Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorming

My group used Google Hangout in order to discuss our brainstorming. I felt that there were many advantages to using this web-conferencing tool. First off, it was the most convenient because we all have Google Accounts. None of had an Adobe Connect accounts and we've alrady used this before so we wanted to experience something new. This also made it easier for all of us to access a site which we were familiar with. While we were not all that familiar with Google Hangout, we easily found how to maneuver our way around the conferencing tool. It had convenient tools such as screen share and YouTube at point blank access.This would be easy for us to bring up what we have discussed in our Google Docs and share it on screen. This would make it easier to work on this project because we can raise questions and concerns of our project while all looking at the rubric or the document that we have been working on. During this Google Hangout, we discussed LiveBinders and how we wanted to use this technology for our tutorial however, we later decided to use Google Hangout.

Some disadvantages that I personally experienced was I wasn't able to access the Google Hangout right away. I am not sure if I just wasn't on the computer at the right time but I had no 'pop-up window' that came up inviting me to 'hangout.' I eventually chatted someone in my group within a Google Doc we have and she sent me the link. I got in no problem, I just don't know why the invite never went through for me. Another disadvantage I experienced personally was bad connection. This really has nothing to do with the disadvantages of Google Hangout but just make sure when you use it you have a strong signal. I got kicked out a few times and it was a little frustrating. Another issue we ran into was when uploading the conference onto YouTube, the settings were private and we couldn't access it. We ended up changing the settings and made it viewable to others.

Other than these minor bumps in the road, the conference worked out well! We liked it so much we decided to change our minds and use Google Hangout as our technology of choice for this tutorial. We will be using Camtasia to record the tutorial for Google Hangout and edit it in iMovie. The way we decided to break down the work was to separate it by storyboard and recording. We decided to do this because we all have different strengths that we can contribute to the project and thought this would be best. Tracy and I will work on creating a script and storyboard, while Charlene and Suzanne will record the tutorial and edit the video. Tracy and I will also do our own recording regarding some features of Google Hangout. We have been collaborating in a Google Document to work on the Storyboard and Presentation. Tracy and I plan to complete the StoaryBoard this week and will have Charlene and Suzanne begin the audio part of the project. Tracy and I will also be working on our recording of Google Hangouts and then send it to Suzanne to add in during the editting process. We have also met twice within Google Hangout to discuss progress and concerns of our project. Google Hangout has already been such a convenient tool for us.

 Click here for the link to the conferencing video!