Hello everyone! I have done a fair amount of research on web conferencing platforms and found that Elluminate is the only one that is accessible with low bandwidth/dial up connections with a large amount of features. I maintain a wiki  (http://caisefiles.wikispaces.com) of videconferencing/web conferencing resources and have become an 'Elluminate convert' as a result. I am also the administrator for the Flat Classroom(tm) Project and we use Elluminate exclusively for our global meetings.

As a member of the Host Your Own Webinars group here at LearnCentral, you can have access to a fully featured Elluminate room as long as your session is free and open to the public. The topic of your sessions may not appeal to the LearnCentral community at large so your session may end up being a 'private' session per se.

I am also one of the three co hosts of the 'Classroom 2.0 LIVE!' show that we hold in Elluminate each Saturday morning. We have participants from the very southern tip of South Africa, China, Thailand, etc. and attendees are able to participate fully without getting disconnected. Just something to think about when planning future sessions!

Just making sure folks know the ways to reduce Elluminate bandwidth needs.

1.  Change the connection settings in "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Session" > Connection.  You can set it as low as 28.8.

2.  Reduce any video connections to the lowest resolution settings

3.  Use a telephone bridge--where available or appropriate--to bring in some of the participants who have low to no bandwidth.

Usually Elluminate gets high marks for low bandwidth situations...  Hope these suggestions help!

Steve

Thanks for sharing Ewa,

It sounds like you have similar experiences to the teachers I observe when I visit schools in Borneo - Elluminate proves to be a great tool  to use but the context within which teachers work makes it difficult to make it a part of a teaching and learning solution.  There are some excellent and free video conferencing options that allow many users to be connected at the same time, and perhaps this is the best way forward until budget and bandwidth are available?  VSEE is probably one of the easiest to use free options - (doesn't run on a Mac).

I see two related issues really, bandwidth and scalability.  To use Elluminate it would be helpful to be able to trial a full version as this is the only way to see if it will work in the environment where it is intended that it be used.  A 3 user version trial doesn't supply enough data to inform decisions about widespread implementation.

Regards

Mike

I love LearnCentral community because of the diverse population of educators and topics that unite people.  

My college uses Moodle and we used to integrate Elluminate Live* within it. Last Fall I was on sabbatical and didn't participate in any decisions re: Instructional technologies as I used to (I was Chair of ATAC (Academic Technology Advancement Committee). So --- during my absence the administration made a decision to switch to WebEx. I find Elluminate a wonderful platform for virtual sessions - it has almost all I need to make the meeting with the learners interactive and "live".

I also facilitate online Moodle for Teachers workshops with the global team of educations. We use WiZiQ as a free web-conferencing platform for synchronous meetings. I have been just introduced to Vyew. I am going to try it out too.  

It is fascinating to see what educators have to stay connected with the learners!

Hello all,

A very interesting thread.  I am using a combination of Moodle with an SSO to Mahara and then integrating multiple other spaces.  Mahara is our hub (really I only use Moodle as a front page for parents to view schedules/ need a CLE now), as my courses operate with project based learning and ePortfolio assessment as core. Mahara has a robust social networking system that gets used quite a bit by my students.  Also the tear away "spaces" allow for work sharing in very innovative ways see a recent student project here.  We link out to wikispaces for colllaborative editing, and Diggo for collaborative bookmarking and research.  I am very interested in integrating something like Learn Central in a seamless way, for group conferencing.  Still thinking....

Hello,
I'm a head teacher in Kindergaten from Poland. We used vRoom to the communication among eTwinning partners.
Miriam Schembri from Malta and me we had videoconference through vRoom.
Little children can work in real time. They enjoyed meeting so much. Even we tried make a Snowman in our classes. We from real snow, Malta from ice balls.
It was very funny meeting but we cannot buy full version. We use free for three. We haven't got accesses to all tools. What a pity !
Use vRoom requires very good internet connection. Our session got lost too quickly.
We have plan for continuation of collaboration on vRoom. This was reason, that our "Colours of Life" project was Winner in European eTwinning Prizes 2010.

Thank you Elluminate Team :)

Now we will make new project called "Classroom in the Clouds"
I hope, taste on-line lessons in early education, will bring more benefits during higher education.
Best reagards,
Ewa