Internship+Reflections

This page will hold the reflections for web conferences and other internship activities.

Week 2 web conference reflection

I participated in the web conference this week. I listen to the web conferences to get information about the courses, not to learn about web conferencing as I manage a web conference every week for my school district. The system that is used here provides the opportunity for every participant to be seen and to discuss issues with webcams and microphones. It poses problems to involve so many students in the video channel because you have to set them as presenters. As people are getting used to the conferences they don't mess up the room as often, but there are still times that a person accidentally covers the workspace with all of the video windows or something else that affects the conference. It is more effective to have people submit questions via the text chat. It is helpful to provide audio chat for participants, but it would work best if the host could mute participants who accidentally leave their microphones on.

The information imparted in the conference is very helpful and the web conferences help everyone to ask questions and clarify issues.

Week 3 web conference reflection

I participated in the web conference this week. I missed the beginning of the web conference. There was good information this week also. A lot of time was spent making people comfortable. I thought that I may not have been the only person that had a lower grade than I wanted in week 1. The question was asked about resubmitting the week 1 assignments. The first answer made sense but as more people ask the same question over and over again, it gets confusing. There is very little the conference moderator can do about that, but an important consideration. Web conferences bring up some unique circumstances that must be considered when they are used in an educational environment. When I taught a training series through a makeshift web conference, the teachers involved had to get used to watching the running chat and listening to the directions and presentation. I believe that the Lamar instructors do a pretty good job of keeping the conferences casual which removes a good bit of the stress of hanging on every word of the presenter. This casual nature for the web conferences frees the participants to get involved in all aspects of the conference. That makes each conference an environment where the objective of learning the forum can be achieved. Allowing the participants the opportunity to have presenter rights and place their video stream on the board gives them the chance to learn. The number of times that the window gets messed up by someone has gone down, although there is always someone who accidentally does that. It just takes time for people to learn the system.

Week 4 web conference reflection

This web conference was one that turned out to be a session to encourage the participants in the course. The conference went pretty well, with no real technology issues. We discussed the curriculum vitae and how that should be included in the project. It was suggested that some have included them as an appendix in the comprehensive exam. I expect to follow that model. This web conference was short and there wasn't a lot to discuss. There was also more discussion about APA style. There was also some question about the week 5 assignment and how to submit it since there seems to be a part A and a part B. I don't see what they are talking about, but perhaps I am just overlooking it.