For our group leadership brainstorm session, we opted to use Adobe Connect. Only a fraction of our recorded session is displayed above, work is being done to remedy that and display the full recorded session. Although brief, an advantage of Adobe Connect appears immediately in the video above. Adobe Connect offers a video feature enabling participants to see each other while conducting the meeting. Our group did not utilize this tool for the duration of the meeting, but did experiment at the beginning. The meeting space (window) provided a designated area for video, discussion notes, and a chat feature. The chat feature worked well to initially communicate until the meeting host enabled microphone privileges. Additionally, it served to discuss microphone and speaker issues. As soon as audio was figured out, our group refrained from using the chat feature and solely communicated using microphones. Another advantage of Adobe Connect was that all participants had microphone privileges at the same time. The program also features a mute option which helped eliminate feedback when not speaking. As our meeting progressed and discussion continued regarding our group leadership project, the discussion notes feature proved useful. Our group used the discussion notes to break down the different areas and tasks for our tutorial video as well as assign an individual responsible for the task. All meeting participants could both view and edit the notes concurrently. The discussion notes also helped to define due dates for specific aspects of the project.
One disadvantage of the session was my inability to hear one participant. When my microphone was turned up so Spike was barely audible the feedback in the meeting increased. During the meeting, I relied on others' responses to Spike to figure out what was being discussed when he talked. Another disadvantage of the program relates to the video. The host is the only person with access to the saved recordings. In this situation, it's difficult since the file only contained seventeen seconds of the recording. The rest of the video can't be referenced until the host receives the sent e-mails to attempt resending the session. This is also a disadvantage since our timeline and tasks are documented later in the recording. A last disadvantage pertaining to the conferencing tool as a whole relates to cost. After our group's experiences with WebHuddle, Adobe Connect seemed a much smoother web conferencing option with the exception of its cost. Fortunately, a free trial is available; however, I see the cost being a deterrent for use as a web conferencing tool after the trial period expired.
With regard to the content of our group discussion, our group decided the following:
- Jing will be the software we create the tutorial about.
- Powerpoint and Screencast O Matic will be used to produce the tutorial.
- Each member will take a section to complete. I am responsible for the introduction as well as interactions. Additionally, I will be recording the scripts created for each section. Rachel will explain taking screenshots as well as putting together the final edit of the powerpoints and audio. Spike has the responsibility of explaining how to make a video, and Bill will cover how to share both screenshots and videos. Bill also will compile the storyboards.
- As for a timeline for completion, storyboards will be due to Bill June 6. Powerpoints and the recorded audio are to be submitted to Rachel by June 15.
