Video Conferencing Web based tools are all the rage these days and can be useful for a multitude of activities including keeping in touch with friends or family, attending meetings, observing classes remotely, or in the place of telephone calls. I personally use Skype to keep in touch with my step sister in Arizona and to ensure that my niece Jordyn knows who her aunt is and what I look like! When my step sister and niece first moved to Arizona two years ago I was worried that Jordyn would forget me or know me only as a disembodied voice through a phone as she grew up. But through the use of Skype we have been able to keep in touch and continue to grow our relationship from hundreds of miles away. Skype has allowed me to be at her birthday parties, her soccer games, and Christmas mornings. And it has allowed her to be at big events in my life as well such as announcing my pregnancy, and seeing me cut into a cake during my babies gender reveal party.
Other ways that I have used Skype is to communicate with peers on group projects and to share files. This came in handy during one particular occasion when a file I wanted to send was large and couldn't be sent via email due to file size. I was able to use Skype to send the file and a crisis was easily averted.
While Skype is my go to web tool when it comes to video conferencing there are a number of other tools on the market these days. Here is a breakdown of a few of these products and the features of each.
Skype:
What it has to offer:
Adobe Connect Now:
What it has to offer:
Tiny Chat:
What it has to offer:
Meeting Burner:
What it has to offer:
Yugma:
What it has to offer:
Webex:
What it has to offer:
Other ways that I have used Skype is to communicate with peers on group projects and to share files. This came in handy during one particular occasion when a file I wanted to send was large and couldn't be sent via email due to file size. I was able to use Skype to send the file and a crisis was easily averted.
While Skype is my go to web tool when it comes to video conferencing there are a number of other tools on the market these days. Here is a breakdown of a few of these products and the features of each.
Skype:
What it has to offer:
- Free to use
- Video calls
- Voice calls
- Group calls
- File sharing
- Caller id
- Video messaging to be played later
- Instant messenger
- Text messages
- Voice messages
- Screen sharing
- Send contacts
- Has a payable account options but free meets most needs
Adobe Connect Now:
What it has to offer:
- Free trial
- Paid accounts available in monthly subscriptions, or pay by the minute
- File Sharing
- Screen sharing for up to 25 people
- Take shared notes
- Take polls
- User friendly
- Rich media quality
- Video calls/conferencing
- Private chat options/text messaging
- Instead of calling others, you can send a URL that requires just a click to gain access to your meeting
- Create multiple rooms to help further narrow down discussions
- Record meetings for future viewing
- Measure class attentiveness to lessons in real time
- Individual learner tracking and progress reports
- Access from most mobile devices
Tiny Chat:
What it has to offer:
- Free
- Video chat
- Private messaging
- Group chat rooms
- Group video chat
- 12 video feeds per room
- Not a business or family oriented site, geared more towards social connectivity and does have some more adult content
Meeting Burner:
What it has to offer:
- Both free and paid options
- Free option allows for 10 people to attend
- Screen sharing
- Audio conferencing
- Video streaming
- Group chat
- Free option allows up to 3 people for video conference or screen sharing
- Subscriptions for a price but free trial offered
- Screen sharing
- Shared mouse control
- Recordable
- Drawing tools
- Audio conferencing
- Video conferencing
- 25-100 attendees
- Attend from PC or mobile device
GoToMeeting:
What it has to offer:
Yugma:
What it has to offer:
- Subscriptions available for a cost
- Screen sharing
- Application sharing
- Integrates with Skype to allow screen sharing
- Drawing and presentation tools
- Multiple monitor support (allows users who use multiple computer monitors to choose which they would like shared)
- Web storage for files to be shared
- Record and playback meetings
Webex:
What it has to offer:
- Free account allows sharing with up to 3 people
- Paid subscriptions are available
- Video chat
- Screen sharing
- Feature allowing the meeting to call and invite you instead of using a password or URL
- Record and playback meetings
- Audio chat
- Desktop or mobile device compatable
- Drawing tools