Remember my web conferencing post a few days ago? I found a free one on the net. It doesn't have all the tools of Elluminate, but it is really neat considering it is free. I have used it in a tutoring-style situation now with another Homeschool Blooger's two children and it works quite well. OK, OK, you are probably wondering why I am posting about this service. It is a tool where we can all help each other when we get stuck knowing how to explain something to our kids or we want to offer classes to each other via the net.

You can sign up to get your own free web conferencing account at http://vyew.com. You will get your very own number assigned to you. They call it a meeting number, but to me it seems more like having a private office with a room number posted above the door. Once you get an account, you will have a room that looks like this - I have added some text onto my whiteboard in this image.

Let's say you are teaching an online class using it or are going to tutor someone. The guest student doesn't have to have an account to join your meeting and so long as the students' browser is current on plug-in will not even have to download any software. Just send a link, they take it and their browser opens up in your meeting room. Alternately, they can go to the Vyew homepage and enter your meeting/room number to enter.

Once they arrive you can chat using the text chat feature. They have a voice-based call feature built in, but some students may get charged a long-distance fee from their own phone company if they are not in a local call zone of the phone conference provider. Considering many of my co-op kids are rural they probably will not be in a call zone. I have been testing Yahoo IM's voice feature with Yahoo IM running minimized in the background. The student(s) and I can hear each other so long as the student has a microphone. Today I am getting ready to test Skype to compare the sound quality and speed to Yahoo IM.

The teacher can control which students get to use the whiteboard tools. You can have all their priveleges removed and they will only be able to watch. Or, you can give a student access to his whiteboard tools (pen, eraser, shape tool, select tool, and pointer) by selecting his name from the student list, left clicking, and promiting him. You can even turn on all the kids' toolboxes at the same time. I am trying to remember how many students can be in there at one time. It was either 6 or 20.

Here are a few uses.

Let's say you and your child get stumped on how a math problem or concept goes. Most of the time, math things are hard to explain using typical text tools (square root signs, summation signs, fractions, etc.). With the whiteboard the steps can be written out just like a whiteboard on the wall can be - all with voice if you use an IM with a microphone. Just get the 'knower' and the 'knowees' together and the light turns on. LOL.

Another use might be to use this if you teach, or are in a homeschool co-op. The co-op kids could meet here for extra help, presentations, debates, or the class can meet together between face to face meeting times to work on a group project.

'Slides', images, can be uploaded so that presentations can be made in the conference room. Just like giving a PowerPoint presentation. The 'teacher' and students can use the drawing tools to annotate right over the slide. Today two students and I played around with using circles made with the shape tool for playing pieces with a gameboard-like background. We were able to grab and move the pieces around. There is lots of potential with this to play games both as a teaching tool or just for social fun.

If you know someone who has skills that you would like to tutor your children, this could be a useful platform to suggest to the potential tutor. The option to teach from home in bathrobe and slippers as opposed to driving to teach might be a selling point to convince that 'expert' to give it a try. :0)

By the same token, if you have a skill that other families would want to have taught to them, you have a great means of teaching via this tool. I don't know if you can use this free tool and charge to tutor. The license agreement doesn't go into that. Free is fine. You can always ask the Vyew owners/developers. If you use this free one and come to see it as a great way to offer fee-based turoring, you can bump up to Elluminate Lite ($50/month for 10 maximum seats in your 'classroom) or Elluminate Academic version ($65/mo average - you cannot buy this one by month. You have to buy a year's subscription. No seat limit). Of course the Elluminate will give you many more tools for what you have to pay.

There are bunches of other things that can be done which I will post about as I learn more. If anyone wants to play around with what this tool can do, just e-mail or instant message me and I will send you a link to come into my room. I can help with some school related topic or I can just show you how you can use it as a teaching tool to teach at a distance. My Yahoo IM ID is armoorefam. You can e-mail me at armoorefam@centurytel.net.