Real-Time Chat

Would you like for students in your project work to chat together about what they have done? If you would like to set up a Chat, contact: chat@us.iearn.org and give us a name of your Chat Session. iEARN Chats can be found at: http://foro.iearn.org/chat.html . A User Name and password are required. Need a User Name/password? Contact us: support@us.iearn.org.

Video-conferencing

With the arrival of faster, more reliable and less-expensive Internet connections, schools are increasingly seeking to take advantage of new video-conferencing technologies. Some of these include "CU-SeeMe," "NetMeeting,," "MeetingPoint," etc.

To utilize these technologies, a minimum connection of 28.8 dial-up is required, with an ISDN, LAN, T-1 connection preferred. With the minimum, it is often not possible to utilize both the audio and video capabilities of the technology.

Since these technologies are in "real time" attention must be paid to time zones and to language capabilities of the participants. Further, our experience and other research indicates that successful use of these technologies requires careful advance preparation and effective facilitation during the connection.

To facilitate such connections, iEARN has created a field within its on-line database for "CU-SeeMe" to allow members to identify others with access to this technology.

Schools often find partners for video-conferencing and chat events by posting a message on the Teachers forum (newsgroup: apc.iearn.teachers) indicating the date and time of the proposed video-conference and the subject matter to be discussed.

iEARN also has a reflector site which allows multiple users to dial on and video-conference with one another using the same number.

Write to iearn@us.iearn.org for help in setting this up.

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