Serendipity35

Maybe you have been exploring Google+ this summer and thinking about whether or not it has any applications for your classes.

Google+ is built to take you away from either Facebook or Twitter (or both), and it could do it, in time.

The live video chat feature is something that could be used for collaboration and you could create "Hangouts" for conferencing with students and "Circles" for classes or groups within a class.

If your school already uses Google Apps, there will be more and more ways to connect all these pieces.

Steven W. Anderson who does the blog at http://web20classroom.blogspot.com  has put together a LivBinder collection of links to resources on Understanding And Using Google+ In The Classroom And Beyond. (If you have never encountered LiveBinder, that's something you may want to explore also.)

If Google+ does eliminate the need for other services it might start with you NOT writing a blog post, emailing it or tweeting a link to it but simply using G+ to write it and then deciding how to share it. Make it "Public" and it's a blog post to the G+ world, direct it at a Circle (or Circles) and it's like a tweet.

Aim it at your class Circle and it's a post with a discussion below it. Direct it to one friend and it's email.

If you aren't using any social media tools already you may want to a) jump in now with G+ and have all the tools  b) continue to stay anti-social.  If you are already using the other tools for classes, I would think you'd want to start experimenting with G+ and compare the experience.