Today's Newsletter: Consumer Google+ is Shutting Down - What Does that Mean for Education?

With Google’s announcement on Monday that it will be sunsetting consumer Google+, citing a data breach and low usage, many in the consumer world simply shrugged. After all, Google cites that 90% of Google+ user sessions lasted less than five seconds, so few should be affected, right? However, with 70 million+ schools using G Suite for Education, many educators are now left searching for alternate social media platforms to connect with their peers from around the globe. Take Josh Fisher, who designs teaching materials for K-12 math classes, who built a Google+ community of over 20,000 members to share the “nuts-and-bolts kind of stuff about teaching math, research, and curriculum” or Thomas Ho, a K-12 educator from Indianapolis, who said G Suite and G+ “pretty much go hand-in-hand.” Not everyone is worried, however. Richard Byrne of Free4Teachers writes, “Unless you were using a consumer Google+ account today's news doesn't mean much other than to serve as a reminder to change your passwords regularly. If you are using Google+ on a regular basis, you'll need to start transitioning your social media activity to something like Facebook groups.” How has this news affected your school? Let us know @techlearning - Christine Weiser, Content Director