Like much of the country, we have snow again in Wales and this has brought home to me (once more) the potential of a technology that I have been using quite a lot lately – web conferencing … virtual classrooms … online, realtime, desktop communication tools … whatever you choose to call them. Elluminate, Adobe Connect, Go to Meeting, Instant Presenter, Access Grid, Evo, DimDim, vYew, Big Blue Button and Skype are just a few of the tools that are currently available. Some are free, some are paid for and some can be a mix of both. I will blog in more detail about the range of tools at a later date but for now more can be found here: www.delicious.com/helen.hodges/webconferencing.

Web conferencing technology is great for connecting (in real time) with those who are in different locations or even time zones, unable to travel because of time, cost, disability, weather or any number of other factors. These type of tools enable you, amongst other things, to hear, talk, see (if you have a webcam/video), text chat and share presentations, documents, video and webpages with colleagues, fellow online event attendees or even learners … all from the comfort of your own desk!

The recent JISC online conference, Innovating eLearning 2010 , used web conferencing technology (Elluminate) to deliver the live, real-time part of the conference. Sarah Knight, from JISC said, “For the first time, all sessions at Innovating e-Learning 2010 took place in Elluminate to provide a ‘live’ conference experience alongside asynchronous discussions. Delegates enjoyed the variety this offered“. I was one of those delegates, who contributed to the asynchronous discussion about this by saying, “Personally I am really enjoying the choice that this online conference is giving me … the choice to watch live or view later … the choice to read the chat and either join in or ignore it … although I like the fact that is it there because it makes me feel as though I am in the same ‘room’ as the others.” From JISC’s point of view the online conference was a success because of the variety of live sessions it could offer and the number of people (475 people from 11 countries)  it reached and will continue to reach, once the recordings of the live sessions are shared publicly in the new year. Would a face to face conference have been able to achieve the same thing, at the same cost, I wonder?

We, at JISC RSC Wales, like many people, are looking at different ways of delivering our face to face support, namely events based around information giving, experience sharing and discussion opportunities about technology and education. Everyone has less time and money to attend face to face events and we are all concerned about cutting our travel (due to cost and impact on the environment) too. Our solution (after much research and practice) is our new ‘Lunchtime Bytes’ series of online events, which aim to deliver (via Elluminate) bite sized chunks of information in real time to you at your desk, in an interactive way. We have learnt  many lessons about using this type of media to deliver something that in the past we would have delivered face to face, the main one being that it isn’t the same as face to face delivery BUT it can be equally as effective! Over the next few months we will be sharing what we have found out and know about using this type of technology for delivering sessions, via our blog, our next roadshow (Advance and Enhance – classroom, distance and mibile learning)  and also a  ‘Connect & participate’ Lunchtime Byte dedicated to web conferencing. For more details about our past and future Lunchtime Bytes, visit our online information area, which as well as giving details about the online sessions also stores recordings of those that have already happened … http://moodle.rsc-wales.ac.uk/lunchtimebytes

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 5:17 pm and is filed under elearning, eteaching, web conferencing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.