My Web Conferencing Experience

As a member of Group 2 (Math & Tech) we had to meet twice for our “first web conferencing.” This was due to the fact that we all weren’t there the first time around.   It has been difficult for our group because we are on different time zones. I being on Pacific Time, two on Eastern Standardized Time, and one being on Mountain Time it made scheduling this meeting difficult.  The first time we met was on a Friday afternoon and the three of us that were able to get together talked for about 45 minutes and collaborative and bounced a ton of ideas around for the technology/teaching tool. However, we weren’t sure if we were on the right track and decided to do a little bit more researching. Though we met for a while we didn’t really get anywhere! Ha-ha... A group member ended up putting a poll together through Doodle to decide what times worked best for everyone, very wise and something we will continue to do. We ended up meeting again the following morning because we could ALL be present. We had our web conferencing through Google Hangout.  

Doodle Poll

YAY for Saturday AM! :)

Was there any awkward or surprising moments?

HA…of course, it was the first time we all met! Plus, I had never done any sort of web conferencing before and had never used Google Hangout.  Let’s just say the second time around was a lot easier because I had already seen two of them and had a better idea of how Google Hangout worked after learning and experimenting with it the day before. A lot of times when I get nervous, I try making people laugh and I did that a few times throughout our discussion to help ease the tension and still try and have fun while learning.   There was a time though that was awkward were everyone was discussing about creating a Google doc and typing stuff in and I couldn’t find it. I was going back to my Gmail and went to ‘My Drive’ on the tool bar…not realizing you could also create a Google doc through the hangout itself.  Google Hangout = Awesome! So… they all walked me through the steps.  A bit embarrassing, but I figured it out.  I’m learning here and enjoying it.  

Instant messaging, having face to face conversation and creating a document together!

Though we all agreed on Google Hangouts, there was a lot of software that our group considered. As a group we mentioned a lot of them in our discussion board.

Besides the tools we had learned in our lab exercise, we considered the following:

• ·         Meetingl
• ·         meetings.io
• ·         Vsee
• ·         Face Flow
• ·         Microsoft Lync
• ·         WebHuddle
• ·         Yugma
• ·         Google Hangouts---WINNER WINNER!!!

I think I am becoming a huge Google fan, I think most Google things seem to be pretty user friendly.   The nice thing about Google Hangouts  we could not only have video conferencing, but instant message between all of us, view documents, watch YouTube videos on things we were discussing, etc.  Google Hangouts required a Google account and a Google+ page which is free, no installation. This was another reason why we choose to use this resource considering we all had a Gmail account and didn’t need to have another password and username to remember, ha-ha…and it was free of course.  As of now, we still all agree to continue to use Google Hangouts for our future conferences.

This experience could be useful in any classroom, but for a mature class. Maybe the advanced students or even 11^th or 12^th graders.  Using Google Hangouts is a great tool.  I would say a huge benefit for all of it is the time-saving.  A group of students could be working on a project face to face through the computer and not have to drive to each other houses; they can be in all different locations just as long as they have Wi-Fi.  The method of communication through my experience with web conferencing is just as effective as a face to face conversation.   In addition, being able to text, communicate verbally, instant message, access the Internet, upload files etc…it is crazy that that’s even possible!  I think if I were to use this in my Algebra class I would assign a group project were they had to write a report about a mathematician and each contribute some part to the paper, prepare a PowerPoint presentation and maybe provide some examples of what that person contributed to the mathematics world.