Other Web Meetings

Here are amazing tools besides Zoom to collaborate and organize

Guidelines

Camera not required

Video makes learning easier (we communicate a surprising amount through expression). Making a human connection through video is also hugely helpful to students' development. You don't have to, though. Perhaps it's your current location or your tech, but there are plenty of reasons why some web conferences will not use your camera.

Record

All sessions must be recorded. Many students will not be able to attend, so access to what they've missed will be needed. The recording is also a means of accountability for everyone's safety. We must protect our students' privacy so any web conference recording needs to be approved if you want to share it publicly for any reason.

Adapt

Things will fail. If a service is down, fire up a difference conference, copy the join information and send it out over email and Hangouts. Even though we're using Zoom as our school's primary conference tool, we have several other options waiting in the wings. If a student is struggling and you're running out of time, assure the student of a recorded copy of the meeting and proceed. Or let's say you're struggling to host a web conference, ask a TA to host it and invite everyone (and also provide you with a copy of the recorded session).

Share your screen

The best educational benefit to a web conference is your ability to share your screen. Your whiteboard is your screen! Walk through your slides. Go over your latest assignment on the portal. Ask questions.

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Google Meet

The most common problem with a Google Meet is enabling your microphone and camera. That goes here:

Look for a camera with a line through it in on the right side of your address bar

Step 0: Google Calendar

If you're able, everything is much easier if you schedule a Meet in advance using Google Calendar. When you create a new event, just add these four items

  1. Title

  2. Date & time

  3. Add conferencing

  4. Invite students

Step 1: Go to session

If you scheduled an event on Google Calendar, use the link in that calendar event to get to the Meet I

If you've already

Step 3: Record session

Recorded sessions provide a resources for students that weren't there, and a record of student behavior should something unexpected and unfortunate occur.

Look for the Record meeting option in the "dot-dot-dot" menu

Step 4: Present (share screen)

Press the Present now button in the bottom right hand corner of your menu. Sometimes the button can be covered up by your list of participants. If that's the problem, just click elsewhere to hide that menu.

Schedule a meeting in advance right from Google Calendar

I recommend sharing your entire screen rather than sharing a single application. Your share is more controlled by showing a single application, but you would then need to change what you're sharing if you wanted to move to a different app.

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Webex

WebEx is an alternative to Google Meet and Zoom. It's similar to Zoom but much less friendly. Still, it gives us much more control than Google Meet. Downloaded clients are required. It also has some convenient options if you're using a Cisco phone system at school, like making phone calls to parents without using your cell number.

Google Calendar

In the Google Meet section, I shared, I showed you how to I Yeah, you can do the same thing but with Webex.

Teams VS Meetings

Teams connects with your phone. Meetings hosts web conferences. They're separate installs on your phone and computer.

Sign in with your school email address and regular password

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