Reflection on Web Conference 3-6-2011

Prior to this course I have not had any experience participating in a web conference. Although I know what they are and how beneficial they can be, I have not taken advantage of prior opportunities. When I was an auditor I know that web conferencing was done quite often to interact with clients that were hundreds of miles away but I never thought I would see web conferencing in education. I know that web conferences have the potential to be a very effective means of communication and it is a convenient way to get input from numerous parties. At the outset of the web conference I thought I was in for nothing more than an hour long headache but once all the technical glitches got fixed and the screen stopped having a mind of its own the conference actually turned out to be very informative. Experiencing firsthand the benefits of participating in a web conference has inspired me to learn more about what it takes to set one up so that I can use it as a resource for the students in my classroom. Currently, I am not taking advantage of the positive attributes of web conferencing but this course continues to ensure me that I will need to embrace technology and the various resources that are available if I plan to flourish as an educator in the 21st century. Becoming familiar with technology is no longer a thing of the past and web conferencing is just another tool that I can use to help my students become life-long learners in a global society.