If you click the EdTech Roundup link above it will take you to the Sunday (21st September) evening Flashmeeting discussion between a group of dedicated UK educators - also here. The discussion was linked around a series of WOW's of the week where particpants explained some of the tools that they are currently using in their classrooms in particular in this show a discussion between the merits of Edmodo ( thanks Jose) and Yammer for secure microblogging. Utterli , Flowgram and Bussu ( for mfl teachers *)also cropped up in conversation. This is weeks discussion was once again ably lead by Doug Belshaw ably assisted by Lisa Stevens the wiki pixie. In the morning I had joined the late night Oz teachers Flashmeeting ably lead by Simon Brown and Sue Tapp with local colour and humour supplied by the ever resourceful Dean Groom

Investigating web conferencing applications (updated 8th May)

This morning I got to test out live the dimdim web conferencing application which went live earlier this month, following a long period of beta testing. The reason for the test is that currently in our online professional development environment which is a Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. We currently use a 'wimba' tool called 'Virtual Live Classroom' for synchronous online teacher training. Wimba tools are built to fit into the Moodle environment, and Live Classroom enables the online mentor to their share their desktop environment and files with participants.

However the past year has seen the growth and development in this area, dimdim is an open source application ( runs from browser either standalone or from within a VLE) which allows :

• video conferencing
• desk top sharing
• File sharing - powerpoint and pdf
• an interactive whiteboard ( which can be locked)

The dimdim environment is very easy on the eye and non threatening to participants, it appears to work smoothly with file transfer note being too delayed. There is a limit of 20 people per room which is probably enough for most general uses. We were very impressed with the look of the interface, the only problem that we hit was that pdf files were re sized to the landscape rectangular main window which made the pdf's very difficult to read - especially as we use pupils assessment material which is often handwritten.

Other applications that are of merit are :

The Gong Project from Hong Kong University of science and Technology - they have an additional snazzy tool that I might try out called 'nanogong!'

Unfortunately in the literature the Gong Project does own up to the fact that there is a lag in audio due to all audio routing through their servers in Hong Kong however you can run it from your own servers ( at a price I guess)...

WiZIQ which allows quite a range of file and flash sharing, it allows more people in a room, it is a free application as well and is being developed, having changed technology from Adobe Flash to Adobe Flex recently.Another web conferencing application that I have used before, as part of the 'When Night Falls again' session of K12Online 07 is of course Elluminate.

Elluminate has great application sharing capabilities, including desktop sharing and breakout rooms- of course it is not free ( the V Room for 3 participants is however if you wan to give it a go) but again has Moodle integration as do the others above. It requires a download which some of the others do not - but is much more powerful with more features ( it depends how many of them you actually use!)
I have long been a fan and advocate of Flashmeeting a UK based web conferencing application as many people will know.


Flashmeeting is good as a standalone web conferencing application again requiring no download - it is limited to either a whiteboard session or web cam session but you cannot toggle between each as far as I am aware with ease - it is easy to use and uses a small amount of bandwidth as only 1 person can talk at a time. Unfortunately Flashmeeting doesn't stack up against the newer and more capable competition quite as well as expected - it scores on its simplicity which going back to the beginning dimdim seems to have matched to some extent.
It all comes down to looking at your priorities, how do you plan to run your online classroom, what tools are essential to the environment and for us and others how are they integrated into VLE's - you pay your money ( unless its a free open source of course!) and make your choice, one thing is for sure the applications here are only a step along the way and this year there are undoubtedly others out there waiting to give us greater scope in online learning.

Following a comment from Andrew at Mikogo, which you will find here I was pointed towards another open source application called Mikogo It looks cool though as yet I have not tried it out - will do over the weekend - Wow how many more will appear??
One more to make a late appearance following a comment left today (8th May) is Batipi which is a paid for hosted service.
" We help you to plan, and host online presentations and training. Whether you need to schedule a video conference with the management team, plan for your next upcoming webinar, or create memorable sales presentations, our event consultants are standing by 24/7. Experience the difference, experience Batipi."

Google Talk v Skype v Twitter !!!

