The web-conference was very difficult to coordinate. One
member of my group was unavailable all weekend because he had gone out of town
for his son’s hockey game and the other member is in Belgium. In order to meet
the (original) deadline, Wouter and I met at 4pm EST on Sunday. We used Vyew
since it was free and seemed to have more features than the other free
services.
The conference itself was fine. We were able to use the chat
function, Webcam, and microphones to communicate. We played around with the
poll/quiz function, desktop sharing, screenshots, and downloading the
recording. The main pitfalls were technical issues. One, my microphone seemed
to have a really long lag. I would
say something and it would take 5-10 seconds before it could be heard. The
other issue was the screenshot and desktop sharing functions. Although, they
were functional, they slowed down both of our computers a lot. It took awhile
for both to even start. In terms of what we would have done differently (or for
our next web conference), it would probably be helpful to organize the
information more on the screen. Putting different features on different “pages”
could do this. The only drawback to this is it would be important that everyone
be on the same page.
For elementary classroom use, we had difficulty thinking of
ways it would be appropriate to use. Video conferencing (like with Skype) has
been useful because it has allowed classes to go on virtual field trips, have
pen pals that go beyond written letters, and have presentations from experts
that may otherwise be unavailable. For elementary school though, there are less
possibilities for web-conferencing that relies on a shared workspace. One thing
that could work is if students had pen pals or buddies, they could share their
writing via a web-conference. The students could help each other peer-revise/edit
their writing through this conference.
Sounds like your group had a great time checking out Vyew's tools and its work environment=8-). One of the things I'm curious about whether or not you were able to record the meeting. In the past, Vyew required users to use Screencast-O-Matic to capture the meeting. Just asking because your group might want to double check this before you meet for the small group brainstorming session, just to be on the safe side. I loved your ideas for using web conferencing with your students. I've used Skype in the past with my students to visit with our sister schools. I can see teachers eventually using conferencing tools to extend the classroom into the homes of students who have a long term illness that necessitates their missing school for long periods of time. Thoughts?
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