Category: wimba

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communication tools reflections

Wimba Voice Email

I just tried out the Wimba Voice Email feature that we have access to from our ETEC 565 course site and found it relatively painless and easy to use. It reminded me of our first intro exercises where we each recorded a brief message about ourselves using Wimba. In any case, I had to edit my WebCT Vista profile and add my email as I was prompted by Wimba that my email address was required. Next, I tried to send to specific recipients but was unable to view this list using my IE 9 browser. So, I decided to switch my browser to Opera and was able to view the list and selected one of my classmates to send my voice email. After recording my message using my headset microphone (and also including a text message) I clicked on the send button and was prompted that my message had been sent! 🙂 Now, I’m just waiting for my classmate to try testing it out too by sending me a voice message back using Wimba Voice Email.

*Update: Success! I’m pleased to report that I received a voice reply from my colleague. We’ve sort of made history in a sense as this was the first time we’ve both used Wimba to send voice emails via an online class. Yay! 🙂

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communication tools reflections synchronous communication webct vista

E-learning toolkit: Synchronous communication tools

Synchronous communication example
(Source: Flickr images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobology/2755744656/, Creative Commons License).

I recall in high school, my peers were using ICQ, a synchronous communication tool to stay connected with each other and that transitioned into MSN Live Messenger. It was mostly still text-based since the video option was a bit more grainy and unpredictable than it is now. In the past, I’ve utilized Skype to stay connected with my family and friends but more often now I use Googletalk and Gmail’s embedded live chat/video function. Also, in related news it was quite interesting to learn this week that Facebook and Skype have teamed up so that users will be able to use both applications in one interface.

In terms of the practice activity using WebCT Vista, I found it straightforward to set up a Live Classroom using the Build tab, then adding a content link into my folder. However, I was unable to access the Wimba Live Classroom/Admin link at http://wimbaclassroom.elearning.ubc.ca/launcher.cgi?room=etec565. I tried on several different web browsers and still received the error page that it couldn’t display the content.

In any case, I still found the toolkit activities useful to learn about the various third party modules that can be integrated into our Moodle sites for full audio/video conferencing. I recall that the use of Nanogong was suggested recently by one of our colleagues from the course discussion forums but to find out that there are several applications that can be used is very promising indeed. There’s everything from OpenMeetings, Dimdim, Elluminate Live, Wimba, and Marratech. It’ll be important to consider the affordances of each resource and consider how students can achieve learning objectives through the use of these tools.

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