Adobe Connect

Address for Professor Guth's Adobe Connect: http://usna.edu.acrobat.com/pguth/  This address will change, probably in March 2010, and new directions will be here at that time.

You must coordinate (phone, email, or in class) for a time to start the meeting.

The first time you use Adobe Connect, the program will ask to install a plug-in so you can share your desktop, and see someone else's.

Hardware needed for Adobe Connect video-conferences:

Student participant, listed in order of importance:

  1. Computer with internet connection and standard web browser.
  2. Speakers or headphones.  This is the bare bones minimum; you can listen to the instructor, and interact back with chat.  This can work very well.  You can see the instructor's screen, or share your screen with the instructor.
  3. Microphone, so you can talk back to the instructor.  If you use this, you should have headphones, because otherwise the audio coming out the speakers goes into the mike (with a delay, since there is a lag between the instructor doing something and it appearing on your end) and the instructor hears an echo of anything he says.  If the conference is about how to run software, being able to talk instead of having to chat is very helpful.
  4. Headset (headphones with mike on a boom) allows you to talk back without interference from speaker output.  You can get these for about $10, either USB or one with two separate inputs for the mike and headphone speakers.
  5. Video web camera: this is not really needed, and may just increase the bandwidth and slow things down.

Teacher needs #1 and #4.  I have the video camera at home (from the job), but generally capture a still shot and don't send live video.  If it were my personal money, and I didn't have any other need for a web cam, I would not buy it since it doesn't add much for the educational purpose of the conferences.  It is also very handy for the instructor to have multiple monitors; you can share one monitor, and just drag windows onto it and back off  to show different things.  Drag and drop is much faster and more efficient than changing the window that is shared. The instructor might also want to have two computers, and watch on the second to see exactly what the students see.

last revision 1/7/2010