For our group's web-conferencing trial run, we used anymeeting.com. Overall, the program was very easy to use. Before we met, I scheduled a meeting and invited my group members by sending them the link to our web meeting. Once we logged on, we were all able to all see each other and clearly hear each other talk. We also used the chat section to write down some of the ideas we were coming up with, next time, I would like to also use the "poll" section as an easy way for each person to vote for which idea they like the best. I was easily able to get the screencast to work so that my other group members could look at my screen as I explored some of the websites we were talking about during our conference. I recorded our web-conference and have included the link here:
http://www.anymeeting.com/barness/EB54DE898848
Web-conferencing would be useful in my classroom because it would be a great alternative for having conferences with parents who might not be able to make it in person. The parents could meet with me at any time using a web conference and I would still be able to talk with them face to face through the computer screen!
Great idea! Another one that popped into my mind involves students who have a serious illness that keeps them away from school. The teacher could have the student join the class via web cam. That way the youngster doesn't feel left out and out of contact with his classmates. I've used Skype to video chat with two of the schools participating in my global writing project. My students loved being able to ask our friends in New York questions.
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