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Showing posts with label learncool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learncool. Show all posts

Saturday, June 27, 2020

meet.google - my favourite online meeting platform - for today


I just came out of a google meeting and I loved it. Why? Because I had subtitles under speakers.

That was brilliant. If you lost concentration, went out of the room, or did not catch what they said, it was brilliant.

The occasional mis-spellings provided extra unintended entertainment. For example, in a Toastmaster's meeting training speakers we sometimes have an ah counter who counts ers and ums and repeated words.

Once the word nose appeared. It took only a second to realize the speaker was saying the plural of no.

To Pin A Speaker, Or Yourself
Also it is easy to pin the speaker or timer.

Click on a large drawing of a pin.

The usual tricks apply. If you want to video wit your phone and don't want your camera to appear, you can cover your laptop lens. I do the same if I walk out of the room, or get up to fetch a pen or glass of water or bring back my mobile phone which I moved away to stop an echo.

I have tried turning off my mobile phone, but then it is not ready when I want to take a screen shot. In theory you can take a screen shot. However, if you take a second one, the first one disappears.

I have other posts on the advantages of zoom and webex and learn.cool

Useful websites
meet.google
webex
learncool.sg

  • About the Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
    I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

    Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

    I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app 
  • Incoming president Faith from July 1st 2020 could change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

  • learncool.sg

  • Or quicker to type and easier to remember: 

  •  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

    Useful Websites


  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_place_names

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_Australian_place_names

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_New_Zealand_place_names

  • https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

  • https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
    https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
    https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html

  •  Please share links to your favourite posts
    https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
    translate.google.com
    duolingo.com
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    Thursday, June 11, 2020

    Alternative Online Meeting Tools - Webex tutorial

    I am used to zoom.


    I love learncool.sg






    Today for the second time I used Webex.


    I could see half a dozen people across the top of the screen, but the list of participants suggested there were several more.

    It took me a while to work out how to see the speaker large instead of as one of a set of postage stamps. I wish they would put up a message, to see speaker click here, with an arrow.

    I then looked around their base or home page. I wish they would tell you if you already have an account.

    You should be able to type in your email and be told, you have an account already, click here, or, you don't have an account, sign up here.

    I could see contact us. But no FAQ.
    After a lot of clicking and reading I eventually found the magic instructions page.

    Unfortunately, although they have highlighted and enlarged the secion featured, it is still too small to read, even on my giant screen.

    Still, I am making progress. At least I know the questions to ask.

    Wiki has a technology portal.

    Useful Websites
    https://help.webex.com/en-us/8bzter/Cisco-Webex-Meetings-Video-Tutorials
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Webex

    About the author

    About the Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
    I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

    Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

    I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg The third Saturday is on zoom, unless the system we use is busy in which case we revert to our backup on Learncool.

    Or quicker to type and easier to remember:  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

    Useful Websites
    https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

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    Thursday, May 28, 2020

    Webex - what is it? Another online meeting system?



    Yes, Webex is another online meeting system. i was invited to join a Webex meeting today. I am used to Zoom and learncool. I did not have to download anything, just sign in on my little lap top lnked to a larger screen.

    Luckily my husband was able to help with Webex. He said he used it at work twenty or thirty years ago. It predated Zoom which has zoomed up.

    Mute
    It is amazing how much I have learned in the three months March to May from online meetings. I was immediately looking for the mute icon. I could signal to everybody, shrug - I'm lost

    Chat
    The word chat is confusing. Usually you mean the Webbex Chat or the Learncool Chat or the Zoom chat but you could mean the WhatsApp Chat.

    Useful Websites
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_conferencing_software
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts

    Facebook polyglots
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/
    translate google

    About the Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
    I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

    Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

    I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
    Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

     Time Zones
    In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).
    Please share links to your favourite posts.
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    Tuesday, May 12, 2020

    How To Learn Videoconferencing and Lead Your Company Online - Back To Work Or Working From Home

    A Questionnaire On Conferencing Systems
    Yesterday I received a sales questionnaire asking which web conference systems I used. I looked at it cautiously. Then I thought, let's tick the box and see what is next. If I think the questions are too personal and will commit me to reeiving spam, I can refuse to submit.

