Myngle’s NEW virtual classroom!
Hello Mynglers!
Myngle is finally releasing its new virtual classroom environment! We’ve listened to the community requests to add a whiteboard, a faster and smoother slide sharing process, and all of that (plus more!) are present in this new build. Let’s go through the details of our new feature:
Minimum requirements:
- Windows, MacOS, or Linux!
- Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari.
- Adobe Flash Player 9.
So, let me present to you the parts and features of the new virtual classroom:
1) Main collaboration space: this area will display to everyone in the classroom the content the teacher chooses to share (whiteboard, slides, or desktop view).
2) Sharing control options: with 1-click the teacher will have the option to
- share a whiteboard (to write or draw with the students),
- share a PPT or PDF file that is uploaded in the teacher’s Myngle profile,
- or, share the teacher’s desktop view, so anything you open on your computer will be visible for students as well to see (this function is Windows-only with Firefox or Internet Explorer).
Please note, all of the teacher’s material will be displayed in this window. So, you may switch to a different material in the middle of the lesson if needed.
You can click on the “Expand” button to read the full title of your lesson material inside the virtual classroom.
3) Participants: you’ll see here those present inside the virtual classroom session. So, now it is very easy to see when the student arrives to the lesson. By clicking on the student’s username here, you’ll also be able to allow the student to share his/her video.
4) Skype buttons: 1-click buttons to contact your students on Skype.
5) Video windows: this area will display the video feed of students and teachers (if chosen to share video). If you hover your mouse over the video you can see some extra control options.
6) Chat box: use text chat inside your virtual classroom!
7) More options: on the top-right corner of your window you’ll see a session timer, and when your lesson is finished the “End Meeting” link.
*Whiteboard: teachers and students will have various tools to work collaboratively inside this complete whiteboard, such as: a pencil tool for drawing, write text, stamp tool, draw lines, squares, circles, and triangles. These annotation tools will also be available when you’re sharing slides!
Testing your new virtual classroom: teachers can test their virtual classroom environment at any time by doing the following:
- Go to My Courses after you’ve logged on;
- Click on the title of any of your courses;
- Click on the title of any lesson inside that course;
- Click on “Test Enter Classroom”.
We strongly encourage you to test everything and get familiarized with the new tools!
Here is a screencast video tour of the new whiteboard as well for you to see everything in action:
Until Monday, September 15th, you’ll only see the new virtual classroom on the “Test Enter Classroom” feature so you’ll have time to get used to everything before your first live lesson.
Have fun teaching!
Explore posts in the same categories: Teaching a language, Technology
September 13th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hi Danilo,
Wow and wow!..so nice and a bit complicated. You did a very nice virtual classroom. Oh, but I have to test and test otherwise I’ll be lost.
The only apprehension i have is, I am in Thailand whose internet connection is so slow and that might hamper the flow of the lesson for a while.
I appreciate your mind you put in this beautiful technology.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Hi Danilo,
I can’t imagine myself using a state of the art virtual classroom. Your innovations are so relevant to the Myngle community but it might take time to adjust to this new classroom. At any rate, it is well appreciated.
Mary
September 13th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
excellent! my students and i really like this new virtual classroom! thanks Danilo and the team
September 13th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hello Danilo,
I think that all these new features are just great and will certainly come in handy during lessons. Both students and the teacher will benefit from them. Thank you
September 14th, 2008 at 12:37 am
[...] Comment! Myngle’s NEW virtual classroom! [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 1:00 am
its GREAT, everyone just loves, thanks a great job done Myngle, we are so so excited about it, and the features it has is simply wonderful !!!
September 14th, 2008 at 1:17 am
This virtual classroom looks really professional! So many new tools, they will help a lot! Thank you so much!
Just two small improvements I could think of:
- when opening the classroom for a specific lesson, already pre-load that lesson. It’s too tedious finding lessons to load, since only three are shown at a time and the listing is not sorted by course. When I clicked “Expand” I was hoping it would expand vertically.
- when not in full-screen mode, most of the slide is hid by the controls, but there is whitespace underneath the slide. Could you put the controls underneath the slide for that occasion?
Great job!
