Florida Virtual Schools Uses Elluminate Software

Screenshot of Elluminate Live

More and more school districts are coming up with unique ways to bring learning to the Web. Florida Virtual Schools, the website where any Florida student can take classes online, tries to make the online classroom more social and they do that with Elluminate. Elluminate Live is a software that allows the teacher or administrator give interactive slideshows and quizzes to the group of people attending. Students can activate a web camera, microphone, or use the chat box to talk with teachers and other students. Many classes require you to complete at least one “collaboration assignment” with Elluminate.

I think that using online conferencing tools for the online classroom is a wonderful idea, but it’s poorly executed. Taking classes that require collaboration myself, it gets annoying to wait for people’s technical difficulties, everyone to calm down, and for people to behave. Just because it’s not the physical classroom doesn’t mean that no rules apply! Many students draw on the PowerPoint slides, put emoticons in the chat boxes, and use “texting abbreviations.” Online conferencing can be a good thing, but in the hands of teenagers, it can cause more problems that it fixes.

Online conferencing for Obama’s inauguration – January 20th

Online history being made by Obama

Here’s a quick list of the best spots to watch Obama’s inauguration online on January 20th:

• Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies – closed captioned and flash required. The site has a wealth of information about what happens on Inauguration Day, including a handful of inaugural videos dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1957 swearing-in ceremony, as well as videos of presidential luncheons dating back to the inauguration of John Kennedy. (It also reveals, for those interested, the recipe for Obama’s luncheon meal, which features a main course of pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney.)

•  CBS News will have day-long live coverage January 20 on TV and the Web, starting at 7 a.m. EDT. Katie Couric will also host a special Webcast that night with reporters and punditry, for which viewers can submit questions during the webcast.

•  CBS streaming coverage will also be Webcast on Joost’s Everything Obama page, which also features interviews, campaign highlights, and satire clips.

•  MSNBC will be streaming the historical event on its home page and politics section, and users can embed the video into their own sites and social pages. Its inauguration page also features videos of inaugurations from decades past.

•  If a computer screen seems too small for such a momentous moment, there’s always the option of heading to a movie theater–or a Starbucks. At MSNBCEvents.com, the cable network is distributing free tickets to screenings of the inauguration in movie theaters in 21 cities (what a bargain instead of $10 a ticket for a normal movie). MSNBC is also partnering with Starbucks to

Reviewed FreeConference.com, a free online conference tool!

So I had another online meeting with some clients this past week and decided to test out the beta test program of SharePlus desktop sharing application from FreeConference.com.  I’m sure the owner of the software hopes that I would use the phone # they provided for the meeting since this is how they make their money.  But, being the cheapskate I am, I opted to use Skype for my phone connection.  inot feel like paying 10 cents a minute per caller to use their online 800 phone # for the conference.  They did have the option for a long distance dial in # but I wasn’t sure if they meant long distance to Canada or in the US so I avoided it.

The conference setup interface was relatively painless and my clients had no problems setting up from their end.  The one thing my clients noticed is that they couldn’t see my mouse pointer while sharing my desktop and the screen seemed to lag behind about 4 seconds, more than WebEx had in the past. One cool feature with this tool is that they can send you a SMS texct message to remind you before your conference starts.  It costs .45 cents but that’s pocket change for must of us to be reminded through our cellphone.

I really had nothing to lose when I tested this free online meeting program since these clients

Free Online Conference tool now out…take that WebEx

FreeConference.com

Has anyone heard of freeconference.com?  These guys allow you to not only call into a  dedicated # for free  for your conference but also you can share your desktop for free (for a limited time only, currently in beta).  If you want to check them out, click here.  Sign up is incredibly easy with these guys.  I can’t wait to test them out over the next conference call.

Here’s some more info on them: