Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi Folks,

Since I am always on the look-out for new and better ways to teach online with a webcam, I have been looking at web conferencing tools. Toby Ung (who has a new baby - Congratulations Toby!) has put together a great site for online teaching.

If anybody would like to try out webconferencing tools, please email me. Late Sunday afternoon my time is best for me - say 5:00pm EST (GMT-5). I would like to try out some of the tools listed on Toby's Cafe at

http://www.tobyscafe.com/eslandtechnolo ... cing/7.htm

I am particuarly interested in the tools listed in the software review such as www.gotomeetin.com and www.sightspeed.com

Both of these applications have session recording functions.

Take care,
Kathy

Hi Everybody,

Thanks to those of you who were able to join me on Sunday. I am sorry I did not put my email address on the post - forcing folks to go to considerable trouble to look it up from other posts. Please know for future messages that you can always PM (private message) me from the forum. Also, my Skype and MSN user ID's are kfelts. You can put me on your contact list and send me a message asking me to add your name to my contact list. Please be sure to send me a message introducing yourself so that I will add you. Sometimes I get messages from people asking me to add them as contacts, but I cannot do that unless I know the purpose of the contact.


This is what we learned about SightSpeed:


1. It is a great program if it is compatible with your camera and your
computer can run it.
2. It is not compatible with all cameras. Check the camera compatibility
list to make sure that your camera is on the list.
3 Installlation crashed one computer. The computer owner admitted that
her computer was a little tempermental. She had a hard time
uninstalling the program, and she had to work quickly to uninstall the
program before it crashed her computer on start-up. She was finally
successful when she ignored the message that her computer had
encountered a serious problem and had to shut down. Instead, she
went straight to Add/Remove programs and uninstalled the program.
Although she was never able to use the program, at least it did not
cause any further problems.

4. You do not need to give credit card info for the demo. I think this is
very important. I wanted to try out Gotomeeting, but decided not to
since it asks for credit card info.

The great thing about the program is that it includes so many useful features: video and audio recording of the session, whiteboard, application sharing, VIOP, and video. For a small additional fee, you can add more users on the video.

I would also like to report on two other pieces of software I have tried and liked. The first is VWHO, which can be used to link video for up to 9 users. It is free and has very low bandwidth requirements. Just Google the name to find its current location. The video is surprisingly good and the program is easy to use. It does not have audio, so you need to use it with MSN, Skype, or some other VIOP.

The next piece of software is Unyte, which allows application sharing and annotation. Anything that you have on your computer (including what is in your Internet browser) can be shared with others. I really like Unyte, because I sometimes have trouble with application sharing with MSN, and Skype alone does not have the capability to share applications.

If you visit the sites and want to try out any of the above, you will quickly see why I wanted to start the Sunday afternoon group - you need someone to try these things out with - you can't really do it alone. Having a group together means that everyone can share info and ideas.

As always, I only try out software and talk about it in these posts in an effort to share info. I don't promote anybody's anything for money or favors.

If anyone has ideas about what to try out, please email me at [email protected]. A virus ate my PPT on my experience teaching online, but I am thinking about recording a session to share with folks who would like to see what it looks like. Just drop me a line and I will put you on the list. Of course I will not use a young student - I will ask a teacher to help.

Good luck,
Kathy Felts

Hi Kathy,

I know what you mean about sightspeed. Also the monthly fee involved if you want mulitiple users can be off putting.

I am currently developing a new elearning system which will be intergrated with a proffessional web conferencing system and would you (or any other teachers) be interested in testing it. Currently it supports up to 16 users in a session however when it is deployed we will probably limit this to 6 + teacher. Some of the other features such as file upload and storage will also have to be limited to reduce bandwidth usage. We will however retain the full white board functionality as it is such an important tool with language teaching.

The system is due for launching in the late autumn and is will be freely distributed for teachers to use with their students (no ads either!). If you would like to give it a go please email me at [email protected].

We will also be looking for teachers to test our learning platform so again let me know if you are interested.

Richard

www.sie-group.com

P.S. It is obon in Japan at the mo so I will be out of my office all next week, but will try to check my email from time to time.

Hi Folks,

Since webcam teaching and all of the issues relating to it are so complicated and specific to the field, I decided to start a forum so that interested parties can talk about it without taking up so much of Dave's storage. I have been doing this work for two years and it is still in its infancy, but I think that things are finally starting to happen. While the forum will not have any ads, I encourage vendors who have software and hardware they would like to introduce, to tell us about it - in the proper place. I think all of us would like to see people who are selling something to be honest about what they are doing. That said, I also know that developers of websites and products put their life's blood - and often a good bit of money - into ideas that will never pay off for them financially, but which later serve as stepping stones for the rest of us.

One note to folks who are thinking about teaching online - consider the following:

The direction webcam teaching is going in will be to be controlled by price, which means that we will soon be talking a lot about teaching group classes. You can be sure that to do a good job with a highly interactive class is a lot harder than teaching in a classroom. If you have just had a new baby, this is not going to be a way to make a little extra cash. Your computer skills have to be EXCELLENT to do this kind of work in an interactive environment. You have to be computer literate and comfortable with both the hardware and the software (neither of which I think is satisfactory at this point). You have to be patient and you have to be able to work under stress. I think that we will see a division of labor start to take place, as well. There will be work for developers, instructional teachnology folks, graphic designers, and video specialists and programers. My background is in educational TV and radio and I see a future when classes will have much more of a "produced" feel to them. Rght now I am looking for a local teacher to do a segment of teaching songs - nothing else - just songs. I think we will see teachers who specialize in art, music, cooking, and the content areas of science, social studies and math - all in the service of teaching English. Exceptional education for the deaf, for kids with learning disabilities - it is all possible on the Interent.

That said, I know that there area a lot of great, creative, talented people who are fantastic when it comes to developing good online content. The truth is, most of what is on the Interent now are labors of love. We need more good content, as well as good ideas about instructional delivery, student motivation, and curriculm design. One of the primary purposes of the forum is to give folks a place to put their heads together.

Finally, I think that a sense of belonging and community are so important in language teaching - and in life. The forum will also be a plce for kids and parents to talk about the issues they see. I have forums for kids to share online in a protected environment. My next step is to create a collaborative mulitilingual online newspaper/magazine for kids.

So come on over and post - there is nothing to read until you write. Ask questions, offer ideas, look for information - at
www.eslwebcamforkids.com/forum/

Take care,
Kathy