Elluminate - Another tool for linking lots of remote locations – LIVE! - Val Brooks

I’ve only recently joined the etwinning ambassadors but am really excited with the possibilities of helping schools engage in the chance of some more really exciting projects with the assistance of some of the tools I have experienced.

I have often used Flashmeeting which has been a great way of connecting people live, but because of it offering even more collaborative features, the main tool I have been using for the last four years is a proprietary product called Elluminate (www.elluminate.com). This, like Flashmeeting, is secure webconferencing software which allows live remote connections over the internet (even on a dial-up connection) and has the ‘usual’ features of voice, text and webcam but also includes many other collaborative features such as:

• Shared, interactive whiteboard allowing participants to record and save contributions to discussions
• Sharing of applications; for example: being able to share a Word document from one machine which can be edited by someone on another machine, or being able to demonstrate a piece of software without participants having it installed on their own machine
• Transferring of files between participants
• Multimedia files can be shared by every participant
• Polling and quiz features
• Participants can be ‘moved’ to breakout rooms so that they can work in groups
• Text tool allows messages to be seen by everyone or can be sent ‘privately’ to individual participants
• Recording of sessions for review
• ‘Rooms’ are easily accessed but a weblink which can just be sent out to participants or put on a website – they don’t need to pre-register
• ‘Rooms’ can be set up so that the moderator or teacher has complete control by being able to give and take ‘privileges’

Elluminate offers a ‘vRoom for three’ people completely free of charge which would certainly be enough for three schools to meet remotely in a similar way to video conferencing but with all the extra tools Elluminate provides. However, with me working in Stockton City Learning Centre, we have been able to purchase ‘seats’ which has enabled us to link many schools from Stockton with schools outside of the area – and all schools who have worked on projects with us have then been able to access our Elluminate rooms completely free of charge. Some of the projects we have worked on can be seen on our Case Studies site, http://vle.stocktonclc.co.uk/course/view.php?id=6 (click 'Login as a guest'), and in one session we hosted, we had more than 215 participants logged on simultaneously!

Two main projects which I see could be used in etwinning particularly are:

1) Cars – Maths in Motion – where schools work on setting up a car for a grand prix race and then meet live online to race the cars – we have been doing this with New Zealand, Kuwait and have just got a school in Australia to join too. It also looks like we will get a school in Germany joining us too – and we would love some schools in other countries to get involved.

2) Rocks from Space – a project involving lots of schools where children investigate the solar system with the help of real scientists. The children are able to use a forum to ask questions and the scientists respond to them, and we also have live sessions when children can ask questions too – and we have previously, and hope to again this year, linked with international space scientists in Texas during National Science and Engineering week in March.

I would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in getting involved in either of these projects or any of the other ones mentioned on our Case Studies site. Do get in touch if you want to know more.

Comments

[Michael O'Donnabhain]

Hi Val, I find this all very exciting - had a look at the website and it looks really good. Unfortunately, I couldn't download anything to watch the demo, will do so on my home computer :) Thanks for sharing the info with us

[Michael Dudley]

Hi val. I've just read your article from March 05 2008. I'm a primary school teacher with a link to a school in France. Etwinning suggestied we used 'Elluminate' for web cam conferencing but how do I get started? Can you or anyone else help? Many thanks Michael Dudley

[Owain Kimber]

Hi Michael

Please email etwinning@britishcouncil.org and one of our team members will answer your query in full

Kind regards

The eTwinning Team