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Zoom

Zoom is available to all Haverford community members, and allows users to video conference with people either in large groups or in smaller sessions. Zoom also has the ability to record your meetings online and add captions, if you want to do more formal presentations that you can then share afterwards via Moodle.

Pros: Available to everyone with a haverford email address, can be used with anyone as long as the ‘Host’ has a licensed account, allows for interaction with participants to be a part of the recording, if that is important to you. Provides meetings transcriptions, which can be downloaded as caption files. 

Cons: Limited long term storage space, you will have to download the recording after it is available and upload it to Box.com, Google Drive, or Moodle if you want to hang on to the recording. Limited to no editing capabilities. 

Note: Starting September 27, 2020, Zoom will require a password for all meetings. See this explanation from IITS.

Expert: Alex Savoth, Charles Woodard

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Whiteboard and Notebook Display Tricks

We’ve learned of various ways to share a whiteboard, notebook or other content while on Zoom. These include:

  • Share Tablet with Stylus.  If you have a tablet and stylus you can connect it directly to zoom, then share its screen and allow participants to see everything you write or draw.  See detailed explanation here.
  • Share Notebook with Phone Camera.  Here you raid your pantry for a pair of cans that will hold your phone over a notebook as you write.  Install Zoom on the phone and join the meeting, then ‘share’ the camera to participants. If you have an iPhone you can share the phone camera via a wired or wireless connection (see here). You could even record the Zoom session and thus make a permanent, shared record of what you wrote and explained.  Here is one version of this approach:
  • View Whiteboard, Lab, or Studio Situation with Laptop, Camera, or Phone.  Here Suzanne Amador-Kane uses an artist’s easel, large whiteboard, and house-bound spouse to demonstrate how to broadcast or record a lecture.  Here also is another version of this done with two devices.

Pros:   Gets the job done.

Cons:  Some solutions require multiple devices. Hacks can be unstable (in all ways).  Tricky to avoid audio feedback problems.