{"id":85,"date":"2017-07-07T19:01:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T19:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wyomingtraining.com\/subject-matter-minute-blog\/?p=85"},"modified":"2017-10-12T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T15:15:22","slug":"google-hangouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wyomingtraining.com\/subject-matter-minute-blog\/google-hangouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Subject Matter Minute, Episode #5 – Google Hangouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The below post is taken from the Video Blog, the Subject Matter Minute. If it’s a little hard to read, it’s because it’s taken from the spoken word. You can view the episode on YouTube if you would like. Find it here:\u00a0Episode #5 – Google Hangouts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can also listen to an audio version: Episode #5: Google Hangouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matt here… welcome to episode number five of the subject matter minute! First thing you might notice is that I’m not exactly dressed up… but I have a new\u00a0favorite shirt and I really wanted to wear it. I also have my new favorite\u00a0t-shirt on underneath.<\/p>\n

\"\"
I’m not dressed up, but I have cool shirts. \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enough about what\u00a0I’m wearing. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I watch a couple video blogs occasionally and one of the things I’ve\u00a0noticed about them is that I start to feel like I know the person.\u00a0So I\u00a0thought maybe I would, over a series of these, give you little tidbits about\u00a0me, about my past, you know just a little personal stuff… not too personal of\u00a0course, but something about me so you feel like maybe you know me a little bit\u00a0better.<\/p>\n

I was born in Oakland\u00a0California, and yes, that means I’m a Raiders fan. If you don’t like\u00a0football, sorry about the football reference, but most of you do and you\u00a0probably hate me now. I understand. However, I at least come by it honestly. I\u00a0was born in Oakland. I wasn’t there very long before I\u00a0moved to Washington State for a couple years and then by the time I was\u00a0in kindergarten I moved to Lander Wyoming. So I’m a Wyoming-ite. That’s\u00a0what I remember, it’s what I know. I grew up in lander and then came straight to\u00a0Laramie and I still live in Laramie. I don’t know how much\u00a0that helps you get to know me, but at least you know where I’ve been.<\/p>\n

I want to give a\u00a0shout out to the Fremont County folks in Lander! Hopefully there’s a few\u00a0of you, or a couple of you that actually watch this. Love Lander, Love Laramie, and love Wyoming. I’ll probably be here\u00a0forever.<\/p>\n

Now let’s let’s get into the episode! First of all, I want to thank last month’s subject matter expert, which was\u00a0Russell Webb. He got me all the information I needed and you’ll actually\u00a0be hearing some other episodes with information from him because he’s got a\u00a0lot of good stuff in his melon. Thanks Russell… appreciate it!<\/p>\n

Now let’s get onto this subject, which is a little bit more techie… it’s Google Hangouts. First of all, I want to thank\u00a0this month’s subject matter expert which is summer Wasson. She works at ETS along with Alan Cummings and they do all this\u00a0sort of techie stuff there. They know everything there is to know about the\u00a0Google tech. So if you have questions, ask them. They can tell you\u00a0what kind of camera to get, what kind of microphone to get, how to set up anything\u00a0in any fashion.<\/p>\n

I’m going to go through it in\u00a0a screen share, and show you how to do it the simplest and probably the best\u00a0way.\u00a0let’s go ahead and jump into the\u00a0computer and run through the process<\/p>\n

The state of Wyoming has an account with\u00a0Google that allows up to 25 people in a video or phone call hangout, and they’re\u00a0extremely handy. Especially for people like me, who do a lot of remote\u00a0work, but for anyone, really. If you live in the same town but are in different buildings, it’s nice to be able to see each other and talk things through. Phone calls are nice and all, but if you need to share a document or show\u00a0them what you’re doing or work on a Google Doc together, Google Hangouts\u00a0works really well.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>
This is what you will see at Hangouts.google.com when you are logged into your email.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u00a0are many ways to get one going. One is at Hangouts.Google.com. When you’re logged into your email this is what you’ll see. You can\u00a0see that you can start a video, call start a phone call, or do the messaging. I think\u00a0the best way to do this is through Google calendars. Everybody’s got Google Calendars\u00a0because it’s tied in to your email and\u00a0it works really well.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>
You can create an event in Google calendars either by clicking the red “create” button or by dragging within the calendar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every time you create a meeting within Google\u00a0calendars it creates a hangout. There’s a couple ways to create a\u00a0meeting, as you probably know… one is to click create and fill out the\u00a0information. The other is to just drag on the calendar, which I think is the easiest way. Then click Edit event and you’ll see\u00a0right away that there’s a video call involved. Every one of them has a\u00a0hangout added to the meeting. So you fill out your information… all the times\u00a0are already there as well as\u00a0the date because you did a drag within the calendar to\u00a0create it.<\/p>\n

Then you can change the name of the meeting, because this is kind\u00a0of generic. It only accepts a certain amount of\u00a0characters. Make it unique to this meeting, and hit return.<\/p>\n

\"Change<\/a>
It’s important to change the name of the Hangout as there may end up being more than one with the generic name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then you go ahead and add\u00a0guests. The nice thing about hangouts nowadays is you can invite people from\u00a0the state and you can invite people from outside of the state. Go ahead and click Save.\u00a0Invite your guests.\u00a0Send invitations to\u00a0them, and now everyone who has this meeting or event within their calendar\u00a0can go to the Hangout.<\/p>\n

\"Adding<\/a>
These are the steps for adding people to your Hangout\/calendar event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you\u00a0click on the hangout link you\u00a0will see the below screen.\u00a0It will\u00a0open up a new window, and you’ll see yourself because\u00a0you’re the only one in there at first. It says, “you are the only one here. Ready\u00a0to join Tim’s project?” Go ahead and click join, and then if there’s somebody else\u00a0in the project their face will show up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click ‘join’ when you are ready to start or join the hangout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now you know how to use Google Hangouts! It’s an\u00a0extremely useful tool because it’s really nice to see people’s faces. It’s handy for\u00a0sharing documents and that sort of thing. Again. I want to thank Summer Wasson for\u00a0giving me the information and being the technical wizard that she is, and I want to thank you guys for watching episode number five of the\u00a0subject matter minute.\u00a0See you next time!<\/p>\n

Here is the full episode!<\/strong><\/p>\n