Web-based video conferencing

In your blog create a reflection titled “Web-Conferencing” and discuss how the video conference went, what software you used, and what you would do differently next time. Also explain how this might be useful in your classroom.


One of the labs in Session 2 of CEP812 if video web-conferencing. The point being to find a synchronous web-based video conferencing tool that could work to facilitate the CEP812 Group Leadership project, but also other applications for our work in the classroom.


Here is the recording of our web conferencing session:

We chose Google+ Hangouts as our technology of choice. The reasoning being that we all had Google accounts, and once you have Google+ enabled and the Google Voice and Video plugin installed, you are good to go. Setting up a meeting session is very easy.


Google+ Hangouts has a lot of interesting and useful features, not the least of which being, a Google Docs plugin that allows everyone in the meeting to see and collaboratively edit a Google Document simultaneously. This is quite a powerful tool, and we used it extensively in our session. Another nice feature is a Google Chat bar that allows anyone in the session to text-chat. This can be handy if you want to have a sidebar conversation without interrupting the person talking, for instance, if someone is demonstrating something, or two people are having a lengthy voice conversation. Google+ Hangouts also has a Screen Sharing setting that any participant can switch on. When activated, the person's screen (or specific window they select, there are several options) replaces the image from their camera. This means that any number of people can share their screens simultaneously. Lastly, there is a feature called On-Air which allows you to stream the session live to YouTube for people to view while the session is taking place. Once you end the session, Youtube will convert the entire recorded session to the session-maker's Youtube account if you want to share it; as we have above.


I participated in the session on a wifi connection, and the appearance of my camera was noticably fuzzy. While the video and voice seemed to come through with little (or manageable) latency, any time I used the additional features like Google Docs or the shared whiteboard application, I experienced significant lag. Next time I will participate from a location with a hard wired connection.