downtherabbithole

Thanks to the intel people and especially Alan for allowing me to learn how to use elluminate. It was a roller coaster ride at first as we had trouble getting online from school and then when we did Alan seemed to be kicked out by the moderator (who assured us that she hadn’t done this, it was a glitch in the system) The whole thing was amazing, it’s an online conference centre which remains open for as long as you’ve paid for ( I assume it’s very expensive) and then closes. Your conference can include all types of media files, including web pages running live and each participant can be given different levels of access, the general level being a microphone to discuss things with and a voting button as well as several emoticons. They can be allowed to ‘roam’ through the presentation, which means to view it in any order they wish (which could be very chaotic) or you can control the order that they see things in. There is a virtual whiteboard, on which, being the consummate professionals that we are we all drew mustaches on the face that was there and wrote our names graffitti style. It is a great way to have a conference without leaving your office, however, we did get some funny looks and some even funnier comments from other teachers who passed the room. One thought that maybe we were setting up our own call centre.

I will be presenting soon using this software and obviously I need a lot more training and so the Intel people have very kindly allowed me the time to play and practice. I admit to being nervous about the final presentation, but I’m willing to give it a go as much for the experience as anything else.

I would really love to have access to something like this to deliver lessons after school. I wonder if the budget is up to it???