Web Conferences

Wow, what an amazing piece of technology. After participating in a web conference I saw the benefits it can have in education for students and faculty. Students can be a classroom or a world away sharing learning. Faculties can meet when it is impossible to meet “face to face”. It is now possible for a teacher to teach students a world away, respond to their questions and model activities with minimal hardware and software requirements that are already available at many schools. For example, when a science department gets together to do a lab why not allow the teacher that is most skilled with that particular lab assignment teach all the students. The instructor could model the lab, take questions from participants and share feedback while the other teachers are monitoring the students and providing one on one instruction to individual students. Web conferencing would be a useful tool for administrators and teachers allowing communication during breaks. No matter where you are you could stay in contact with staff even holding meetings when needed on topics that have to be covered during summer breaks. This enables staff to stay in touch with one another and models for teachers how this technology can be used in their classrooms. While web conferencing can be a useful tool the same norms must be used as in “face to face” meetings. All members must act professionally for the learning activity to be successful. Norms must be set and procedures must be mastered for users to receive the full benefit of participation.