Google’s fast iteration on Meet continues with a series of upcoming new features for education customers. One particular highlight for Google Meet “in the coming months” is the return of YouTube livestreams.
The Meet updates start with increasing safety and security for education users. A “video lock” will allow hosts to turn off everyone’s video feed immediately to “quickly prevent distractions.” They will also have the option to force breakout room participants back into the main call. Lastly, teachers will be able to mute and end meetings for everyone, as well as access other safety controls, from mobile. This capability is already live on iOS and coming to Android “in a few months.”
The Meet integration in Classroom will see all teachers become hosts by default as students will have to sit in a waiting room if the organizer has yet to join. Support for multiple hosts is also coming to all call types.
Google also touts the updates to hand raise so that “teachers can more easily see and hear who raised their hands.”
People who raise their hands will show up in the grid and there will be a persistent notification so you can see how many people raised their hands and in what order. Once a student with a raised hand is done talking, their hand will automatically lower.
An upcoming premium feature for Google Workspace’s Education Plus tier or the Teaching and Learning upgrade is live translated captions. This will let you listen to one language and read another in real-time.
This is especially helpful in multilingual classrooms and when meeting with parents who speak a different language.
Google Meet livestreams, which will soon support closed captioning, can soon be made public over YouTube. This feature was previously limited to internal domains, but a feature “coming this year” will basically bring back “Hangouts on Air.” Google is currently targeting it for school events and board meetings “in the coming months.”
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