Web+Conference+Reflections

Web Conference Reflections

**__Week 2 - 3 June, 2010:__ I was unable to attend the web conference due to technical difficulties. However, I felt comfortable with the assignments for this week and had no questions of my own. I was able to discuss the conference with one of my colleagues during and after via phone. She and I talked about the information shared at the meeting. Though there were no surprises at that point, I have also been checking the discussion board frequently. This is where the most important information has been recently. The updated documents and answers to student questions have been most helpful. I hope to attend next week's meeting. __Week 1 - 24 May, 2010:__** The first week's web conference designated for internship students was much like other meetings I had attended through the course of this degree program. There were some frustrations but overall communication and information sharing prevailed. Most of the difficulties come from the software chosen to host the meeting. Either the bandwidth provided or the software itself seems to have limited capacity. As more of us are added as presenters the quality of the meeting deteriorates with increasing quickness. The audio often does not work but video and chat do not seem to be affected. The beginning of the meeting was delayed as Dr. Abernathy had her hands full trying to add people to the meeting while at the same time trying to keep her equipment functioning. When I joined the meeting some students were using the chat feature to communicate. Some students were testing their video and audio equipment to make sure they could be seen and heard by the group. I chose not to turn my camera on as I really had no questions to discuss. However I listened and read the questions and answers from others in the group and found clarification on a few points. Once Dr. Abernathy had everyone added and settled, the meeting went smoothly with questions being asked and answered through the chat. I would like to say that I attended a meeting hosted by Dr. Mason in the last class and liked the way she managed the conference. She was the only person listed as a presenter so her audio worked throughout the entire meeting. As students had questions they used the raised hand icon then were given permission to speak their question and she would answer them. Students could also type questions in the chat window which she would answer as well. The software seemed to function better when used in this manner.