Since I had to return my marvellous MacBook to school, I have been struggling with the problem of not being able to connect with colleagues and friends over Skype , as I have done for the past 9 months or so - I have found this hugely frustrating, I hear part of conversations through Twitter ( pj23harry).
My Dell Inspiron 1300, doesn't like Skype, and in fact I lose all internet connection with Skype running on the laptop.... Today on my trawl through my Bloglines I came across a few articles by Darren Draper on Google Talk (beta). Google's Applications have of late been coming along plugging many gaps in the online experience and Talk appears to plug another. I guess it will be a matter of time and take up as to whether Google Talk becomes a chosen means of communication in the blogosphere, but it certainly has a few plus points going for it - ( although by means of a health warning I haven't yet carried out a conversation using it - pj23harry@googlemail.com/ should find me though if you want to add me to your list of contacts)
Talk has :
Group Chat
You can now invite multiple people to chat with you in a group using the Google Talk Gadget. When you're chatting with a friend, just click on the "Group Chat" button to invite one or more friends to join the conversation.
Popout support and Flickr slideshows
You can now do more with the Google Talk Gadget. In addition to putting the gadget on your Google Personalized Homepage, you can now pop out the gadget into a separate, small window anytime. This way you can navigate to other websites and still keep your contact list and chats open. And just like running the gadget on your homepage, this way of using Google Talk is completely web-based, and requires no download.
Google Talk Gadget on your Blog
f you have your own webpage or blog, you can also add a button to your site so your visitors can pop out the Google Talk Gadget when they visit your page. If you want them to chat with you, just list your username next to the button and ask visitors to sign in and add you as a contact.
File Transfer
With this top requested new feature, you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable
Voicemail
If your friends aren't around to answer your call, you can leave them a voicemail message instead. Just record your voice after the "Meep" and your friends will get an email to their Talk contact address with the voicemail attached as an audio file. They can play your message when they check their email and save it for as long as they want.
Languages
There are a wide range of languages which are supported within Google Talk.
Additional goodies
You can also it appears go to private offline conversation person to person if you wish ( similar to the private chat feature in Flashmeeting. You can copy over YouTube and Picassa Albums which can be played directly in the Google Talk Widget.

I can see Google Talk giving the people at Skype some sleepless nights if this catches on, especially as Talk comes into a growing comprehensive suite of 'free' online tools and applications which Google is currently developing. I for one hope that Google Talk will be more reliable on my laptop than Skype has been ..... let battle commence :-)

Transglobal Edubloggers Meeting 3

Using the Open University's FlashMeeting Video Conferencing site, last night we held the 3rd informal discussion between Web 2.0 enthusiastic teachers. The discussion ranged across a variety of topics from why we blog and podcast, through possible pitfalls with the technology, to Mo-Blogging. I am grateful to all of the teachers who turned up -

Uploaded with Skitch!

Joe Dale (UK), Lisa (Spanish teacher from Sutton Coldfield UK), Kristin Hokanson (US), Joe Thibault (US), Lisa Durff (US), Jo Rhys Jones (UK),Jane Nicholls (NZ), Vinnie Vrotny (US), Allanah King (NZ), Kristian Still (UK),Iain Cook Bonney (NZ)and myself here in Wales.

As you can see from the Skitch screenshot above there was a great geographical spread of teachers. Here you can see this using FlashMeeting's excellent meeting details.

Uploaded with Skitch!

Below is a screenshot taken by Jane Nicholls during the meeting.


Image Courtesy of Jane Nicholls ICTUCAN
The next Skitch image is what the public relay now viewable looks like -

Uploaded with Skitch!

FlashMeeting also allows you to keep an eye on the pattern of viewers of the meeting-

Uploaded with Skitch!

The general feeling among those online last night was that there should be a further meeting, and everyone who wishes to attend is asked to bring along a friend - I will ensure that we are booked for 25 people.
If you need any information about FlashMeeting itself or on how to attend don't hesitate to contact myself, Jane or Joe Dale.

