Biz-e-tech training / Text and Video Chat
 | 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Text and Video Chat

This version was saved 13 years, 11 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Carl Dowse
on April 28, 2010 at 8:45:27 am
 

Video conferencing

 

Here are some suggestions:

  

DimDim

A free online webmeeting tool. You can share files - such as PowerPoint presentations or .pdf documents, your desktop and collaborate on a whiteboard. It has both text and video chat. I have used this and it works well, but had the following intermittent problems:

 

  • time lag (delay) on the voice,
  • the text chat window not appearing and
  • the session recording only picking up the host's voice.

 

The tool is, however, free and overall it works well. Upgrade available.

  

WiZiQ

A free online webmeeting tool. You can upload files to your personal library and share them during sessions. These can be PowerPoint presentations, .pdf documents, and even video.  You can collaborate in real-time on a whiteboard. It has both text and video chat. I have used this and it works well, but had the following intermittent problems:

 

  • time lag (delay) on the voice,
  • the session recording sometimes being jumbled up.

 

The tool is, however, free and overall it works well. Upgrade available.

 

Userplane 

Free (with ads) video and text chat. Can be embedded into a web page. No experience of this tool

  

Skype+

Combining the Skype telephony service with other tools offers interesting possibilities for conferencing. the idea being that you can use Skype conference call for the voice chat - this is a robust, reliable service with other easy to use applications for sharing other media such as whiteboards or files or even your desktop.

 

Examples:

 

Use Skype for voice conferencing and at the same time share files (very easily) with Drop.io (see the File-sharing page here for more on this free web-based tool. I have used this - not extensively - and it seems to work very nicely. What's particularly good about this combination is that it involves no extra downloading of software for Drop.io and not even any registration. So, a nice user-friendly experience for your learners.

 

Again use Skype for voice conferencing and at the same time share files and very interestingly your desktop. His looks like a good combination, especially as no downloading is involved for your participants, but you as host need to download and install a client. So again it should be trouble-free for your learners to join sessions so long as they are up and running with Skype.

 

If you just need a whiteboad for your online meeting then Twiddla is a good option. It has document upload and its own voice chat functions, but I've found these to be a little hit 'n' miss. The whiteboard, however,  works well and so too does the text chat. The interface is simple, attractive and user-friendly. And importantly, inviting your learners to the room is very easily done.

 

Text chat

 

Adding text chat tools to a class wiki provides a place for learners to meet and interact (with or without a tutor) to practise their English synchronously. 

 

This is a Meebo chat room, which has the added bonus of allowing you to embed video.

 

Create a Meebo Chat Room

 

To get a chat room like this you need to register with meebo and then go to meebo rooms. It seems you can create as many rooms as you like and all for free!

 

Please let us know what you think and if you have some suggestions for how to present this kind of tool to students with ideas for how they should use it please jot them down below. 

 

Whiteboards & Collaborative Communication Tools 

 

Here is a useful site which reviews a number of web tools specifically designed for collaboration such as shared workspaces and chat tools:

 

Collaborative tools

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.