Web Conferencing

Free Video Chatting Services
In preparation for this assignment, I had a few friends volunteer to try out various video chatting services with me.  We tried Vyew, Web Huddle, Google+ Hangouts, iChat, and Skype.  While each services had its pros and cons, here are the highlights:

Web Huddle offered the best quality screen share.  It was almost as clear as on the original screen.  It offered very limited controls to everyone other than the person who started the meeting.  Vyew had the best tutorial.  It was also the best at uploading and sharing files.  Its downfall was the complexity.  The controls were not intuitive, and featured a cluttered display.  Google+ let all of us talk to, see, and type to each other.  However, the features are limited.  There is no option to share screens or files (although Google Docs could be used, since this is a Google product).  iChat had by far the clearest video stream.  It also came with options such as backgrounds and face distortions (amusing, but not particularly useful).  There was also no way to share files.  While on iChat, I can chat with users on other servies (eg Yahoo Instant Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger), but one can only actually use iChat itself from a Mac.  Skype allows users to share screens, video, and text chat when there are only a couple of users.  When we tested it with four of us, only voice and text chatting were enabled.

Paid Video Chatting Services
Having said all of that, I have used three pay sites in classes at MSU and UNC-Wilmington.  Adobe Connect is nice because users do not need to create accounts or download anything.  They can simply login with any alias--no password required! (this could also be a bad thing by users creating fake names or impersonating others)  The administrator can share their screen, or give that right to other users by promoting them to "presenter."  Wimba is similar, but users are automatically signed in with their Blackboard accounts (if the university pays for both Blackboard and Wimba).  MediaSite is different from both of these because it is best for recording with a video camera, rather than screen sharing.

All three of these services allows for recordings to be viewed later, offer chat windows, and audio.  All in all, Wimba probably has the most features, but they are all niche products.

Reflections
My office is in the school's library, which I help run.  The potential for video chatting in my "classroom" is video chatting with an author or another classroom (think foreign language--maybe a class in Spain learning to speak English?).  Depending on how many users were logged in, I would suggest that we use either Skype or Google+ Hangouts.