Navigate 2.1.1 Delivery Methods and the Synchronous Vendor Market Quest

Adobe Connect - Can easily email the link after setting up the meeting and when users enter, it looks like a chat room and has the members/attendees listed. For middle school, I might even consider allowing them to select a user name so they feel more comfortable collaborating with the group. They can use the private messaging function in case they do not feel confident enough to ask their question through collaboration. Adobe Connect has a great mobile app that could be used by educators and learners. It can be integrated into the outlook email, which is our school's network account. Lessons and sessions can be recorded for those students who are unable to attend and there are private chatrooms, video capabilities and screenshare. YouTube is filled with tutorials that are focused on specific capabilities and the tutorials are really good. Finally, Something that works on PC, MAC, Ipad, and the phones - this is really something we have done without this past year because the iPads did not work with Flash - this software uses flash but guarantees that it works with ipads. Most of these tools have set amounts depending on the hosts, but Adobe actually charges according to the actual tool and they add or take away capabilities as needed. The WebEx has several different options, and I think the free one could be used for small online groups without ever having to purchase the program. It allows 3 people per meeting and would be great to use for small team collaboration or teacher-student remediation and tutorials. This program has screen share and whiteboard, allows for uploading and working on documents, showing small standard videos and even offers technical support. The purchase price is not too bad, depending on how many administrators/hosts are desired. I think this looks much like Blackboard where you can schedule your meetings, but I do like the way you can schedule meetings in Outlook, while uploading and sending documents and files to participants so they can be prepared for the meeting.The set up can show a video at the same time as the chat - and I know from experience that many students do not have capability of webconferencing at the middle school level, so they can chat and disucss through that medium as others web conference. You don't even have to download the software because once you sign up to use it, it actually downloads to your computer as you use it the first time. This has everything you need for a synchronous classroom lesson and discussion and is an affordable tool. Blackboard Collaborate is the tool that I currently use for my online classroom meetings with students and I do like the way you can schedule meetings, invite participants and there is a huge range of screens, functions, and interactive capabilities that can be used in this software. It is more expensive than some of the others but our virtual school has it for at least another few months. I usually record our sessions for those who want to review them or those who cannot attend and have the option of transferring the recrding to MP3 or MP4. There are multiple functions and many private rooms that can be used for collaboration in Blackboard. There are really cool signals for hand raising, clapping, and other things for students as they chat and participate in a lesson. I like this one because I am familiar with it - but will admit it was not simple for me to learn to use the many tools that accompany this program. There are many tutorials availalbe out there in Youtube and on Blackboard's site that are helpful for holding lessons. I did not sign up for the free trial of the GoToMeeting because they wanted my credit card info and wanted to automatically start charging me after the 25 day trial period. However, I am fairly certain that these resources are similar and offer the same type of environment for the students. Sometimes, the online student who gets only asynchronous assignments and lessons tends to become isolated and may not be as motivated unless some type of collaboration and sychronous learning is mixed into the learning. These tools provide the opportunity for students to chat together, share ideas, get immediate feedback and answers to questions, and respond to discussions in real time. I have used both Kahn Academy and Learnzillion and both are excellent tools for online students, with learnzillion being a bit more simple and interactive. Kahn is specifically video oriented whereas Learnzillion has an instructor talk through examples and lessons in more of a slideshow or powerpoint format. Students are not able to interact with the instructor but may use these resources to form ideas and compile questions or responses to questions by participating in them.