A New Experience - Having a Web Conference
Log-in window
Towards the very end of this class, we prepared to conduct a web conference with different teachers which were all not from Marburg. Throughout the whole class, we talked a lot about different online learning tools and we made suggestions on how to use them in school. Nevertheless, you cannot really be sure how you will be able to actually apply those tools in the English classroom. Therefore, it very useful and also necessary to talk to teachers who have already made real-life experiences with those different opportunities offered by new media in school. Using a special online tool, we were able to meet those different teachers online and talk to them in a real time situation.
About the tool
In order to use the tool we used for this web conference, one needs to have access to it. The Phillips-University Marburg possesses such a license so that we were able to use it. We, the students, could log into the conference as guests. The screenshot on the right shows you the window for the log-in process. Unfortunately, since the web-conference is already over, I cannot show you a screenshot of the actual web conference. The basic functions, though, are quite straightforward and after a short introduction fairly easy to use.
One useful and important function is the life-chat. Whatever the participants of the conference write in the chat box can be seen by all the others. This makes it very easy to ask questions and to communicate with each other. Another possibility is to use one's video camera as well as one's microphone and speakers. This way, the participants can even talk to each other. The conference-"leader" just has to allow the guest users to use such applications. It is even possible to share your computer screen and to show the content to the other users. For this, one also needs the allowance of the conference-"leader" to do so.
Using those basic functions, we were basically prepared to conduct the web conference. To make sure that as many students as possible could take part, we arranged two meetings. For both meetings, the teacher for English and Religion Matthias Heil was able to participate and to answer all the different questions we had. Matthias Heil lives near Fulda and has made quite a lot of experiences in terms of how to use new media in school.
About the tool
In order to use the tool we used for this web conference, one needs to have access to it. The Phillips-University Marburg possesses such a license so that we were able to use it. We, the students, could log into the conference as guests. The screenshot on the right shows you the window for the log-in process. Unfortunately, since the web-conference is already over, I cannot show you a screenshot of the actual web conference. The basic functions, though, are quite straightforward and after a short introduction fairly easy to use.
One useful and important function is the life-chat. Whatever the participants of the conference write in the chat box can be seen by all the others. This makes it very easy to ask questions and to communicate with each other. Another possibility is to use one's video camera as well as one's microphone and speakers. This way, the participants can even talk to each other. The conference-"leader" just has to allow the guest users to use such applications. It is even possible to share your computer screen and to show the content to the other users. For this, one also needs the allowance of the conference-"leader" to do so.
Using those basic functions, we were basically prepared to conduct the web conference. To make sure that as many students as possible could take part, we arranged two meetings. For both meetings, the teacher for English and Religion Matthias Heil was able to participate and to answer all the different questions we had. Matthias Heil lives near Fulda and has made quite a lot of experiences in terms of how to use new media in school.
In order to prepare the web-meeting, we prepared a list of questions with Titanpad. This list turned out to be very helpful. You can click on the picture on the left to come to the actual list with our questions. Anyways, Matthias Heil had prepared so many interesting things to show us that there was no need to follow the questions all the time. The teacher shared his computer screen with us and presented various different websites and online learning tools. I did not know most of them and it was very interesting to listen to Matthias Heil and to get to know new things. For each website he tried to point out the most important features but also the advantages and disadvantages when using them in school.
Matthias Heil created a Prezi-Presentation where he introduces various different websites and online learning tools he has worked with so far. Check out the presentation and you will notice that you can spend hours and hours to explore the different links.
All in all, it was a great and very valuable experience to take part in such a web conference. It makes such a difference to actually talk to a person and ask question in a "real-time" situation than, for example, to communicate via email. The fact that one could also see some participants who used their video camera, let the whole meeting seem to be real and authentic, which it, of course, also was. By seeing Matthias Heil, you could just tell that the teacher was highly fascinated by the so-called new media which made it a lot easier to follow his explanations and also to stay alert at 9PM.
So what is more convincing than talking about new media using a "new-media-tool"???
Matthias Heil created a Prezi-Presentation where he introduces various different websites and online learning tools he has worked with so far. Check out the presentation and you will notice that you can spend hours and hours to explore the different links.
All in all, it was a great and very valuable experience to take part in such a web conference. It makes such a difference to actually talk to a person and ask question in a "real-time" situation than, for example, to communicate via email. The fact that one could also see some participants who used their video camera, let the whole meeting seem to be real and authentic, which it, of course, also was. By seeing Matthias Heil, you could just tell that the teacher was highly fascinated by the so-called new media which made it a lot easier to follow his explanations and also to stay alert at 9PM.
So what is more convincing than talking about new media using a "new-media-tool"???
