Our zany two-location workshop is tomorrow -- I'd love it if all the certificate candidates could join us! If not, we will, I hope, record it, at least from the Elluminate end. It starts at 1:00 in OC4607 and Elluminate.
The idea is to explore a method for collecting all those wonderful journal articles, web pages, and mailing lists, annotate them, and store them where you can find them again. Even arrange resources on a nice page for yourself and your students. Our tools will include Diigo and Netvibes.
Hello, everyone! I wanted to let you know that if you did not get a chance to view the workshop I did on Friday, but want to check it out, the link is now available for the recorded session. This is what was posted at the http://mccpot.org/wp/ site.
April 9, 2:30-3:30 pm — (please note new time!) online sessionConnections in Online Classes Session leader Laura Paciorek writes: Since I started teaching online, I have been exploring the idea of how to connect with students in an online environment. There are six types of connections that I strive to facilitate in my classes. This workshop will highlight those six types of connections and some strategies that may work in fostering those connections. A brief literature review about connections in online courses will be shared as a part of this presentation. Elluminate Recording is here and PowerPoint slides are here. Help us out! If you watch this recording, please do the survey! POT certificate designation OT100: Online Pedagogy
After playing more extensively with both Skype and TokBox (along with Lisa, Lousia, Jim, Jill, and Pilar) we learned that when there are three or more participating:
Use Skype for the audio, and Tokbox for the video.
The audio quality of Skype is great, and Tokbox's ability to display up to 20 people simultaneously is impressive.
Why not just Skype? It will only handle 1-to-1 video conferencing. Though a Skype plugin has been developed by ViVu for multi-party video conferencing - at a cost of around $10 a month.
Why not Just Tokbox? If there are more than two participants, the audio feedback becomes something awful. Though a neat trick around this problem is to have each person (except for the one talking) to be muted.
What if there are just two participants for the video conference? If you both have Skype, it works the best! If not, Tokbox is fine in a pinch.
Three or more participants... then consider using both Skype (voice) and Tokbox (visual). Both programs are free, and only Skype needs to be downloaded.
I video conference two or three times a week - almost always an informal family conversation where we get to see and talk with each other. With family spread throughout the U.S., video conferencing is a nice way to stay close.
I recently discovered TokBox, which allows up to 20 people to video conference together. Wow! No downloads either, it runs in the browser window using Flash; works well with Windows and Mac. The person starting the conference call needs to have a TokBox account, which is easy to create and simply requires an actual e-mail account. I gave an e-mail address that I actually use, for reasons mentioned further down. Everyone else participating in the conversation simply needs the URL to join (+ webcam), and they are in!
I'd rate the fun factor as high, video and sound quality as ok, and ease of use as excellent.
In addition to synchronous video conferencing, TokBox can also be used to send and receive video e-mails. A url is provided that you can put on your webpage - anyone clicking on it is taken to a screen where they can click on the 'record' button to start their video message, and the 'stop' button when done. These video messages can be up to 10 minutes in length. If you provide your actual e-mail address (versus an e-mail account you just use for 'sign-up' and junk mail)... then when someone leaves you a video message, you are notified.
Teachers of foreign language, sign language, music, and public speaking could all use this tool for synchronous online video conferencing - and likely others also. And if you do - please comment on how it works.
I look to use it for a family video get together - going beyond just video conferencing with only one other family - to include three of four. My most recent use of TokBox was record my son as he read - so that when mom came back home, she could check up on him... He enjoyed the opportunity, and watch the video with us later - a record now of his reading ability.
If you get the chance, check it out. For a brief overview, view the short video overview provided below:
In learning about Tokbox I came across a blog by Nik Peachey. He covers several web 2.0 apps (including this one). I highly recommend you check out his blog.
Yesterday evening I explored hosting office hours using Google Wave. I was up until 12:30AM. It was way past my bedtime, but I was having too much fun exploring Google Wave.
It is easy to include apps into a google wave, such as a WhiteBoard and Conference Calling. In addition, Google Wave's natural strengths (e.g., wikki, discussion board, instant messaging; plus abilitity to insert video) make it a power platform for hosting online office hours.
How would students join the online office hour? First, they would have to have a Google Wave account (free). The wave could be made public, students could ping the instructor to join, the entire class(es) could be added to the wave using Google groups, or perhaps in the future a url could be given out that allows participation.
What other features would be helpful for online office hours? Share your comments below.
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