Google+ Hangouts can provide teachers and students with some great ways to connect. Teachers can use G+ Hangouts to take students on virtual field trips, to connect with expert speakers, or to connect with other classrooms in a digital penpal environment. Students can use it to connect with each other to host online peer tutoring sessions.

Recently, Google removed the need for the Hangouts plugin in the Chrome web browser. This isn’t a major update to Hangouts, but it is a helpful update. As long as you’re using the latest version of the Chrome web browser you won’t need to install anything to host or participate in a Google+ Hangout.