Teleclasses, Teleseminars, Webinars: New Ways to Stay in Touch

by Jeanette Fisher

Thanks to modern technology, people have more ways than ever to stay in touch with each other and to continue learning in the comfort of your own home. There are many ways to communicate with others, and as the technology continues to advance, even more effective ways will be developed.

One of the earliest advances was the chat room, which allows people to talk to each other via their keyboards, but not verbally. The conversation is in real time, and many people can participate at the same time.

Programs for making free telephone calls over the Internet to anyone else who also has the program are gaining in popularity as the calls become clearer. However, concerns about legal issues (with challenges to its intellectual property), traffic security, and political concerns by governments who want control over their telecommunications systems, keep many from using the service.

A popular Internet teaching venue is the recorded teleseminar, which is made available to interested viewers via an MP3 download or by clicking on a button on a website and then viewing the presentation online. Viewers don't get to participate during the session, but they can listen to the information as often as they like, at their own convenience.

Instructors also use teleclasses to teach their students. They're similar to teleseminars, but normally involve fewer participants, and since the audio portion of the presentation is an open line, everyone involved can hear everyone else. This allows unlimited interaction between the instructor and participants.

Teleconferencing is also popular, although there is no visual component, since the presentation is done over the telephone. However, everyone can hear everyone else, so there is still lots of room for interaction and discussion between participants. Teleconferences work well for small groups, but can get somewhat unwieldy as more participants join the conversation.

Teleseminars are similar to teleconferences, especially in that only audio is used to convey a presentation over the phone, but differs in that one the presenter or a guest speaker can be heard throughout the presentation. The advantage to teleseminars is that hundreds of people can listen in at the same time, and since the background noise from all those phones is muted, the presenter's message is clearly audible to everyone.

The next step up the ladder is video conferencing, in which participants can see the presenter on screen as the presentation is being made. Being able to see the presenter has many advantages, allowing for the use of charts and other visual elements to be incorporated into the event. If the group is small, many video conferences are two-way, with cameras on both ends of the line, so the presenter can also see the participants. This can be a very effective way to communicate over long distances, but the video quality is often below average and can be too expensive for some organizations to purchase.

Finally, there's a fairly recent technological advance called a webinar, which is a hybrid of several of the techniques discussed earlier. Webinars allow both audio and visual communication between presenter and participants, either by means of the telephone or via webstreaming. The video is delivered by computer, which means that the presenter is given more options, including PowerPoint presentations. Since there's real time audio and visual communication, webinars allow the most comprehensive interaction between participants and presenters.

It's a whole new world out there, but as technology continues to advance, people will be able to communicate more effectively over long distances than ever before.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

Jeanette Fisher teaches authors and speakers how to write best-selling books fast. For more information on writing a book, see Family Trust Publishing and "How to Write a REAL Book and Get it Published...
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Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
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