Web-Conferencing

Our group held two web conference sessions. The first session we used google hangout. This was the first time that I used google hangout. I really like google hangout because it is really user friendly. Heidi was able to share her screen with us and show us the web-page we are using for our project. Google hangout can be useful in the world language classroom to meet with native speakers of  a Spanish-speaking country. The teacher could share screens with the other teacher and all of the students, in both classes, could reflect and comment, in the target language, on the same thing like an art piece. Teachers could also meet with other language teachers within your district and  students could use it to be able to connect with members of their group outside of class. Students could also connect with students in other classes who have Spanish at the same time as them. They could google hangout to connect and speak in the target language.

In the second session we used adobe connect. At first I was using google chrome as my web browser. I was having trouble connecting and hearing my groupmates so I switched to internet explorer. I do not think that adobe connect is compatible with google chrome because I could not listen to old sessions of adobe in google chrome. We were able to use the poll features to pick and vote on the different tools we will be using for our project. I think that adobe connect would be more user friendly to teach online classes because of all the features and you can have students answer questions to check for understanding. A teacher could use adobe connect in the classroom and use the poll feature to get feedback from students about a lecture. It could also be used in the classroom to present a powerpoint by sharing the screen and allowing students to use the chat feature to ask the teacher questions if they are confused. I also really like the note feature because the teacher could post a key concept to keep in mind during a lecture or activity. 

I would not do anything different for the next session. As a group, we have decided that we will use google hangout because we think it is more convenient. I really like being able to web conference with my groupmates because I am in PA and they are in MI. It allows me to have a more personal connect with the people that I am working with!