Web Conferences

 I participated in the first web conference to be sure my laptop webcam and headset were working properly.  I was able to enter the room, activate my camera, mute my mic, and participate in the chat.  There were problems with speaker feedback into microphones. After all microphones were muted, the conference proceeded and I felt confident I could repeat the process during the 2nd required conference.

Jan 25, 2012

My confidence was shattered as I tried to log into the room the next time, and was not successful.  I received  a message indicating my credentials had expired and ‘it’ would not allow me to enter the room.

After many attempts and with time running out, I quickly opened Mozilla.  I was able to connect and enter the room with 5 minutes to spare.  It was a stressful experience, however,  I was able to relax and close the door of my little room to keep the barking dogs from disturbing the process.  I began to scan the names of people in the room, and I discovered Mary Angel was already in the room!  I was Mary Angel 2 (on Firefox).   I quickly closed out the IE version and reduced the number of Mary Angels to 1.

With my microphone muted, I watched 15 faces of my cohort26 group.  We are a very diverse group and I am looking forward to forming long lasting bonds with many of them.

As I am more comfortable blogging, I can visualize using this in a classroom.  I  also see blogging as a communication tool for a committee on which I serve.  We are working on a project to lobby for change in language in an existing bill to include accessibility for K-12 education.  Because we live and work in all parts of the city, meetings are difficult to plan.  In order to increase communication and decrease the need to meet face to face, we are sharing documents and information in Dropbox.  However, collaboration may be easier on a blog.   Because I am gaining experience in this process, I am more comfortable with the tool. Next meeting, I  will revisit the idea with the committee.