A5.2: 7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Meetings

Amanda Williams

September 18, 2007

7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Meetings. (2006.) EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Retrieved September 18, 2007 from www.educause.edu/eli/.

TAP: This article is intended to persuade people to try meeting virtually, and to inform students and educators of the basics of virtual meetings.

Claim: The article claims that virtual meetings are just as effective as face-to-face meetings and make scheduling more flexible and convienient. Also, the author states that since technology is so new and innonative it may be possible for students to better succeed in a virtual environment.

Evidence: Virtual meetings have advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include the convienience of not leaving the office or comfort of home, and the time saved from traveling from place to place. Disadvantages include the difficulty of dealing with participants in different time zones and the lack of physical contact in a classroom. Depending on each individual’s learning style, some students learn more effectively and more easily in virtual classrooms while other suffer from the same environment.

Connections: When I was a senior in high school I had a strong desire to be finished with school, also known as “senioritis.” I spoke with my counselor about the possibility of taking some online courses and began the process. At the time, Putnam County Schools had just adopted the Florida Virtual Schools online program. I flipped through a course offering book and decided to enroll in History of the Holocaust and Economics II. I began the classes by reading the syllabi and planning a schedule to pace all of my work I had to do. The classes each had about three virtual meetings as well as numerous conference calls and miscellaneous electronic communications. They were both a success and I would definitely recommend online classes to anyone who is self-disciplined and dedicated.

     This article is formatted similarly and reads much like the previous reading assignments “7 Things You Should Know…”. Each of them states the basic facts including sections labeled What, Why and Advantages and Disadvantages. These articles are very informative and borderline persuasive because of their technologically advanced topics. All of the articles we have read so far that have been of this nature have been interesting to me, including this one.

     This article is obviously applicable to my life currently, as a full-time student and will probably always be a part of my life. Currently, I have no online classes and none of my professors are using virtual meetings at this time. However, I have a strong suspicion that after doing these readings for my computer networking class we will have a virtual meeting. Also, this article can be applied to the broader world of clinical practice through its very nature. Speech Pathologists (SLPs) everywhere communicate electronically, whether it be for interoffice communications or international communications regarding conferences or even client issues. Virtual meetings could be of use to professionals all over the world for the purpose of flexible meetings.