Spotlight on Technology - Web Conferencing with Seth Nagy

Seth Nagy, Extension Agent - Agriculture in Caldwell County recently used Elluminate Live! to bring Matt Poore, Extension Specialist, to the county cattlemen's meeting. He shared his experience and what he learned from this with several people and agreed to let me share it here.

I had my first real public test with Elluminate Tuesday at the County Cattlemen's Meeting. Matt gave a great talk to our cattlemen from the comfort of his home (or maybe his office). The technology really worked great. Matt loaded his talk on to the whiteboard. I switched the whiteboard to presentation mode. This made the whiteboard full screen so it looked like a normal power point. Everything seemed great except I could not use the chat window to communicate with Matt. I did not want to leave the presentation mode, because Matt's presentation would have shrunk and typing in the chat window would have been distracting to the participants.

One solution would be to have a second laptop and log into the Elluminate session. This would allow me to chat/communicate with the presenter and still have the audience get the "full" experience. Downside to this solution, two laptops, two Internet connections (hub), etc.

After thinking about the problem, I came up with a second solution to the problem that requires only one computer. Change the video settings, make the second monitor an extended_desktop - rather than a clone (Windows XP Control Panel -> Display -> Advanced). This allows what is shown on the projector (aka second monitor) to be independent of the what is on the laptop screen. Then I started a second Elluminate session that I can keep on my laptop display. This allows me to communicate with the other Elluminate participants without distracting the audience.

On a Mac, to get the extended desktop go to System Preferences -> Displays -> Arrangement and uncheck Mirror Displays.

Some ways web conferencing can be used in Extension:

Bring speakers into a meeting - like Seth did. You can bring anyone into your meeting - all you need are some speakers, a projector and a microphone. Now you can bring speakers in from anywhere in the world! I'm sure Matt Poore appreciated being home immediately after he finished his presentation. And his travel budget appreciated not having another several hundred miles, meals and lodging spent. It also makes it so you can justify having a specialist attend a much smaller meeting. Every agent has their own niche specialty. Now other counties can tap on that expertise from across the state - or country.

Speak at other's meetings - You have expertise in at least one area. You can share that with others without having to travel. The more you share on a topic, the more you learn! There are lots of places in your "Performance Appraisal" that can be improved by becoming known as the expert in a particular area and sharing that knowledge.

Teaching classes - I've been using Elluminate Live to teach more than 100 classes since May of 2007 and have run into very few problems. I can do just about everything in a web conferencing session that I could do in a face-to-face meeting. The NC Master Gardeners have had several classes simultaneously in multiple counties conducted via Elluminate Live! All the locations could benefit by the questions asked from the other locations.

Enhanced conference calls - if all the participants can be at a computer, this is an excellent option - and FREE by using the Voice Over IP (VOIP) built into the web conferencing software. This is better than a conference call because participants can raise their hand, type questions, answers and comments in the chat window, answer questions using the polls, share documents from their computer, write on the whiteboard and much more.

Virtual office - when I'm in my office and 'available', I try to keep my virtual office open. See my home page for the link.

One-on-one conversations - again, no need for long distance phone charges and if the participants have a camera, they can see each other. Great for when you want to share what you see on your computer.

Computer help - this is a great way to help someone having computer problems. You can see their computer screen and even request control of it so you can type and move their mouse.

I think Seth summed it up well when he said "Now that I have used Elluminate, the possibilities are really exciting!"

If you have ideas or suggestions, please post a comment!

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