Over the last few years I have looked at various web-based conferencing tools, to see if any of the ‘free’ ones could be seriously used for teaching purposes, and generally there has always been something about the tools that has held them back. Yesterday a colleague of mine introduced me to this tool (currently in Beta) called DimDim and my initial thoughts are that this looks good.
You don’t need to install any propriety software (it may need a few java applelets) and once set up, one person hosts the meeting – they then invite attendees who access it. It has the usually features of being able to show a presentation, show a desktop, share a whiteboard (for doodling), chat etc. When we were trialling it yesterday, we could both speak simultaneously without any breaking up or interference, and I was running from a wireless network.
Obviously need to test it further, and see if there is any reason why college security settings would stop it from working, but so far it has got my thumbs up.
Filed under: e-learning, social software (web 2.0)
