Our last installment of the Afternoon Dessert series was just before Thanksgiving so I am trying to catch up now.
Nowadays students are not always living in the dorms or even in the same town when they are attending classes and with online classes, really they could be anywhere. We talked about several software programs that are available to faculty and students to bridge the communication gap and help with collaboration when email is not the answer.
Some of the tools we demonstrated and/or discussed were:
Instant Messaging (IM): There are lots of IM out there (Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, MSN Messenger and more). These programs allow you to chat with others in a real-time text based environment. Some of these programs also give you the ability to send files or talk via video and voice chat but many of them are only two-way (for only two people). If you have multiple accounts with different IM systems and you don’t want to have to log into each of them separately you can use programs like Trillian and Pidgin for a Windows and Adium for Mac OS. Just setup the program to access the different IM accounts you have and access all of them from one program.
Elluminate Live (vClass): This software gives you the ability to have a video, chat, share applications, transfer files, two-way audio and an interactive whiteboard. The free vRoom can only have three people participate at a time and it cannot be recorded. This is a great way to have office hours or encourage small groups to use it when working on a project. To get a free vRoom go to http://www.elluminate.com.
TTU has purchased a license to use the full version of Elluminate Live for courses on campus also. This version allows you to record your class sessions and you can even poll the class on certain questions inside the software. We have a limited classroom size of 30 seats (this includes the instructor). You can find out more or reserve seats for a class by going to http://www.tntech.edu/institute/elluminate.asp.
Dimdim: Free web conferencing that allows you to share you desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and use video with no download for the attendee. The free version allows you to have a room with up to 20 people participating. This program also gives you a phone number to call in case someone doesn’t have the ability to join in using a microphone on a computer. (www.dimdim.com)
Skype: Allows you to make calls from your computer to someone else’s computer for free. You can send files, have two-way video and multiple people talking as well as a chat window. It allows you to have two people with video feeds, but once more than two people are involved in the call the video feed will turn off. You can pay a small fee to call a landline or cell phone anywhere in the world. (www.skype.com)
OoVoo: Similar to skype in that you can call other computers or phone numbers but it also allows you to have multiple video feeds and you can record the call. (www.oovoo.com)
Scriblink: A free digital whiteboard that can be shared with others with no registration required. You can have private whiteboards, save the whiteboard, upload images, in-screen chat, VOIP conferencing and file transfer. (www.scriblink.com)
Zoho Meeting: A free version is only for one-on-one and includes web conferencing, remote assistance and online meetings. (www.zoho.com)
Any of these tools can be useful for students and faculty who are working on projects, research and anything else that requires collaboration of any kind. These are even helpful for a quick one-on-one meeting with a student or faculty member or just holding a help session online. The software that you will want to use depends on what you want to accomplish though. If you want multiple people to participate with video you will want to choose something that can support that like OoVoo. If you want to just share a PowerPoint presentation and you are not worried about video, then something like Elluminate or Dimdim would work just fine. If you use Gmail chat already, just download the newest plug-in for the google chat tool to allow voice and video.
If you find another program that we should let people know about, please comment on this post.
Filed under: Collaboration, Software | 1 Comment
Tags: Collaboration, Communication, Software
Thanks for including Elluminate in your list of collaborative tools for students and teachers. To get some ideas about how to use Elluminate in creative ways and to promote the adoption of the technology, visit our community resources area for two of our best practice briefs, “Top Ten Ways of Using Elluminate Live!” and “Top Ten Best Practices for Promoting Adoption of Elluminate Live!”
Keep on Elluminating!
- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication