Tools for Online Synchronous Lessons

Webbex Meetings

Webbex Meetings has proved particularly effective when it comes to events, webinars, training, and remote support allowing up to 200 people to join. Via this platform we can easily conference, collaborate, and present online more productively, without technology hassles getting in the way. Every Webex product is built on Cisco technology, the same technology that supports the Internet.

Webbex Meetings offer an incredible array of features. They’re all standard with any paid subscription:

HD VIDEO CONFERENCING: Cisco WebEx provides HD video conferencing for up to six participants at a time

PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY AND DATA PROTECTION

INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION: Cisco WebEx makes it easy for anyone to join video conference sessions even without video capabilities.

SHARING DESKTOPS AND DOCUMENTS: One of the most powerful features of Cisco WebEx is allowing participants to easily share their desktops or documents in real time.

VIRTUAL WHITEBOARD: it allows you to sketch ideas and create annotation tools for note-taking and brainstorming.

RECORD MEETINGS

Source: webex.com

Suggested activity: Students of a pre-intermediate level read about the story of the Titanic from a Power Point Presentation the teacher shares from her computer. They first share their previous knowledge on the subject and go on to read and analyse different historical pictuires which illustrate the facts. They are given virtual cards with the name of real people on board and find out their fate aboard the titanic by checking various websites with this particular historical information.

Skype

Contribution by Noelia Bustos

Skype is a telecommunications application specialized in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, Xbox consoles, and even smartwatches. It also offers instant messages services. Users may transmit text, video, audio and images. It allows users to communicate over the Internet by voice, using a microphone and by video using a webcam. Skype-to-Skype calls are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones (over traditional telephone networks) are charged via a debit-based user account system called Skype Credit. Although Skype is a commercial product, its free version is used more and more frequently among teachers and schools interested in global education projects. This way, Skype offers to make classrooms more interactive and dynamic. This is a service that teachers can sign up for that will allow students to meet other students, talk to experts, and share ideas. Teachers can collaborate with other teachers around the world and design different learning experiences for their students. Here are some other interesting features of Skype:

o Registered users of Skype are identified by a unique Skype ID.

o Voice chat allows telephone calls between pairs of users and conference calling and uses proprietary audio codec.

o Skype's text chat client allows group chats, emoticons, storing chat history, and editing of previous messages.

o The usual features to instant messaging users such as user profiles, online status indicators are also included.

o Skype supports conference calls, video chats, and screen sharing between 25 people at a time for free.

Suggested activity: Listening and speaking activity about crime and the law. Students in an upper intermediate level watch a video of a famous theft crime in their country. Then, teacher posts a list of questions in the chat section for them to read and lead a discussion. This way, students collaborate and listen to the opinions of others while using the target language.

Zoom

Contribution by Matías Morán

Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing tool where you can host calls with others. Users can open chat rooms and can have up to 500 attendees all sharing the feed from their webcams, thus giving the illusion of a typical meeting. Setting up a Zoom Meeting (either on mobile or desktop devices) is as simple as clicking on an invitation link to launch the app or prompt users to install the interface. This digital tool also comes in a range of pricing packages. The free plan is one of the most compelling offers on the market, which offers a surprisingly rich range of features such as 40-minute meetings and unlimited one-on-one conversations for those who don’t have a high budget. Here are some of the most exciting features of Zoom Meetings:

Join from anywhere on any device
Built-in tools for screen sharing
HD video and audio calls

Support for up to 1,000 video participants
Built-in recording and transcripts
Team chat for groups and one-on-one messaging

Access to extra features like webinars, chat and phone
Breakout rooms

Activity: While delivering a lesson to a large group of upper-intermediate learners, the teacher can give their students some food for thought by posing interesting questions they can reflect upon such as “What do you think of climate change? How do you think we can address this issue?” By using the breakout room feature, the group of students is split into smaller groups to discuss those questions in depth. When they have done so, they can join to the main Zoom meeting and share their ideas altogether.

References

Carter, R. (2020). Zoom Meetings Review: The Ultimate Video Solution? https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/video-conferencing/zoom-meetings-review/

Hangouts Meet

Contribution by Sayi Bocedi.

Hangouts Meet (originally called Google Hangouts) is one of the many different communication platforms avialable for everyone to use. Its main aim is for companies and schools to have a simple virtual software in order to deliver simple, accesible and frictionless videocalls. As most free videocall tools, Hangouts Meet counts with multiple possitive features that will simplify everyone's way of learning:

Up to 25 people per session
Ability to filter and customize a live feed of activity on the network
Post comments on blogs, microblogs, documents, and other items. Vote on posts or content that others have shared.
Provides a live preview of what viewers are seeing in real-time.
Provides a virtual whiteboard for collaborative use.
Tag content to organize and assign to specific departments or categories.
Able to share your desktop screen or an application with the rest of the conference.
Allows users to give audience members control of cursors or tools on the shared screen.

Activity: By using the screen sharing tool, the teacher will share a short video about phrasal verbs with the students, who will note down as many phrasal verbs as possible. Then, using the remote control feature, each student will write one phrasal verb on a glossary or mindmap. This way, the group will be able to create a collaborative mindmap/glossary for everyone to resort to.