    When I answered I was asked about my demographics, sex, age, then immediately which kinds of news and features I wished to be sent.

    In the end I filled in one form, requesting news items of interest. Later, I declined to complete another form. I wondered whether my data was still collected even though I had not submitted. I was told by a friend in marketing that I would be safe.

    Lists Of Conferencing Systems
    All was not lost. The gain for me was that I now had a list of web conferencing systems. You can get a similar list from Wikipedia.

    What Is A Leader?
    At the same time I was sent a whatsApp message from a former President of Harrovian speakers in London. He wanted a quick answer to the question, 'in one word, what does a leader do? Any other comments on leadership.'

    I thought, how does this relate to my list of web conferencing systems?

    As a follower, employee, member of a Toastmasters club, I have to log in to contact a club or client, for business or social pleasure, using the system chosen by their organizer or leader.


    Online? Skype or Zoom?
    Toastmasters in District 80 (Singapore) is using zoom. My club BHA is using Zoom for a Saturday meing, but on most Wednesday learncool.sg which is new.

    When we first went online after the lockdown, we met a lot of resistance to the idea of online meetings. People protested. They did not like to be online. They refused to join in, refused to watch. They were angry, afraid, did not want to try, tried and failed and got upset.

    I understood their reluctance to feel disappointed, or foolish, or made to look a fool. I had previously tried to get help on zoom with using a 'green screen'. One of the advisers gave a long tenchnical answer which I didnt understand. Another helper chimed in, "Angela won't understand is not very technical. Ha ha!"

    I felt demoralised. Looking back, I realise that as a leader or adviser, I have to always add after a remark about somebody not being technical, a divert from the problem to the solution, from the filed task to the successful completion of the task.

    For example, "She is not very technical. We need to send her written instructions." Alternatively, "She is not very technical. We need to give her two or three sessions on this, or as long as it takes, so she can use it."

    If you are familiar with NLP, short for neuro-linguistic programming, (using positive and future-focused language to programme people to achieve contentment, hope or success).

    The leaders were also making mistakes, but they persisted. By trying every day, they gradually got familiar with the system. Whether you learn to walk, ride a bicycle, swim, sing in tune, type, cook. plant plants in a garden or a balcony, or do anything else, you have to start from zero and work up to hero.

    Somebody wrote a book saying it takes 1000 hours of study on average to become competent at anything. If you look in comparison charts, you can see how many hours of study you would need to learn languages, from the easiest (for those who speak English) such as Esperanto and Spanish, to the more complicated such as Arabic and Chinese and Russian and Greek.

    To go back to the web conferencing list. I had a list of eight systems, of which I was already using zoom on a regular basis, zoom every day, sometimes twice a day, and learncool.sg once a week for Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters International speakers' training club, sometimes twice a week if a ran the weekend committee meeting on learncool.sg or used it with the learncool.sg expert Yudy to fill in the agenda online.

    Now that I know these two systems, I can answer other people's queries and objections, such as, do I need a passwork, is it safe and secure? Where is the agends? How do I mute myself.

    One of my club committee members wanted to use Facetime and another wanted to use Google hanguts. I did not know what to say about these systems.

    As I sat looking at the list of systems, and what I had written about leadership to Harrovians Toastmasters in London, quite simply, a leader leads, a follower follows, I added, a leader looks ahead to which skills would be needed and starts learning them and teaching them.

    The other great insight I received was from Mr Poh, who came to a training session which I organized as Area Direction S3 for Division S. He said that he was baffled by the Pathways website. But other people had learned it. He decided to spend five minutes on it every day until he was familiar with every icon and every opportunity. It got easier and easier until eventually he mastered it.

    The same applies to learning a language or running a club or using the internet or using the conferencing system.

    Here is the list of web conferencing systems. Try a new one today. Or if you are too busy, a new one in your coffee break, or a new one at the weekend. At the end of a month you will know half of them. At the end of two months you will be an expert in all of them. You will be able to lead the others.

