Have any of your groups done PowerPoint presentations via Skype (or other electronic transmission means) for either educational or entertainment activities? If so, can you provide some observations on how well this worked for you?

PC

I post a weekly audio program on YouTube for my church that is essentially a PowerPoint show: audio track with slide show. Not sure if this is a format you are talking about? Our parishioners view the weekly posts when they are in snowbird mode. The prep is a bit time consuming in two steps using MovieMaker: first to combine audio and slides, then conversion and upload to YouTube.

Wesley

It worked well for me when I presented my depot slides on Google Hangouts a while ago, and to my knowledge the Skype system isn't much different.

Thomas Dyrek

Preston, are you asking about webinars? If so, webinars can be very useful and, IMHO, are often much better than in-person PowerPoint presentations. On a webinar, the presenter can poll their audience and the audience members can ask questions without interrupting.

Webinars can also go terribly wrong....

From my professional experience (a.k.a. "at my job") Powerpoint presentations are frequently and easily done when used over Skype. With where I work, the presenters use a separate phone call done with Skype on a separate phone line - and then talks that way so people can dial in and listen if they don't have web access at the time. Of course, you could also do the audio session with Skype itself as well - not 100% sure how it works, exactly, but it does.

Exactly, interested in systems where the PowerPoint is run on the originator's computer, the slide images on his monitor are sent to the remote computer which in turn hands it off to a projector displaying the presentation on a screen. Hopefully with a reasonable degree of reliability. And the combination of equipment needs to allow for two-way communication for both narration and audience questions. i.e.: A way to show training or entertainment PowerPoint remotely, on a slide by slide basis, preferably without the master ppt or pptx file leaving the originator's computer. The remote computers just act as monitors.

Curious whether any of your organizations are using this kind of technology.

Thanks for the very interesting responses so far.

PC

Adobe connect has all the features you are looking for, that I have any experience with as a student. It is not cheap, but works well.

http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect/learning.html


Alternatives are suggested on this web page.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-steinberg/distance-learning-best-apps-tools-and-online-services_b_3805068.html

Mike Tillger

PC-

I worked with a vendor who did our training using join.me
I would log into join.me with a meeting code and then view his presentation remotely from his laptop. In my case we were looking at a software demo. I would imagine the setup would also work with PowerPoint.

The operation was seamless and easy to use.
Have a look.

Wesley

I do a business presentation every other Wednesday using Google Hangouts. The process is completely painless. It includes telephones dialing in as well as computers connecting. You do have to set up the hangout in advance, once. All I have to do is share my whole screen, and go. When I'm done, I terminate sharing.

-Mark

Thanks very much for the suggestions and comments.

Initial reason for asking is to allow wider geographic distribution of a training class than can be done by traveling with the program and equipment, but I can see many other possible uses for this kind of technology for both teaching and entertainment uses in the future.

PC

My company recently started using zoom. There are pay and free licenses. I've seen Power Points and shown training videos. It allows chat via phone or PC.

They provided a pro / pay license. My wife is experimenting with the free license for her school. I'm not sure what the differences are.