** Plug for Joe - on Saturday 13th October (and on Friday evening where there will be a Show and Tell in a local hostelry) at Nodehill Middle School Joe will be hosting The Isle of Wight ICT Conference. Joe has lined up an excellent group of presenters who will ensure that there is something for everyone - plus heaps of networking opportunities check it out here at Joe's Blog.**

Wow what a long time Off-Line!!!

Isn't it strange the effect of returning to school after a long summer break. It has been so hectic getting used to working in a new team, with a new Year Group that it has taken this 'Old' Welsh Dragon over a week to get back to the life blood of blogging.
Not that I have been totally out of contact, I am taking part in a Skype based 'Speed Teaching' event on Thursday 13th September run in Dunedin by Jane Nicholls, I know that Allanah King from Nelson will also be taking part, I am really looking forward to talking to 'like minded' teachers again!
On Saturday 15th I have a Flashmeeting booked for any web 2.0 teachers to take part in, we hope to get Paul McMahon in on the conversation, Paul will be at the Web 2.0 Conference in Shanghai rather than his home in Hong Kong... the link is at FlashMeeting, the hope is that we extend the discussion to the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

In school we are about to re-enter the podcasting world, I have pairs of pupils trained and ready to roll, and I am about to introduce my Y6 pupils to Making the News the excellent on-line journalism/ newsreporting site run by E2BN

School !

This blog may be quiet for a day or two - no bad thing some may say :) As we are back in school and a certain Ddraig-Goch has a lot of setting up and planning to do.... so do bear with us until the first few days are over....... having spent the day throwing stuff out of my room and liberating space - I now have room for at least 2 pc's ( only 1 on the net) side by side in my room... I will post some pictures of the new working space ( with no teacher's desk in it - apparently they are not needed - just wonder where the rubbish will gather, we'll see.

If anyone is interested in coming in on the next FlashMeeting which will be on the 15th September at 10pm UK (16th for Aus and NZ). I am keen that we use the time to perhaps do a round up of new useful tools for Web 2.0 in schools or that we debate how to encourage more schools to join in... I am keen that we move forward from just discussing the merits of FlashMeeting itself again.

Transglobal Flashmeeting

I have taken the liberty of going ahead and arranging the 3rd meeting of this informal group of Web 2.0 Educators for Saturday 15th September at 22hrs UK (check out the time zones).
Our meeting on Saturday 25th August was very successful, at one point there were 13 people in the Flashmeeting, in addition to those listening on the live Worldbridges Stream.
For the meeting on 15th September the capacity is up to 25 participants, the meeting time is hopefully a better time for those in the Southern Hemisphere.... it is possible that we may have input from Asia ( Hong Kong ) so long as the Time Zones are not too difficult.
To find the meeting details follow this link - as pass it on to anyone that you think should be there....

Technorati Tags: flashmeeting, open university

Transglobal Flashmeeting

Uploaded with Skitch!

At 8pm Saturday 25th August the second Flashmeeting held between Edubloggers and Podcasters was held. The first meeting a month ago had 5 attendees globally, as you can see from the Skitch Map above we reached our target of 15 attendees this time around ( maybe 25 next time)... A salient point was made by Jason Hando from Sydney Australia, we need to get Educational Bloggers and Podcasters from Africa and Asia to come online with these technologies to give us their perspective on The World - I know that now with the $100 laptop scheme, and work by groups such as MediaSnackers - who recently trained bloggers and film makers in South Africa - these barriers should begin to break down... point well made Jason :)
This ties in with Terry Freedman, another of the Flashmeeting attendees point that it appears to be the same group of people who are meeting in different forums using different methods of communication - Terry asking the question is this going anywhere?
I think that to answer the question you only know when you see what that group of teachers and educators are doing in their own area to 'evangelize' the use of technology in the classroom... If you look at the CV's of some people who were in the meeting they mostly all have some element of 'Spreading the Word'with colleagues or teachers in their local area or beyond. ( Wes Fryer recently mentioned these people as local Yoda's)
An example came in a Skype conversation I had with Kirstin Hokanson straight after the FlashMeeting, Kristin will be using FlashMeeting as part of her work with teaching colleagues at her school this week where they will be discussing how using Web 2.0 tools could transform a classroom and how they teach.... this is just one example of many in which those involved with Web 2.0 are getting out there and doing it.... so I guess we do tend to be the same people meeting, but as with tonight, there were at least 5 people who have never been involved in using this technology before and now will certainly consider it.
If you follow the link you will be able to hear and see the discussion - also take a while to look at the detailed statistics which are recorded
link to Flashmeeting
We will have another meeting within the next fortnight, probably on a Saturday evening in the UK at around 10pm, making it more manageable for those in Australia and New Zealand.
I would like to say a big thank you to Jason Hando for co-hosting ( from 8,000 miles away), Lisa Durff for pushing me into organising it and also Sharon Peters for helping with the streaming to WorldBridges, also thanks to Jeff Howson who has put in sterling work promoting Flashmeeting around the UK and Europe ( I guess now, its The World too Jeff :)... and also to all 15 people who made it in this time.