Jitsi Meet

Contribution by Leonel Dàttoli.

Jitsi meet is a tool for synchronous meetings. It is very similar Zoom, but neither the host nor the guests need to download the client. The meeting is created and takes place in the website. After creating the meeting, the host shares the link through which the guests access that meeting. The links are reusable. The features Jitsi Meet provides are very similar to Zoom: screen sharing, muting and unmuting guests, a chat and a raise/lower your hand feature. The difference with Zoom lies in features that only Jitsi Meet offers:

There is no time limit.
There is no limit in the number of guests.
Sharing youtube videos feature: in the 3 dots menu there is a specific tool to share youtube videos. This works as if you were sharing the screen, but in Zoom videos are full of lag to the point it's practically unusable. With this feature, videos run perfectly.
Recording feature: Despite the fact Zoom has a recording feature too, Jitsi only allows recording if the host has a dropbox account to which the recording file will be upload to after the meeting has ended. There's no way to download the recording directly to desktops.
Manage video quality feature: Jitsi allows hosts and guests to choose lower qualities of video in case of poor WiFi connection.
It is encrypted and you won't need to create an account.

Suggested activity: While using Jitsi Meet for virtual classes, the teacher can share youtube videos and watch them with their students. This video can be the springboard for discussion, or the warm-up activity of a lesson. For example, in an adults intermediate class, I shared the shortfilm "Lovefield". I paused it several times to give students the opportunity to guess what was going to happen, so they could practice modality.

References

Morse, J. (2020). How to use Jitsi Meet, an open source Zoom alternative. Retrieved from https://mashable.com/article/how-to-use-jitsi-meet-zoom-alternative/

Discord

Contribution by Ayelen Lenge.

Discord is a platform specially designed for video gaming communities. Although its primary feature is voice communication, it can also be used to communicate through text, image, and video. In terms of data usage, Discord is more efficient than other platforms because it only transmits audio data when a participant in a call speaks, while some others -like Skype- constantly transmits audio data (like a phone call). On it, you can create groups or have a one-to-one conversation.What's more, downloading the app is not mandatory for its use.

Some of the benefits of using Discord:

No need to download the app (or anything at all).
Less CPU and RAM usage than other platforms by far.
Friendly UI, with 2 color options (light and dark).
Different chat sections, each one supporting images, GIFs, videos, and files .

Up to 10 video participants with screen sharing options.
No time limit.
More than 100 voice participants.
It's free.

Suggested activity: The teacher makes students watch a video. Once everyone has seen it, they all start a voice call. The teacher divides the students into groups and starts asking questions about the video to see how much they remember (like a Jeopardy). They can keep a record of the points by creating a separate chat section so the game does not interfere with other sections previously created. They can erase it later or leave it to keep a record of further games.

webroom

Contribution by Gisela Morosi

Webroom is a tool for synchronous meetings. It is very similar Zoom. However, webroom is free for up to fifteen participants. In order to use webroom, first, you need to schedule or start a session.

Some of its benefits are:

You can share links easily.
There is a whiteboard.
You can attach files during the class so that the students can download them once the class finishes.
You can show PDF presentations .
You can play MP3 audios from the computer.
You can share the screen.
You can create groups by clicking on the breakout group button.

Suggested activity: The teacher shows a picture to the student. The student talks for one minute. In order to avoid interupting the student, the teacher writes suggestions, misteakes, weak/strong points to comment after the student finishes.

webroom (2020, April). https://webroom.net/

BLACKBOARD COLLABORATE

Contribution by Sol Papandrea.

Last week at my school, we started using a this platform for virtual classes. It has a lot of features that can be really useful!

To begin with, Blackboard Collaborate is a secure virtual platform for learning which ensures that all participants are in synchronised. Whether you have two learners or two hundred, this interactive web conferencing enables communication, collaboration, and education. Students do not need to create an account to use it, once they access to the link provided by the teacher, they write their nicknames and get in.

Teachers and students can collaborate using audio, video, and sharing files. They can also use private and public chat, a whiteboard, application sharing, a clip art library, and add and edit content at any time. In addition, the moderator can create groups for discussions and share a whiteboard for students to write or draw.

One activity that I'd like to try with this app is to play a game with students divided in groups. I will create 3 groups of 4 students and give each group a category of vocabulary ( e.g. food- sports- subjects- jobs). I'll give them 3 minutes to discuss and write as many words as they can. While they discuss in their private rooms, I'll be monitoring. Once they finish, we'll go back to the main room an share the words. The group with more words wins!

Pinup - Sticky Notes and Corkboard - Collaboration

Contribution by Andrea Carina Rabagliati

Pinup.com is quick and easy to take sticky notes and share with your friends. It's simple to use.

Activity

Mini-plenary/reflection: for example, one thing you have learned from today’s lesson. Students post sticky notes with examples, they can add images if they want. Then we can group shared instances and even count how many have learned the same thing, but provided different examples, how many something different. etc

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