A variety of software tools are available from OpenLearn to help you communicate with others to rework content and to enable
your learners to work with each other. As well as Compendium, the mind mapping tool described in Activity 3, FlashMeeting enables video-conferencing through a web browser, and the unit forums allow asynchronous discussions. These tools can variously be used in situ or taken away as a client download or source code.
Activity 8
You should allow 2 hour(s), minute(s).
Log on to the Flashmeeting (FM) quick start guide and read about this video-conferencing tool.
Read the page there that describes FM and book a meeting with a friend or colleague to try out this communication tool.
It is very simple to book a meeting. After clicking the link ‘book a meeting’, you are given directions at the booking page,
where you can add the details of the meeting: the date and time, the duration, the number of attendees, the booking title (e.g. ‘meeting with John’), a description of the meeting including the type of meeting, attendees, etc. (e.g. ‘Interview with John Wilson, Professor of New Media’)
and keywords (e.g. ‘collaborative media’). You also have the option of making your live meeting ‘public’ so it can be attended or later
reviewed by others who find it useful or interesting. You can then click on the submit button and a URL is created in the
booking page, as well as sent to your email address. The URL can be passed on to the other participants, who simply click
on the link to join the meeting at the arranged time.
Log on to the main FM website for a demonstration.
Now read the discussion
Comment
Tools such as FM move open learning away from ‘text on screen’ to a more integrated experience of what some call ‘blended
learning’. The Open University has never been a ‘correspondence college’. From its inception the model was to use a range
of media such as radio, television and printed texts supported by a local tutor to provide assessment, feedback and support
in a system known as ‘Supported Open Learning’, as noted earlier. The local tutorials also gave students the opportunity to
meet and support each other. The Open University has moved on from this ‘classic’ model to provide much more online support,
and OpenLearn has been able to build on these changes to some extent. Here the text and audio-visual elements are integrated,
but there is no tutor to mark assignments and provide feedback. However, FM and the discussion forums do provide you as an
author of OERs the ability to link up your students. We know that FM has been a very successful tool for many learners – both
those studying OpenLearn and for general peer support.