Online communication utilizing web conferencing can be utilized to facilitate several features of the educational process. Besides blogs, email, texting and social media as communication technologies, web conferencing has some important uses in education. That the connection is synchronistic presents a bit of an issue in that people must coordinate their schedules.
There are many free web conferencing programs of which Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Webex are some of the more well known.
Besides supporting one-on-one student teacher interaction, at a distance, conferences can be used for students to interact with other students, instructor communicating with colleagues, parents, and even brining guest lecturers to the classroom.
Alberta Education’s (http://www.2learn.ca/2lah/2LAHtransform.aspx) concept of the 3C’s (communicate, collaborate, and create) can be supported through web conferencing. The idea of transformative teaching includes web conferencing. An advantage of using web conferencing is that it reduces isolation by bringing participants together virtually face-to-face. Connecting is seen as a major advantage of the benefits of teaching with web conferencing:
In my experience as one who uses web conferencing, in a short period of time the technology becomes transparent and the interaction and information becomes of value.