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URL www.wiziq.com Keywords communication, web-conferencing, live interaction, education online, virtual classroom, e-teaching, e-learning,

WiZiq
Category I Communication and Web-conferencing tools Rationale

Most of the current major educational approaches call for extensive, meaningful collaboration and interaction as vital component of the learning process and teachers' professional development. For teachers, collegiality breaks the isolation of the classroom and brings career rewards and daily satisfactions. Teachers who work closely together on matters of instruction find themselves better equipped for classroom work and take considerable satisfaction from these professional interactions, Virtual classrooms are perceived in this sense as being very important. WiZiQ is unique in the way that it is not only a tool but a set of tools for teachers and students stringed together in a web 2.0 social networking interface. as it caters exclusively to education. Description WiZiQ is an online teaching and learning platform, which provides a free virtual environment for users interact online and communicate in real time. WiZiQs target audience is teachers (Virtual Classroom). Nevertheless, it can be easily used for online conferences and meetings, too. The tool features the most common web conferencing solutions: Schedule and conduct Virtual Classroom: live audio-video communication options, integrated chat, file sharing (presentations, PDFs, images, etc.), and live session recording capabilities for self or for attendees. Store audio, video, and writing tools and share contents as "public" or "private". Take advantage of the multiple whiteboards plus effective and intuitive whiteboard toolbars to see what the trainer or teacher is demonstrating. This allows for easily setting up an environment to learn in. Create interactive questions and tests, interact in communities. Browse through gallery of educational tutorials by tags and categories (Business, Undergrad, ICT, Professional development, Career, etc). Maintain a content library, which is associated with their profiles, by uploading PowerPoint presentations, Word, Excel, PDF and other file formats. Users can also build a profile, keep an availability schedule. Share and embed presentations/tutorials on your website. Import and invite contacts from Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail. Resources required The same as for other communication systems on the web, running WiZiQ requires: Obligatory resources Desktop Computer/Laptop Internet Connection (broadband) Creating an account on WiZiQ (www.wiziq.com) Adobe Flash Player Headphone and microphone or headset Optional resources Web camera

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The project Autonomous Personal Learning Networks for Language Teachers has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Cost Partially Free: The application offers two plans one for free members with limited range of tools and second for premium paying members. The platform offers the Premium members 30-day free trial for all plans. The paid plans include plans for individual teachers and trainers wishing to use WiZiQ for business reasons and organizations. Plans for inviduals Solo Plus: $9.95/month Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), 5 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. Solo Pro: $19.95/month Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), 50 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), 15 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. Solo Unlimited: $39.95/month Unlimited classes, Unlimited attendees (with sign-up on WiZiQ), Unlimited attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), 40 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day email support. Plans for Organizations Org Small: $39.95/month - 3 Teacher accounts, 50 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), Admin console, 40 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. Org Medium: $79.95/month 10 Teacher accounts, 100 attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), Admin console, 80 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. Org large: $199.95/month - 25 Teacher accounts, Unlimited attendees (without sign-up on WiZiQ), Admin console, 200 GB storage for private content, Integrated e-commerce, 1-business day e-mail support. Setup and Configuration Works in Flash format and requires no installation on the client side. To use the application, you must register. To create your account in WiZiQ , first click on Join Now. Fill in the blanks with your name, email address, and password. Keep this information with you, it will be asked when joining a class in WiZiQ. WiZiQ will request further information from you, fill in the blanks and tick whether you are a teacher or a student. If you are a teacher, click on Teaching or Training. If you are a student, click on Learning; and then submit. If you are a student, WiZiQ will ask you further questions. Fill in the blanks if necessary; if not, Skip this step. You can find your friends in the net, make contacts and invite others to join WiZiQ. If you just want to attend a conference, skip this step and come back later.

