MORE TRICKS - AND TRAPS! ON ZOOM

Why Zoom? You can use it to call family and friends or work meetings. It is a widely used platform and many people know it and prefer what they know.

MOBILE OR LAPTOP?
Why would you log into a meeting on zoom on a mobile phone?

Because you are out in the street. Because you are at home at the dining table.

LOGGING ON
You need a meeting ID, and usually a password. Sometimes you are put in a waiting room. The host either knows you by name or recognizes your login. Check if you have registered on autofill with another name.

If you have a choice, join your meeting on a laptop. The pictures are bigger. Because the screen is bigger, you have more options visible on the screen. Usually you can only see four of the other participants. You have to keep sliding the screen to see the next set of pictures. Your own picture could be invisible. The danger is that you might not realise that everybody else can see you whilst you are eating, picking your teeth or changing your clothes.

CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Sometimes they can hear you. You can hear them although they can't hear you because you are on mute.

CAN YOU SEE ME? Check you have not left a cover over your screen.

TAKING A PHOTO
If you want to take a photo of the whole screen you can use the screen capture key on a laptop. If you want to photograph the whole screen with the mobile you might find that your mobile is covering your face.

You can turn off video recording to stop yourself appearing and just show your glamorous still photo. This is useful if you have light reflecting off your glasses or are in a dark room, or look untidy. It also stops the others knowing you are taking a photo. And your movements do not distract the speaker.

YOUR WORKSHOP DISPLAY

If you are sharing a workshop and want a frame around your workshop picture or subtitles this must be done in your powerpoint presentation before you share it.

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. I also give workshops on the English language to businesses.

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 

learncool.sg

Or quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

https://www.facebook.com/angela.lansbury.121

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

4https://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

Videoconferencing - what you need to know and teach

1 Choose Your System
Work out the sites which are free or costing and any time constraints.
What will you get from the premium versions?
If it is a free trial, do you have to give a credit card and risk making monthly purchases forever if you forget or can't succeed in cancelling?
Who can fund a premium account?
Who do you know in your business or social group who already has an account which they will share?

2 Set up your webconferencing system account.
Note any logins and passwords and save the information in two places. Try to make it memorable by finding a pattern, or keep repeating it.

3 Read the webconferencing help page.

4 Print the help page or screen capture.
Highlight the important points and actions.

5 Or store login codes and directions somewhere you can quickly copy it and forward it to your co-hosts audience members.

6 You also want to know:
How do you share or hand over hosting the videoconferencing site? (Usually just an icon you click, saying 'share hosting', or words to that effect, then select a name from participants.)

7 How do you admit people? Or

8 Signing in
The first questions your attendees will ask are:
How do I log in? What is the code?  What is the password?
Have this written up large on a board beside your laptop.

9 You can have a cork pinboard, a white wipeboard (small ones can be bought from Daeso). Failing all else, clip onto a clipboard.

10 Appoint A Technical Troubleshooter
If you don't, you will delay the proceedings every ten minutes for the first half hour whilst latecomers say they can't log in and ask for help.

11 Train people to change their name on their photo box (the oblong which looks like a microwave) and show their  face.

12 Tell everyone to mute during other people's speeches to cut down on background noises.

13 Remind peole to unmute. Show they how to do it on the large computer screen or a small mobile.

14 Follow up thanking people from attending. Send them links to videos you took of meetings.

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.

Online Toastmasters International Meetings
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.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=braddell%20heights%20advanced%20toastmasters
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced.
Harrovians, London.
Tiarel.
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-21713991ape

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.

How To Share An Online Meeting

photo in wiki from kremlin.ru

Decide which system you want to use. This might already have been decided by the host if you are joining a meeting. I belong to Singapore Online Toastmasters.



For example:
 (alphabetically)
gotomeeting
zoom

Allow twenty minutes in advance to download, type in your name and password, and read the instructions.Before the start you should check everybody can see the timer.

I prefer gotomeeting to zoom because gotomeeting seemed to offer me a clearer tutorial on what to do if joining a meeting.

However, the gotomeeting user guide also helps you to understand how to operate with other systems too.

For example, the mute and unmute yourself button.

Many people think the mute button is the same as when watching a video and that it mutes incoming sound. It does not. It mutes you and unmutes you.

Your options include:
Joining by phone or computer.
Using phone and computer. For example you might have joined on the phone when walking to your home or office, then you arrive and want to see everybody on the big screen, without logging off from the phone and missing vital parts of the conversation.

I joined on the phone because I received a what'sapp message on my phone and the meeting had already started and it was quicker to click on the link on my phone and join the introduction than to copy out the meeting link number and log in using the computer. When I joined through the computer, I was still online with the phone and did not know how to turn off the phone. Nor did I think it was necessary, until I got noise interference and one of the technical people told me to switch off my phone.

I wanted to leave on my phone to read my whatsapp messages - such as private chats from other people online, sending an evaluation form for a speech they were giving.

The host of the meeting has more options. If the host shares with you, to train you, allow you to handle a section of the meeting, you get to see extra options.

A share button allows you to share slides. you might want to practise doing this with somebody at home.

Useful Websites
https://support.goto.com/meeting/organizer-user-guide
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362623-Changing-settings-in-the-desktop-client-or-mobile-app
https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en_sg/products/meet/

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to create and run an online meeting

Decide to hold meetings online. If possible find a few others who agree and will help you. If not, just set it up, so you are ready to answer questions, fend off objections, and then ask for help.

Decide which system you want to use, zoom or another. This may depend on the length of the meeting, whether you are willing to pay, how long you want the meeting to be.

Set up your meeting account. Make yourself and possibly somebody else an admin.

Send the attendees their link.
Tell them that they need to sign in.

On zoom, show them the buttons to click on for:
 mute and unmute
chat - to everyone or message one person such as yourself the admin or another
How to leave the meeting
How to be recorded
To record sound only
To record video

Zoom
If you use zoom, you fill in the link.
Sign up with your name.
https://zoom.us/postattendee?id=7

Free Conference Call
https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/

Your name or reference number is added on the end of the above link.
You can also use Whatsapp and Google.

More later. See next post.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury. Please save links to your favourite posts.