Week Two: Webcams and Social Bookmarking

This week our focus in class has to do with webcams and social bookmarking.

I've had a webcam built into my laptop for the past year or more, but have never found a way to make use of it in my work. It's not that I haven't wanted to try it out, but my lack of experience with the webcam has held me back from giving it a go. I had my first meeting via webcam this week with my professor and found it relatively easy to use. I learned that while Skype is quite commonly used for virtual meetings and chats, there are several other options out there such as tokbox and eyejot that can be used to communicate with people at a distance. I was excited to learn that there is a "share desktop" option on Skype, which could be quite useful in my role of trainer; especially when I have questions regarding computer applications, I could have people connect with me via Skype so I can see what they are doing and then model a process for them without having to set up an appointment to meet in person. I am still learning about other webcam and video conferencing options and plan to look at each carefully to really get to know the capabilities of each before rolling out a virtual training process with my staff.

As far as social bookmarking is concerned, this is new territory for me but I think it could be extremely useful within my work world. As educators my coworkers and I try to stay on top of trends in education as well as the political world and how it impacts education. We are continually finding articles online and emailing links to one another. I currently have my Outlook set up to filter articles to a particular folder, but only I have access to those files. It would make a lot of sense to make use of a social bookmarking site that people within our company could access and it would stay organized, as well as take up less space on our exchange/email server. I plan to propse setting up a profile for Learning Exchange at our next Leadership Meeting.

I continue to learn new things each day as I make my way through the coursework of the MEIT program. I will be sure to post how the virtual training and social bookmarking are working out once I am able to give them a try. Wish me luck!