Part A - Brainstorm Session

During our Group 4 (Team4Tech/Magnificent Middles) brainstorm session, we used Adobe Connect and Google Docs. The Google Doc was created ahead of time as an agenda of what needed to be covered, but we also used it during our meeting to brainstorm ideas and put in writing what needed to be done and how we would go about accomplishing the task.

Adobe Connect worked pretty well for the most part. We were all able to meet because there was no limit as to how many people can meet at a time. With other web conferencing tools this would not have been possible because of the limit on how many people can meet at a time. It was also a free service to us through MSU, unlike many of the other web conferencing tools, such as Microsoft Live. Vyew is another free web conferencing tool that we could have used that will allow up to 10 people to meet at a time. However, unlike Adobe Connect, there are ads that could have interfered with out meeting. Adobe Connect has some great features that were useful to us as a group. We were able to discuss using microphones or we could use the chat feature for people who did not have access to a microphone. There is also a feature to share your screen with the rest of the group that would have been helpful so we could all view the Google Doc.

When we first started our meeting, we spent a good 10 minutes trying to get all of our microphones to work at the same time so we could all discuss at once. However, we had some technical difficulties and if one microphone was working another would stop. In the end they were all working, but then we were experiencing a lot of feedback. We also tried to view our group Google Doc with the screen share feature, but for some reason it would not work. In the end we all individually signed in to the Google Doc and revised and discussed it while still in our Adobe meeting.

Google Docs was a great resource to use along with Adobe Connect because we were all able to view the document at once and we could all contribute to the content. I learned that there is a chat option in Google Docs so if any members are using the document simultaneously, the chat can be used to discuss. Overall, Adobe Connect and Google Docs, together, helped us accomplish our task.