On an e-journey with generation Y

Interested teachers from Australia and NZ who follow twitter, met for the second time last Sun evening. The first meeting was very informal and last night’s session was hosted by Simon Brown or @skytrystjoy. @sujokat started us all off and it is a great way to make connections and share and discuss various issues. First JoeDale from the Isle of Wight talked us through the sections of flashmeeting and then we tended to divert and discuss student blogs.

Evaluation of flashmeeting as an online conference tool.

• It allows all members in the meeting to have video projection, which elluminate, skype and other tools do not. Skype only works between two parties.
• There is an interactive whiteboard and it allows sharing of applications.
• My age is showing as I fear I am going deaf and blind. The tabs were really small and extremely difficult to read. @gkat talked us through the method of increasing the size of the chat text but we still had to find the tab that allowed us to text chat.
• My video camera did not work, despite logging in and out twice. It works on skype and msn so I will have to test it before the next session.
• However, the quality of the video and sound was good, although personal settings on microphones need to be adjusted as we nearly ‘jumped’ out of our seats at times when someone else started talking. Some were too soft.
• can interupt the broadcaster, but that is considered rude unless some emergency develops. Otherwise you wait in a queue to have your turn to speak.

However, with consistent use, further advantages of using this software will be evident and despite all the learners in the room, we all managed to communicate.