeds
You can add Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, YouTube, Blogger and Twitter feeds with Buzz.
7. Watch, read, and learn
Another great thing about Google Buzz is that students who seldom if ever interact might follow along and learn from other people’s conversations. This way of learning might be useful to students who are shy or not confident.
Some drawbacks
Many people are worried about privacy. In default mode Google Buzz will automatically follow people for you without your knowing. This can make your Gmail contacts public for others to see. In other words, almost anyone can see your most valuable contacts by default. Google Buzz also is public by default so you can see anyone’s conversations (unless they are set to Private, of course).
When you use Google Buzz on mobile devices and you chose “Permission to access locations,” it actually shows your contacts where you are. You can even see people’s buzzes near you. The application gives you the full address to find people near you. This is kind of creepy and could be very dangerous.
If you are going to use Buzz as part of an instructional design, everyone who will participate in the learning will need to have a Gmail account.
It seems to me that, for now, we will have to watch Google Buzz carefully and follow the ways in which designers and others use it.
