Synchronous Tools
Internet Chat
There are many public chatrooms including instant messaging that tutors can use to conduct tutoring sessions. Most of the common chatrooms can easily be downloaded into both the tutor’s and the student’s computers. Each one varies a little, and since they are more recreational, cannot be archived, although a tutor could be required to save the dialogue as a text file and turn it in to the director. Different tutors using different chatrooms put a burden on the director to have to learn the idiosyncrasies of each chatroom. Since these chatrooms are public spaces, it is possible to have "outsiders" enter the conversation.
Instant Messenger Chats - all free
The following quoted descriptions of service have been taken from each homepage.
Yahoo! Messenger
Features include instant messaging, voice chat, file transfer, webcam videos, displayed images and conferencing capabilities.
MSN (Hotmail) Messenger
"Instant message in real time, get face-to-face with webcam, send messages to your friends’ cell phones..." Also, features status options, voice chat support and file sharing.
AOL (AIM) Instant Messenger
In addition to group chat rooms, sharing pictures and documents, exchanging voice messaging, AIM "...lets you communicate with family, friends and coworkers in real time. Using the AIM Buddy List® feature you can see when your buddies are online and available to instant message."
ICQ ("I Seek You") Chat
Besides instant messaging with individuals or groups (similar to IRC), "...with ICQ you can video/audio chat, send email, SMS and wireless-pager messages, as well as transfer files and URL'S."
Trillian
"Trillian is a multinetwork chat client that currently supports mIRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. It supports docking, multiline edit boxes, buddy alerts, multiple connections to the same medium, a powerful skinning language, easy importing of your existing contacts... and a unified contact list."
IRC: Internet Relay Chat
IRC is a virtual meeting place open to anyone who has access to the Internet. To quote mirc.com, "IRC is the net's equivalent of CB radio."It consists of numerous separate networks of IRC servers (machines that allow users to connect to IRC). It becomes an enormous network of networks of people chatting with each other around the world. There can be as many as 100,000 users on any one network at any one
moment. Each network can have more than 2000 channels (the "official" name of chatrooms).
The value of IRC to online tutoring is that again it offers virtual space for tutoring to take place. It seems a bit cumbersome because the tutor and students have to download both telnet and some client software (a list follows), learn specific IRC commands and not get distracted by the hundreds of other chats taking place. (Telnet is a utility program and protocol that allows one computer to connect to another computer on a network.)
Tutors can name (set up) and open a channel and control who has access so that it would become a private conversation or an invite-only channel. Unfortunately, on most servers as soon as the last person leaves a channel, it disappears. This would necessitate the tutor to set up the channel every time he/she decided to have an online session. As in instant messaging, there is no way to archive the discussion unless the tutor saves it as a text file. It is text based without symbols or a whiteboard. Qwest is promising that "IRC is soon going to permit the full-color, live-action video required for video-conferencing."
In order to connect with IRC, a user needs to download client software. This software allows the user to connect with the IRC networks. There are many as seen in the list below and beware they change often.
| mIRC | http://www.mirc.co.uk/index.html |
| LeafChat | http://leafdigital.com/software/leafchat/ |
|
Fahrenheit
Carrera
|
http://www.sofasitters.com/ |
| XiRCON | http://www.xircon.com/ |
| Internet Tele Cafe | http://www.telecafe.com/telecafe/ |
Information from mirc website by Tjerk Vonck
tjerk@mirc.com
One of the most popular IRC clients for Windows is mIRC. It provides a wealth of information about IRC networks, installations, commands, protocols, solutions to common problems and the basics of how to start.
WebMeeting:
WebMeeting is a synchronous chatroom/whiteboard combination with many features
that are helpful to tutoring. While the users are typing in the keyboard chat, they have
a whiteboard available to draw on or use as a board for projecting applications from
their computer screens or sharing what is on the computer for participants. For
example, the tutor could write out a problem on the whiteboard and then the students’
whiteboard capability could be activated so that each could work on the problem
together. Some of the other useful features are co-browsing, transferring files, voice
chats, video conferencing, and user polling.
