creating & managing virtual encounters

[Gary_Trujillo]

Hi, all. I'd like to offer a few thoughts about how we might be able to carry on some virtual get-togethers of the sort that those of us experienced last week in the form of the Zoom-based meeting set up and managed by Kristen and Susie, both during the remaining weeks of the course and possibly beyond its conclusion. My suggestion is that we use this forum to get some mutual sense of what sorts of topics we might want to talk about more by means of virtual meetings, and, when the time seems right, members can solicit others to take part in a meeting on a given subject or range thereof, which they could facilitate, possibly with help from other interested parties. We could also, possibly with assistance from our instructor, invite other class members to participate in such events.

Though Zoom appears to have become the "gold standard" for conducting virtual meetings, I know there are other competing commercial technologies in use, as well as some free alternatives, with which I have some experience. If we do find ourselves wanting to explore such options, I would be willing to participate in some trials, which should be fairly easy to conduct. If you would like to be part of such experiments, you can indicate your interest by means of a followup posting to this one or a personal note to me. Also, if you happen to have a paid account with Zoom or another commercial virtual meeting system that could be used for our purposes, please let us know.

Personally, and going back to my student days at Cal, I know I got as much, if not more, from participating in the discussions that took place outside lectures under the guidance of teaching assistants. These smaller groups felt a lot more intimate than the formal lectures, and it felt easier to be able to ask possibly "dumb" questions without the greater social pressure of the lecture hall atmosphere.

How do the rest of you feel about such matters?