A couple of weeks back I posted the following question to my classmates in my ETEC 590 course: “What tech tools do you use to support your PLN?”  Twitter seemed to be the number one response, everyone who responded acknowledged that they were on Twitter. Others mentioned twitter aggregators and RSS managers. But three other interesting responses that I had not really considered came up and I wanted to take a moment over the next couple of days to give you a little bit more insights into these tools – Nings (thanks Joy) and Google+ Circles and Hangouts (thanks Kenton).

I thought I would keep it simple to start and focus on G+ hangouts. I had never heard of these before, I must confess and wasn’t sure I would be interested since “hanging out” isn’t something I really do professionally.

Turns out G+ hangouts (G+ means Google plus) is an alternative to Skype.

Early on in my weblog I posted a mind map outlining the current state of my PLN. I did note my use of Skype at that time. What I am gathering is Google Hangouts is a ramped up version of Skype.  Personally, I like Skype. What I don’t like is that I have to pay if I want to video chat with more than one person at a time. (Apparently something that is free in G+.) So, for group work in Skype,  if no one in the group has updated their account, you are limited to audio, and text only.  Really, this hasn’t been a problem for me thus far. To be honest, if I am chatting with colleagues or fellow classmates from the comfort of my living room (at the end of a long day) I kind of prefer the “no video” option! (-:

Here is a good summary breaking down the differences between Google Hangouts and Skype, although it is a blatantly bias comparison.  I am gathering that the poster is a digital native (essentially someone who had grown up with technology). The reason I make this assumption is digital natives are much more comfortable with, and often demand, tools that facilitate multitasking.  In this case, the author is pleased with the ability to play a game and chat with friends at the same time. I tried to find a counter argument as well, just to keep it as fair as possible.

Whichever way you choose to go really doesn’t matter. For me, I will stick with Skype simply because it has worked for me thus far and as I have mentioned before, I really don’t like all of my eggs in one digital basket (in this case Google). So for me, I am sticking with Skype. But, if you haven’t set yourself up with a conferencing tool I HIGHLY recommend you do so. Chances are, you will need/want to network with colleagues – whether they be in your district, or across the world. A conferencing tool is a must have in the PLN toolkit.

I would be negligent here if  I did not mention Facetime as another conferencing options for those of you with apple products.
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