WebMeeting is a one time purchase that is installed on a local server. Since it is browser-based, the users do not have to download any software. It is also designed to work well with a 56k Internet connection.
Net Meeting:
Net
Meeting is a free product that "delivers a complete conferencing solution
for all Windows users with multi-point date conferencing, text chat, whiteboard,
and file transfer, as well as point-to-point audio and video." Microsoft
no longer supports or owns it so it will surely change characteristics as its
name and ownership change.
The chat feature is similar to instant messaging, but it has a feature to save the Chat session to a file for future reference. Since files can be transferred, Net Meeting would meet the needs of online writing tutoring with both tutor and student sharing a Word document. With Version 3, security is a new feature - exchanged data can be encrypted, certificates can be issued to insure user authentication, and/or the session can require a password.
Net Meeting has a whiteboard with different colored pens/high lighters to differentiate speakers and the contents can also be saved.
To use the audio features, the tutor and student will need a sound card with microphone and speakers. For video, they will each need a video capture card or camera.
To connect, one user calls the IP (Internet Protocol) address of another or other users. The address would look something like this 185.182.12.4. The IP address is the Internet’s version of a phone number. One disadvantage of using Net Meeting is that the computers need to have a static address - one that never changes. This would work for tutors and students from home, but now most colleges assign an IP address from a pool of IP addresses they are permitted to use. So IP addresses are used randomly, which is called dynamic addressing. Thus, using campus computers will not work unless there are some dedicated computers with static IP addresses or a particular computer dedicated to Net Meeting.
In addition, most networks and home routers now use firewalls, which also interfere with NetMeeting. (A firewall is hardware or software that secures computer files by blocking unauthorized access.) To be able to use NetMeeting on campus, the IT campus staff has to become very involved in solving the problems of dynamic addresses and firewalls for NetMeeting to function.
WebBoard: WebBoard has synchronous chatrooms within its secure system which are transcripted. A whiteboard opens at the same time to allow writing with math, accounting and chemistry notations or drawing.
Video Conferencing:
Video Conferencing has been around for a long time. It was one of the first technologies in distance education. A teacher in one place would broadcast his or her lesson to students in other places. Both locations could see and hear the other at the same time. As technology has advanced, video conferencing has been able to encompass more, such as computer application sharing, file transferring, projecting whatever is on the computer screen and whiteboarding. Because these high speed networks are capable of carrying large amounts of text, voice and video data, they have almost replaced the older much slower set up with regular telephone lines.
Many secondary and post-secondary educational entities now have their own network systems which can link them all together. It has become increasingly easier to connect any place within the system, greatly to the benefit of rural areas.
The audio-visual media service staff is essential for setting up the video conferencing room and connecting to the network, either digital telephone networks such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) or the Internet IP (Internet Protocols). One disadvantage of using the Internet IP is that it competes for bandwidth with other Internet data slowing the Internet connections while delivering audio clipping or delays, and jerky videos.
Basically, a video conference system must have audiovisual equipment (monitor, camera, microphone, and speaker) as well as a means of transmitting information between sites. To enhance the transmitted lessons, VHS video, computers, document cameras, wall cameras to show the room’s whiteboard, and a document projector are an important addition to the conference room making it truly multimedia. In addition a codec unit (abbreviation for compression/decompression) is necessary to process videos through complex algorithm, which compress the file and then decompress it for playback. This process is what gives it the name of "compressed video."
A major problem in using video conferencing for tutoring is the scheduling. Usually a network manager must be consulted to gain clearance; in addition, the media specialists must set up the conference at the sites involved. Many conferencing rooms are being used to capacity, and often a technician must be available to run the equipment. If a college or university has a well equipped set up, it is worth investigating it for tutoring, especially if the tutoring situation is between campuses. Otherwise, the participants have to go to a conferencing room at a compressed video site.
