Web Conferencing

If I sound like I'm repeating myself please forgive me :)

Screenshot of our Vyew web conference

I tried to explore and sign-up for the web conferencing resources listed in our explore exercise and play around with them a bit before we met as a group.  As you can see in the screenshot above, Yvew gives you the ability to share a document.  My biggest problem with the document sharing function was that you couldn't actually edit the document while conferencing (or if you could we didn't see it).  While you could add comments (like the one to the right) one of the main reasons for web conferencing could be for collaboration and you'd want the ability to edit a document as a group.


I did like the set-up of all the information on the screen and the adds didn't bother me too much.  At the top right you could view people who were utilizing the webcam option and the quality was pretty good with only a few flutters in the video and audio.  All three of us were listed as moderators which gave us the ability to use all the functions, which can lead to audio problems as we quickly found out!  Multiple mics in operation leads to echos.  If I had to find a silver lining for this problem it would be that I ended up hearing every comment three times so I must understand everything said!  The chat feature allowed us to communicate with whomever had the mic, which was useful after our echo problem :)


All in all this was a successful attempt at a web conference.  As I've stated before, it seemed more of a hassle setting up everything and getting everything to work right.  We spent more time on set-up than we did actually discussing anything.  


I've used web conferencing before with the robotics organization I'm involved with.  With having nine events across the state of Michigan conferencing allows us to meet together and share information.  I've also been in several Master's level classes where part or all of the class was taught online utilizing Blackboard which in its basic form is a web conferencing tool.  I like that web conferencing gives a classroom the ability to meet outside of a physical school building.  I could see myself using it as a tool for extended office hours so I don't have to be limited to my building and students don't have to be limited by my schedule to come to get help or tutoring.  The students could also use web conferencing such as we did in CEP 812 to collaborate on a project.