Have you heard the excitement about Google Plus? Even though Google Plus is still a very young player in the arena of social networking, it is maturing quickly and trying to compete with Facebook.

For the past few years, schools have been doing their best to use Facebook for various types of activities: communication with parents, awareness of their existence, and contacting alumni for fundraising. Now with Google Plus on the scene, what are some of the ways schools can make the most out of Google Plus?

Circles
The design of Google Plus is great. Circle’s approach to grouping social connections pushes social networking into more of a tool and less of a public forum. Circles will work great for communication with parents or students. It would also be great for teachers to communicate with each other, as well as communicate with students, parents, and the Conference Office, without making everything public.

Video Hangouts
‘Hangout’ doesn’t sound very professional. It sounds like what your students do on a Saturday evening. However, Hangouts are great for videoconferencing! You can stay in touch with the Conference Office, attend meetings with other schools, as well as conduct off-site meetings.

Google Apps
Google already has a host of great tools. Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar are some of the tools that are used by some schools on a regular basis. For some, it has become the backbone application suite!
Google Apps doesn’t have its own version of Google Plus, yet. There is talk that it will be made available in the coming months. There have also been some hints about creating a full set of meeting tools that include video and voice conferencing, screen and document sharing, as well as a whiteboard feature.

Now What?
Google Plus is very new and looks very promising. Google Plus already provides enough features to make it a viable communication tool for schools, and with more powerful functions to come, Google Plus is looking to become even more functional.

However, if you’re thinking about creating a Google Plus page for your school you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer.
Google’s Bradley Horowitz said, “Let me be clear – and I’m sorry if this wasn’t obvious – we are not currently supporting brands, organizations, and non-human entities in the Google+ field trial.”

But, according to NETT, Google is about two weeks away from allowing organizations to set up official pages. As soon as Google Plus announces that you can set up a page for your school, PET will let you know!

What ways will your school make the most out of Google Plus?