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The project Autonomous Personal Learning Networks for Language Teachers has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Getting into virtual room To get into the virtual room once you have registered, go to the main menu and click on Classes. Then, click on Upcoming classes to join the conference. If you are late, click on Live now. Finally, click on Launch Class to get into the virtual room. After connecting to the server, you will see a screen with a chronometer indicating time left for session to start. Click on Device Settings to set up your audio and video features. Then you will see the corresponding options to test your speakers (headset) and microphone. In Video Device, chose the camera option if available. Finally, click on OK. Observe the icons you have on the upper menu, the tools on your left, the column on your right and the text chat box on the lower side of the screen. Styling WiZiQ does not allow many customisation features. Users can build their own profiles as a summary of their teaching and training experience, educational qualification, expertise, interests, association and awards, teaching preferences, publication and research, etc. Navigation and operation WiZiQ might look for the first time slightly confusing but in fact, all the features are well-organised. The home page contains a number of very helpful tutorials guiding you through the features on offer and how to use them effectively. The following is a screenshot of such a tutorial: WiZiQs features for teachers and trainers Complete online teaching management system to its registered teachers without installing any software. Teachers get their own virtual classroom at no costs (in case of public courses). Ability to schedule a session online through a calendar at teachers convenience. Teachers can interact with students through an online whiteboard to share text or documents, and through a twoway audio and text chat. Teachers can build their professional profile. Provides ability to conduct one-on-one or group sessions online. Payments from learners can be accepted. Teachers can maintain a learners corner.

Implementation methodology WiZiQ is a platform supporting collaboration between both teachers and/or learners. There is a plethora of different ways in which this tool could be integrated in an L2 environment. The following points comprise a brief list of some of the aforementioned ways: Teaching/ Learning ideas Share teaching and training experience with people all over the world synchronously. Provides opportunity to pursue (free) professional development in online learning. Participating in presentations actively / review presentations already given. Giving presentations. Implementing lessons with learners of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds from all over the world. Familiarisation with technology as an integral part of modern society.

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The project Autonomous Personal Learning Networks for Language Teachers has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Example of implementation Type of lesson: Teacher training course Lesson title: Scheduling online session on WiZiQ Level: Teachers Age group: Adults Number of students involved:25 Duration: According to duration desired Introduction: The trainer explains the goal of the workshop: be able to design online workshops and sessions on WiZiQ. After a short discussion about possibilities of professional development in online environment, the trainer introduces the application and its features. He invites the participants to enter the page and create their own free accounts on WiZiQ. Lesson flow: Participants working in pairs are explained the basic steps that must be followed to schedule a class: 1) Go to Classes tab and click on Schedule a Class link. 2) Fill in details like Title of the class or About the class. You find a date and time by default. If you want a different date and time, enter them in the relevant fields marked for them. 3) Decide whether you want to hold classes only for your students, and then click on Private, or if you are willing to welcome new student contacts, choose your class as 'Public'. A public class is first approved by WiZiQ administrator and is then listed (as WiZiQ Public Class) on the WiZiQ Public Class page. 4) Finally, click on Schedule and Continue button. This schedules your class. 5) As soon as your class gets scheduled, you may invite your students to the class. You may choose to invite your webmail contacts. 6) Finally, on the scheduled date and time, you have to launch your class to enter the Virtual Classroom. It is a good idea to open the classroom 10 minutes before the scheduled time in order to test headsets and get accustomed to the platform. Follow-up: Trainer shows the participants how to handle some useful features like the whiteboard for live writing and drawing, using live videos and audios or shifting classroom control to other participants, at the discretion of the instructor/moderator. Follow-up discussion is opened then and all the questions are answered by the trainer. If you are a premium member, you can create both public and private courses on WiZiQ. A private course does not appear listed in the WiZiQ marketplace and allows only invited students to enroll. A public course, on the other hand, gets listed in the WiZiQ marketplace and is open for anyone to see and participate. Your invitees need to register before entering the virtual classroom.

Other issues

Useful tips . To see how the tool works, it is a good idea to visit a virtual classroom yourself. You can choose from a wide range of online lessons according to the topic of interest. If you have a blog on Blogger or Blogspot, you can embed the WiZiQ class on your blog.

This Factsheet is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

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The project Autonomous Personal Learning Networks for Language Teachers has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.