MegaMeeting.com seems super full featured, but I'm not going to even bother given the price tag.
So I'm most familiar with the Zoho environment. They make many full featured tools to create and edit things in the cloud. I was excited to check out their meeting function because it looked full featured because you can integrate it with their other products. For a free account you can only have a conference with one other member. The audio support seems great (skype, phone-in, and local Zoho). One problem, I set up a meeting with another email account of mine using two different browsers - had to download an executable file to get it to work. That may not be possible for all users - especially those that are working on lab computers that don't give them administrative privileges. By using the same computer I got a wicked feedback loop, but I'll give this a shot on two computers one day and get back to you. Looks pretty elegant, but who wants to pay for their students to have access? Looks like there is screenshare and a White Board type feature - I would think this would be a good option if you had the cash.
mebeam seems ridiculously easy to set up, but it only worked on Safari on my Mac. It did not work on either Chrome (actually I finally it to work but the pop-up seems buggy) or Firefox. The flash video settings window did not function. It hosed the entire process.
I was able to use my Google Login and set up a meeting page with relative ease. Posted a YouTube video using the embed code inside the chat. I don't really understand how to get the audio up and running. Would have to investigate TokBox to figure it out.
TokBox has a smooth interface. Looks like they charge for a lot of features. The option to use EtherPad for collaborative writing, SlideShare to watch slideshows (PPT), YouTube, Flickr, and Picasa makes it an easy way to respond to media within a conference. Looks like they are removing the EtherPad feature (bummer). Usable interface and appealing media features makes this a viable option.
No luck with confabio.com. Perhaps that ship has sunk.
Palbee.com seems to have a nice interface and White Board feature. The Library List feature looks like it could be used to show media (PPT and JPG). Seems like it is similar to TokBox, but I am still waiting for the automatically generated email to hit my inbox so I can access the thing. The ability to record meetings would be a nice feature to have students self-correct or reflect on production. Perhaps instructors could annotate to bring learners' attention to certain features of the interaction.
I guess of all the meeting clients out there. I would have to recommend TokBox at the moment, but I should give it a shot after they remove EtherPad on tax day and update my review.
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3 years ago
I had problems with PalBee, too! It looked like it had a more professional interface, good for meetings or classes. I, too, am still waiting for my automatically generated invite--I've requested invites from two different web addresses. Maybe they aren't around anymore, either?
ReplyDeleteHey Jeffrey, I agree with you that mebeam was really easy to set up, but when I tried to set up a video chat it asked me to type in the name of the room I wanted to chat in. I wasn't sure if this was something I was supposed to know or just make up. Also, I don't think I ever recieved my e-mail from palbee either. I did like tokbox, but it didn't seem much different than meebo, which worked well too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the extensive research. I'm certainly not patient enough to log onto sites that don't work, and I certainly wouldn't want to waste my students' time either.
ReplyDeleteThe great benefit of TokBox is that you can invite other users by starting a conference and sending them a unique URL that is specific to that conference. I believe Meebo requires that you already have participants as contacts from the IM systems you use. With TokBox you can send anyone an invite without having to add them into your contacts list first. This convenience is another reason why I think TokBox is where it's at.
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