Next time why don't you come and join us - I will post a url for the next meeting soon, on this blog and will e-mail it to those who attended this time....

Flashmeeting meets Webcast Academy

In a first as far as we are aware Jason Hando (Sydney Australia) and Lisa Durff (Maryland, USA) carried out a Webcast using the UK Open University's Flashmeeting site recently, you can link to the webcast or view a video screencast that Jason took of part of the meeting using another great piece of Web 2.0 gadgetry called Jing - screencast here.
Following this successful trial and in conjunction with Jason and Durff, it has been decided that a further trial of Flashmeeting scheduled for Saturday 25th August at 8-10pm (UK time!) will be streamed live through the Worldbridges site!!!
You can access the Flashmeeting at the alloted time with this link.
For other information and a tutorial on using Flashmeeting look at my post of 15th August which includes Screencast Tutorials on using the site..... other than that we will see those who want to be there from around the globe on 25th August.

Calling all interested Web 2.0 users, following a recent Flashmeeting
held across 3 continents, followed by a Twitter discussion with Durff
on the use of Flashmeeting as a form of 'back-channel' I have booked
another meeting for Saturday 25th August at 8pm UK, you had best use
the world time widget to find out the time where you are ( if you visit the
meeting link, it will also tell you the time to the meeting). The meeting is
booked for 2 hours and for up to 15 participants.
I am hoping that it will be a mix of those who have used Flashmeeting
before in addition to welcoming in 'newbies', I plan to act as guide and
facilitator.
Some information for anyone thinking of taking part :
* you can enter the meeting as a Guest ( no need to be a member)
you will have slightly limited access to certain aspects of Flashmeeting
* all you need do is click on the meeting url at the alloted time and follow
the instructions into the meeting.
If you would like to sign up for Flashmeeting as a user could I suggest that
you e-mail E.Tomadaki@open.ac.uk, you will need to give your own e-mail
details.

A booking has been made for 25-Aug-07 at 20:00 (GMT +0100) and
lasting 119 minutes.
This booking is for 15 people to use the application
FlashMeeting

Go to the following address for full details and to access the
event:
http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/fm/3568b1-9578

A .ics calendar file can be downloaded prior to the
meeting from the above address.

Although guest entry is available into the meeting, attendees
who do not already have an account may wish to create one
prior to the meeting so that they can Sign In to the meeting
and have access to all the meetings features etc. A link
to create a Sign In account is available via the
meeting web page.

----------------------------------------------------------------

THIS MEETING IS SET TO BE RECORDED

Once the meeting has been completed the replay and minutes
of the meeting can be accessed using the address above
i.e the  url used to access the  live meeting.

Please note: The replay of this meeting will be publically
available and will, for instance, be listed on the public
replays web page
 http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/public/all/

----------------------------------------------------------------

For more details regarding FlashMeeting and terms of use
visit the project website at:
http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk

Following attendance at recent skype conferences and speed geeking events I think
it might be advisable to have some form of agenda :
1) Introduction to aspects of Flashmeeting look at these links first to give you some background.

Lesson 1 - Research and About Flashmeeting.

Lesson 2 - Troubleshooting in Flashmeeting.

Lesson 3 - Public Replays and Statistics in Flashmeeting.

Lesson 4 - Flashmeeting Demonstration.

