Wed. Oct 13th 8pm Web Conference

     Although I read somewhere that there are no additional costs to participating in a web conference, I purchased a $35 web camera and microphone in order to participate.  I connected early, anticipating I may have problems.  Too early as no one was there.  I left my session open, as the message on the screen said that I would be added as soon as my host arrived, but came back to find it had been closed.  So I started another session and was quickly joined to the web conference.  I’ve participated in a few live conferences in healthcare, but this was a little different.  While the healthcare conferences involve multiple sites, after connecting you only see the hosting site.  In this conference, I could see everyone who had their camera working.  I figured out by the end that mine must not have been working.  The content, however, was presented in much the same way.  Basically a power point and talking head, but then it is hard to make this kind of thing exciting.  As usual the internet was it’s dependable self and we had to deal with frozen images and missed or broken speech.  On a professional level, web conferencing can save time and money.  You can bring people together without having to travel.  As a student, I think podcasting is probably a more reliable means of delivering the same information.  Coupled with a blog for each podcast and you have instant feedback and discussion from your students.