Meeting Bridgit

The other day I had the opportunity to attend a session on SMART’s Bridgit Software at the Blue Ribbon Blueprint for Excellence Conference in Reading, MA.  The presenter, Shayla Rexrode, was a representative from SMART.  She set up a video conference with one of her colleagues in Toronto in order to model the product.  I was impressed with the how easy the software was to use.  With a few clicks of a button, you can send out an email to invite all of the interested parties to attend a video conference.  The other parties do not have to own or install in Bridgit software.  As the video conference organizer, you can control the computer or you can permit other people to control the computer.  You can also view the desktop of any of the participants’ computers.  As you video conference, the participants can chat by using text. 

I was disappointed that that you could not hear each other’s voices through the computer.  The presenter set up conference call using a telephone that was in the room.  She told us that another option would be to chat using Skype.  Also, we could only see what was happening on the computer screen.  We could not see any of the participants.

There were only a handful of educators who attended this session, so we had the opportunity to share ideas. A couple of teachers said that they used similar video conference software with a high school math class.  They had their students present geometry theorems and invited the students’ parents to watch and listen in from work.  After each presentation the parents got a chance to ask questions using the chat feature.  The students were excited to answer the questions and the parents were glad they had the opportunity to see what was going on in their child’s classroom.

Another woman at the workshop works as a computer specialist.  She pointed out that this software would allow help people in other parts of the building or even other schools. One man said he had used the 30-day trial, so a student who broke his legs could attend class.  We also thought that video conferencing software would allow parents to attend PTO meetings from home, so they wouldn’t have to worry about a babysitter.

Despite the drawbacks, I impressed with the product, but I left wondering if there was a cheaper (or free) online program that has similar capabilities.  Has anyone had any experience using video conference software in his/her classroom?