I am grateful to Jason Hando in Australia for doing development work
on the use of Flashmeeting in his recently produced Jing Presentation

2) Discussion on 'Best Web 2.0 tools for Education'
3) Ways of building 'Global Educational Collaboration' in a more inclusive way.
If there is any further information that you require don't hesitate to contact me
either by Skype, Twitter or e-mail.

FLASHMEETING VIDEO WALK THROUGH

Today I will attempt to take you on a walk through of Flashmeeting - the (free) videoconferencing site run by KMI, The Open University and E2BN in the UK.

Lesson 1 - Research and About Flashmeeting.

Lesson 2 - Troubleshooting in Flashmeeting.


Lesson 3 - Public Replays and Statistics in Flashmeeting.


Lesson 4 - Flashmeeting Demonstration.


With a little help from:

The Open University Knowledge Media Institute (KMI)
The Open University Simple Network Applications (SNAPP)
The Centre for New Media - FlashVlog
The Making The News Project

** See post from Wednesday 25th July on Flashmeeting**

Transglobal Flashmeeting

Here is the map showing the spread of attendees at last evenings Flashmeeting - truly spanning the globe from UK( Wales and the Isle of Wight), US ( Pennsylvania), Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand (Dunedin) thanks folks :) it was great fun to run, hopefully giving Flashmeeting itself a wider audience - we look forward to many class to class Flashmeetings taking place in the near future - link to Flashmeeting .

** Flashmeeting - Great for videoconferencing?**

Since my post on March 3rd, I had been keen to explore the benefits of using Flashmeeting over Skype, which has become the normal method of VOIP conversations recently. I arranged in advance to have an hour long discussion with Allanah King ( Nelson, New Zealand) and Jane Nicholls ( e-fellow - Dunedin, New Zealand). Thanks to a friend Stuart Brown at the Open University, much involved in the award winning UO OpenLearn Project

"I just wanted to share the great news that OpenLearn has won the IMS Global Learning Consortiums' top prize this year!!

Full press release below:

Vancouver, British Columbia – 19 April 2007 – The IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) today announced the results of the final rankings in the first global competition of high impact use of technology in learning. Featuring the highest levels of innovation, adoption, and learning impact, the Learning Impact Awards (aka LIAs) symbolize the use of technology for support or enhancement of learning. A set of twenty-five finalists, from nominations submitted from around the world, were invited to the Learning Impact conference in Vancouver to be judged by a set of six expert reviewers and combined voting from the attendees, which served as a seventh reviewer. Nominations with superior measurable impact on faculty/teacher adoption, student achievement, and ease of implementation earned the finalist slots. For more information on the expert panel of judges visit: http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact/agenda.html#experts. The 210 conference participants were roughly split three ways among executive leaders in the education markets worldwide, chief technologists from organizations providing advances in learning technology, and information or academic technology leaders responsible for implementing, using, and selecting technology to support or enhance learning. For more information on the Learning Impact conference of which the LIA awards are a part, see http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact/agenda.html.

The LIA awards are also unique in that they recognize the use of technology in context. Nominations include not only information about the technology, but how it is used by an educational or training organization. The 2007 award winners are as follows:

Platinum Awards (top three rankings):

OpenLearn at the Open University, United Kingdom (supported by Moodle)
ETS Criterion Online Writing Evaluation service at Farragut High School, Knox County Public Schools
Cyber Home Learning System of Korea
Gold Awards:

HarvestRoad Hive & the Resource List Management System at the University of Western Australia
California State University Fresno Fast Forward Program
European eTwinning Action by European Schoolnet
Silver Awards:

Using Giunti Labs learn eXact LCMS at the UK NHS and Royal College of Radiologists R-ITI Project
Microsoft Research ConferenceXP at Australian School of the Air and Classroom Presenter at University of Washington
Respondus 3.5 and University of Alberta
Bronze Awards:

