Two Nights, Two Web Conferences

Once again, I have been exposed to a computer technology that I knew existed but had never used until this week. The potential for using web conferencing in conjunction with distance education classes is great. It can be used to bring students and instructors together in a more personal manner than traditional threaded discussions. As an instructor, I can see myself using web conferencing as part of Internet-based distance learning courses.

I was fortunate to have been able to participate in two very different types of web conferences over the past several days. The first occurred on Thursday evening and was initiated and hosted by Amanda. She chose to use Central Desktop. In addition to Amanda and myself, Mike, Kimberly, and Doug participated. The forum we used was centered around a Wiki, where each of us (once added to the group by Amanda) could participate in building the Wiki. The conference included an instant message component, audio via telephone, and the ability to give control of the desktop to each of the participants. The participant controlling the desktop could display items from their own computer. This experience was quite similar to the demonstration of Gotomeeting provided by Professor Morriss in his Distance Education class.

My second experience occurred last night with Veronica on Skype. Veronica initiated this conference and chose Skype as the provider. The conference consisted of a real-time audio and video discussion between the two of us. To participate in this type of conference, participants must have a microphone and webcam. The quality of both the audio and video was excellent, with no delay or "stutter" of either.

The benefits and capabilities of each of these two types of web conferencing providers are very different, but both certainly have a place in the virtual classroom. Of the two, I liked the Skype conference the most. It was extremely easy to use and required little preparation. The Central Desktop program contains a lot of features and does require more time to learn how to successfully navigate through its features.

I also found an interesting paper on the web about the future of web conferencing in education. It was written by Barbara Schroeder of Boise State University. It is published by Microsoft and does contain a sales pitch for their Live Meeting 2007 software, but also contains good information on this topic. The web address is

http://www.microsoft.com/education/highered/whitepapers/conferencing/WebConferencing.aspx