    What you need to have

    learncool.sg


    zoom

    Others (from a list in Wikipedia)

    Software clients

    With video and VoIP

    With video, VoIP and instant messaging

    Browser based – does not require software downloads


    Useful Websites
    https://www.gov.sg/features/covid-19
    Facebool.trevorsharot

    About The Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, club organizer and speaker.
    Toastmasters International Find a Club
    https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
    https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
    lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991
    learncool.sg

    About Braddell Heights Club Online
    Braddell Heights Advanced speakers club meets every Wednesday, currently on line.
    Future Meetings include
    Wednesday May 13th, lucky for us, as we have Thomas Chen running a workshop on Networking.
    Mark Wednesdays in your dairy.
    Singapore is on the same time zone as Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in China. Also Perth in Australia.
    Contact President Angela Lansbury or VPE Faith. Then login to learncool.sg and wait to be admitted by the host.
    Please share links to your favourite posts
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    Friday, April 24, 2020

    Zoom, delays in singing and speaking, alternatives?



    During Covid-19 some people are using zoom and video conferencing at work. Even when you are in an office, you need to sit apart.

     I and many toastmasters are using the same systems for educational meetings. We are giving public speeches, and sharing slide presentations.

     A friend of mine from toastmasters on Facebook raised the question of time-lag, in speaking and singing. I replied:

     A scattered choir managed to sing in unison.

    In speech contests, some contestants sing to be memorable and demonstrate another skill.

     For most of us online, the problem is not singing with a delay but speaking with a delay. People speak to me and we are cross-talking because they are asking, can you hear me, and my reply, 'yes', is delayed. The culprit cannot be other person's connection, because I wave my hand and see my own hand wave on my screen several seconds later - unless my computer is sending the signal elsewhere and back to me.me

    Useful websites (alphabetically)
    learncool.sg
    voov
    webex
    zoom
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotelephony
    https://www.voicesofsingapore.com/virtualchoir

     Toastmasters International Find a Club
    https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
    https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Public_speaking
    https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
    lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991
    learncool.sg

    Author
    Author, Author! About the Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
     Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.

     See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.
    See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

    If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club, Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England. I am also a member of Singapore Online.

    Please share links to your favourite posts.
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    Thursday, April 16, 2020

    How To Improve Sound Quality Of Online Meetings

    The first thing the host must do is mute or unmute the speakers and audience and tell them how to unmute themselves.

    This is so simple. Find the the mute button and click on it with your mouse.

    Where is it?

    Laptops
    For a child or elderly person new to a laptop. the mute button might be the top row of keys on the far left.

    Mobiles
    On a mobile, the mute sound could be the top protruding button on the top right hand side of the mobile thin side. Press it in and a blue line appears with a loudspeaker symbol.

    Slide the large circle with your fingertip to the right and left to increase or decrease volume. Practise doing this.

    You knew that? Yes, and therefore you don't explain it. What could go worng?
    a) You are giving instructions for a laptop and they are on a mobile.
    b)) You keep telling the other person to Mute, 'Mute yourself'. But they can't hear. They hear boot or nute.
    c) They don't know the word mute. They only know the word silent.
    d) Or they can't find the button.
    e) Or they don't know how to slide the symbols.
    f) They are afraid to do it because once they are muted, they cannot speak to you to ask how to unmute.

    Mute
    When too many people had their sound system switched on, the quality of the main speaker's volume went down.

    Problems:
    a) The speaker's voice was too quiet.

    b) The sound would disappear and come back so you lost half a sentence.

    c) Delay is transmission meant the sound and sight were out of sync. I would see myself frowning and would smile. It took another three seconds for my smile to appear. When I spoke or sang, the words were out of syn with my lip movements. That looks very odd.

    Solution: You have to ask everybody to mute, or get the host to mute everyody except the speaker.
    Meetings you can join:
    Singapore Online Friday evening 9-12 midnight Singapore time
    Harrovians Mondays 7-9 pm evening UK time
    Braddell Heights Advanced  Wednesdays 7-9 pm Singapore time

    These meetings are in English. Other clubs are in French, Spanish, Mandarin, bilingual English and Malay, Tamil and other languages.

    If you wish to join a meeting, usually you are sent details through a whatsapp group.

    Useful Websites
    https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

    About the Author
    Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, trainer of speakers.  More on sound qulity in the next post. Please share links to useful posts.

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