Tegrity Campus 2.0 at Saint Mary's University
Articulate at Jefferson County Public Schools
Wimba’s Course Genie: An Authoring Tool for Common Cartridge at Langside College
Honorable mentions:

eCollege Program Intelligence Manager at Iowa Community College Online Consortium
Desire2Learn at Office of Open Learning, University of Guelph
Microsoft Learning Gateway at Shireland Language College
BlueStream Digital Asset Management System At The University Of Michigan (supported by Ancept and IBM)
ANGEL at Penn State
UGO Online Academic Resource Management system at the University of Montreal (supported by Logiweb)
A study on how to enhance support for the Cyber Home Learning System by Korea Education & Research Information Service
Meeting the Needs of a Global Student Body with Jenzabar at Park University
Microsoft Partners in Learning at Ministry of Education, Thailand"
Well done to Stuart and the OpenLearn team... anyhow I have drifted from the point, Stuart was able to point me to the correct person at the Open University who could give me Booking Rights on Flashmeeting. I set up a 4 person (25 is the max)meeting for a 60 minute session. The resulting video conference is available here
It was a good exercise as I had taken part as a participant in one of Joe Dale's ( Joe has just held a VideoConference between his school and Sylvia Tolisano in Florida) recent Flashmeeting sessions, so was a relative novice while my 2 colleagues were completely new to the whole thing.
Once we had got used to the whole turn taking thing and the small details such as remembering to leave the mic open for a few seconds after you have spoken in order to avoid cropping the end of your speech, it worked very well ( I had a problem at the time in that my MacBook seemed dis-inclined to hook up the built in camera to Flashmeeting so I had to rig up a dv camera - this has been sorted out through reading the guides and downloading a small software update from Adobe).
You use a closed room where guests are invited to join (25 attendees limit seems plenty), there are a variety of additional tools which appear as tabs - these include:
* a list of those in conference.
*a chat area page.
*url exchange page.
* an image page where you can see your colleagues.
It operates on a hand up system where you signal that you would like to speak and you are put in a queue. The meeting times down at the top left and gives you audio warnings as you approach the time limit of you conference. Audio seems to be subject to similar fade in and out as Skype.
The Verdict
All of us who took part in the session found it to be a useful looking option holding out the possibility of having visual contact with colleagues in a conference which is not available using Skype, while having many of the extras which Skype also has. Plus some extras that you might expect from an academic institution - great stats on the conference ( check them out if you have the chance to have a look at our videoconference) I suggest a definite 8.5 out of 10 if not more, I think time and more use will see this rating rise.

** I know that the people who have developed Flashmeeting are very keen on its development internationally contact me and I will give you Jeff Howson's (E2BN)e-mail address.

**Revision to post Joe Dale's FlashMeeting session will start at 8.00GMT to allow more people to take part **

E-Twinning seems to be quite in vogue at the moment and we at Cefn Fforest Primary are flying the flag for Wales in Europe with the 2 projects with which we are involved.
Joe Dale a blogging and skype buddy of ours had the opportunity to visit the recent E-Twinning Conference in Brussels - along with people such as Ewan McIntosh, Jeff Howson (follow the link to projects and e-twinning) and Stephen Heppell amongst of course many others from around Europe. As Joe said ' it really brings home to you what E-Twinning is all about when you visit these events and see the networking of teachers from across the Community.
Joe managed to get an interview with Jeff and his colleague John Warwick on FlashMeeting
which is an excellent means of videoconferencing between schools in Europe ( I particularly recommend it for my partners around Europe to try it out). Unlike Skype which is well known to me, FlashMeeting does not require any software to be downloaded you simply make sure that you have your webcam and microphone set up and log on to the system and join your discussion area ( the administrator pre-books the time and likely number of participants). All schools who have joined the e-twinning webzone from the UK has automatically be allocated a FlashMeeting account, a fact not widely appreciated as far as I am aware.
In order to promote the use of FlashMeeting specifically amongst the MFL community Joe has organised a FlashMeeting get together online on March 8th at 7.00 GMT with the Theme 'Blogging and Podcasting: Creative and personalised ways of engaging and extending your pupils in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom' he has given a link to visit just prior to the start of the hour long session. It will be an excellent way for some of us novices to check out the potential of FlashMeeting in our European Projects... see you there on Thursday!!!!
Why not take a look at Joe's other thought s by following the links on the sidebar to Joe's blog site.