September 14th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Hi Sprachprofi,
Great feedback. We will see what we can do about it.
Thank you for helping to make Myngle better every day.
Egbert
September 14th, 2008 at 3:34 am
The new classroom is great, and everything else about Myngle too so just a big thank you from me. Aniya
p.s The only thing I noticed was I couldn’t copy and paste onto the whiteboard or chat, any ideas?
September 14th, 2008 at 4:50 am
How many students can join the same classroom online?
September 14th, 2008 at 8:30 am
It’ very great.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Bravo, Myngle!
As always, Myngle manages to be a WORLD CLASS service
Surely, Myngle will soon be a name commonly known by all.
It will be known as a service especially used by participants in globalization dynamics on this planet Earth.
It will be for multinationals and international business entrepreneurs, world travelers and their children, and finally people who want to join these first two groups.
Myngle goes the extra mile, but stays green all the while!
Meanwhile, it’s good for all of us to say we had the vision for this company, and that we were here, as teachers or as students, when it was first getting started.
Bravo, Myngle!
September 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
These words just made my day. Fantastic.
Thank you and thank all of you to enable us to improve Myngle day by day.!!!
Egbert
September 14th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Thanks everyone for the very nice words.
You’re the stars in Myngle so we’re doing our utmost to give you the best 
@Klara @Mary Moore: we’re here to help as needed so please let us know if you have any question. It can seem overwhelming at first but the most central part of the virtual classroom is in the item #2 described above. You choose how you’d like to conduct your lesson (displaying slides or not), the rest will come easy with practice.
@Klara, it can work well with lower bandwidth connections. If you start to feel there are delays, you can always try stopping the video or staying away from heavy bandwidth features like the desktop sharing.
@Aniya I’ve replied in the forum but I’ll also write here for our blog readers. With me I can copy / paste well into the chat box. I’ll contact you to get more specific details.
@Dean at this moment it is still 1 teacher - 1 student. But, with this new virtual classroom we can start planning better to have group lessons. I’m not sure when we’ll have this implemented, but it is in our plans.
@John thank you for the very nice words! We have a wonderful community on board and with everyone, we’ll surely grow and grow and grow and groooow…
Bravo to all Mynglers!!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Hi,
thanks for the new tool!
It’s great !
Could we have translation in other language than english?
I have students who don’t understand english…
regards Rose
September 15th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Thanks Danilo, here’s my update and I’ll write on the forum too, I can now paste and copy to the chat part of the classroom but not on the whiteboard…How can I enlarge the slides I’ sharing with my student? I’m giving a reading lesson this evening so I need to zoom in. Thanks for all the feedback and sorry to be a pain..
September 15th, 2008 at 7:07 am
@Rose we’re planning to translate more parts of the website. In the meantime, for a quick emergency translation I always use Google’s services http://translate.google.com/ . But, it is also important to note that the student usually doesn’t have to do much, just follow the teacher
September 15th, 2008 at 7:21 am
@Aniya there is a “Full screen” link on the top-right corner of module #1 stated above. You and your student will need to click on it to have a full screen view of the slides.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Thank you all of you Mynglers for the enthusiastic reactions!
Yes, there might be still small improvements to be made in the coming days, but we are ready for it!
And there is more to come in the pipeline.
We will give you some time to learn the new whiteboard, and in the meanwhile keep on developing the features you need, so that we all move forward together.
Step by step… it is so exciting to be see Myngle developing into a more mature and complete service, thanks to your input which is guiding us the right direction.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Technology has come a long way. This is an awesome tool for virtual learning. I have been using a similar tool on http://www.edufire.com for my Spanish tutoring and I love it. Once you get all the kinks worked out your clients will love it!
September 16th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Wow, great job guys. For the last 18 months I have been a follower, user and a strong supporter of dimdim. I really glad you’ve implemented this with Myngle. I have not been using your services but that’s about to change as this is what both students and teachers require for effective virtual teaching. Great Job! I Applaud You!
September 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hi David,
Thank you for the compliment and welcome to Myngle!
Egbert
September 21st, 2008 at 7:11 am
That’s awesome! I can’t wait to try it out with my next lesson! Cheers!!