This evening at 10pm I had arranged with Allanah King and Jane Nicholls to try out The Open University's Flashmeeting videoconferencing tool.

I pre-booked a 1 hour introductory session to get things going. mainly we were trying to see how versatile the tool is and what it can do. It is a secure non-public meeting area. Within it you not only have audio but ( when the Macs allow!!!) video as well. When in the discussion you put your hand up to talk and join the queue, so it encourages turn taking. You can also use IM type chat and send urls to your partners. In addition there is a voting mechanism so that with a big group you could vote on proposals.

I think that this tool has huge potential and I know that it is being used widely by Universities and Schools within the UK to link with institutions in other countries for Modern Foreign Language teaching.

I must pass on my thanks to Stuart ( UK web 2.0 users Ning group) for his assistance in this trans-global link up.

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