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Using ZOOM to have a meeting with Classmates

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 01/23/19 07:55 PM Views: 2466 Replies: 29
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7:55 PM

We are considering using ZOOM to have a web Conference with our Classmates from time to time as a number of use live in different locations. Just wondering if any of our Class Creator users have tried this? What were your results/issues?

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Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 3:51 PM - Response #1

We've not tried ZOOM, but we meet regularly using FreeConferenceCAll.com. We mostly just teleconference, but the site provides for screensharing and more.

Would be interested to see what benefits ZOOM provides.

Dave

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Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 4:03 PM - Response #2

Not familiar with FreeConferenceCAll.com. ZOOM I think is more pervasive, it also allows you to "Share" a computer. Good for those times when folks Cannot figure out what to do..

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Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 4:24 PM - Response #3

Our reunion and class president used Gotomeeting.com for our reunion committee and it has worked very well. It is a great way to meet and members can join in with computer or phone. It also has screen sharing with the computer and members can elect to be on camera or not.

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Friday, January 25, 2019 at 2:31 AM - Response #4

Thanks for this thread as this is a topic on my 'to do' list! I need to look into these over the weekend and find someone to help with test runs.
Thanks again!


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Friday, January 25, 2019 at 4:03 PM - Response #5

We used Life Chat in the beginning. We scheduled weekly times for anyone who wished to participate. Worked well for our purposes. Haven't done that in a while. This gives me the notion to try it again.

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Monday, January 28, 2019 at 8:19 AM - Response #6

Dave Shellenbarger wrote:

We've not tried ZOOM, but we meet regularly using FreeConferenceCAll.com. We mostly just teleconference, but the site provides for screensharing and more.

Would be interested to see what benefits ZOOM provides.

Dave

I agree with FreeConferenceCall. It is a free service. You can use only the conference call version or the version that allows for meeting and screen sharing. I have used the conference call option for a long time. Works great and you get a report afterward re phone numbers on the call and for how long. You can also record the call and play back later. I recently used the meeting/screen sharing option for showing others how to use Edit Site Pages. It worked great. And, again, it is free.

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Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 5:09 PM - Response #7

I use Zoom frequently if you have any questions I am happy to help.

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Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 1:19 AM - Response #8

Now I want to try FreeConferenceCall. Will need to find others to test with me. Thanks for this info, Barb!

Barb F wrote:


I agree with FreeConferenceCall. It is a free service. You can use only the conference call version or the version that allows for meeting and screen sharing. I have used the conference call option for a long time. Works great and you get a report afterward re phone numbers on the call and for how long. You can also record the call and play back later. I recently used the meeting/screen sharing option for showing others how to use Edit Site Pages. It worked great. And, again, it is free.

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Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 1:21 AM - Response #9

Leeann,
Is Zoom free?
Leeann Naughton wrote:

I use Zoom frequently if you have any questions I am happy to help.

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Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 3:42 PM - Response #10

It is free, unless you want meetings that extend over 40 minutes. I use it frequently and love it! So easy to use.

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Monday, September 14, 2020 at 2:45 PM - Response #11

We had a zoom call, and recorded it. I want to add the recording (MP4) to the website; we have plenty of available storage, but want to know the best way...or upload it to GooglePhotos and place a link on the website for that instead??

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Monday, September 14, 2020 at 5:43 PM - Response #12

Youtube

Mark it as unlisted. That automatically gives you a way for user to easily play.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/157177?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

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Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 4:51 PM - Response #13

Actually Want to NOT use Google Photos...I've created link for Video, trying to upload, as a photo - but getting 'exceeded limit' MP4 file is 400 MB - also unable to upload 200MB...I HAVE the room...what is max size for a video? MUST they be on YouTube, or can I simply upload from my computer?
...thanks

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Edited 09/16/20 5:50 PM
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 8:09 PM - Response #14

Seems CC file size limit is now set to around 30MB. CC did these limits before browsers could play MP4 directly and the filevault was only 200MB.

File should be uploaded to your File Vault directly, not as an image. Click the chain icon in editor on the right, second line.

You still might want to use Youtube though. Youtube will also probably reduce the file size when you upload, hence faster viewing. Original MP4s tend to be very large. Probably because compression is not well done with raw recording. But don't know about your case. Mine typically reduce to at least 1/2 size from my camera.

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Friday, September 18, 2020 at 5:52 PM - Response #15

Jack - was there an error with your 30MB v 200 MB? Maybe a GB or reversed numbers? The MP4 was taken on ZOOM not my camera, so not sure if it will still get reduced as much on YT?

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Friday, September 18, 2020 at 8:50 PM - Response #16

Actually 27.99 MB but over 30MB fails (approx)

When you upload to Youtube, it reformats the video. I also do that on my PC and it always reduces the size by at least 50%. The program I typically use (because it's so simple) is this one.

This is the free online version - I've never used but you can try https://www.apowersoft.com/free-online-video-converter

The one I use on PC is this one

https://www.apowersoft.com/video-converter-studio.html

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Edited 09/18/20 8:56 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 12:10 PM - Response #17

I solved it finally...but Jack I found it much better to NOT embed the video to our website, but rather to simply create the YouTube video, and get the URL via youtube, and then create a web page on our site with the URL link to the name of the item; that way you can put more than one youtube video on a page if there needs to be... e.g. we had a few zoom meetings,and I didn't want to create a page for each video, so I simply had zoom meetings as the name of the page, and then each line described when it was, and then created a unique Youtube URL for each title. It not only saves web space, it is much simpler to do, AND it allows the entire width of your computer screen to be used...1 video is 450 MB MP4 and the others are 200-300MB MP4 videos Thoughts?

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Edited 09/19/20 12:15 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 12:42 PM - Response #18

Dick, I can't see your "1963 History/Videos" page, but I'm hoping you have created a link for each YouTube video, so you don't have to have the complete YouTube URL on the history/videos page. That's how we do it on our Audio/Video Memories page: http://www.eastlongmeadowhighschool1970.com/class_custom8.cfm

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Edited 09/19/20 12:43 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 2:01 PM - Response #19

Dick Rubinstein wrote:

that way you can put more than one youtube video on a page if there needs to be... e.g. we had a few zoom meetings,and I didn't want to create a page for each video,

The most compact and easy way to do this is to use JVideoplayer Cool The user never leaves your site Idea

You put all your videos in a "playlist" with a short description. Use the value of &vautosize=1 That automatically sizes the video to the screen size.

The page can contain anything else you want to say.

Link to docs HERE

Example of a page using "autosize" is HERE

Videos can be anything you want, not just music. It also will "remember" what video the user last saw if they quit and come back.

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 3:04 PM - Response #20

Here's a sample page showing the source code too. You can make the list of the videos longer, but I left it showing what just the default autosize=1 give you. You scroll the list to get to any video.

You can manually just add the Youtube ID and your own description. Note that the "headings", etc can have any color you want.

Sample page with multiple headings and code used HERE

Oh, you can see any video fullscreen by just clicking the Youtube FullScreen icon, lower right of video

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Edited 09/19/20 3:05 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 4:40 PM - Response #21

Scott & Jack - Thanks very much. I see the significant differences. Scott - you and I did about the same approach and they work about the same. Both take you to YT link and play either small or full screen...but for the both of us, it also takes you to the FULL YT links there as well to play anything, I expect and shows many prior links.

Jack - yours seems much more secure as you can only see the YT link you're playing and can't wander off...Much more secure, but also a bit more complex to incorporate - although I didn't actually try it.

Please let me know if you can get to my links,
http://www.hhs63.com/Zoom-Meetings-Sept-2020.htm
because it appears you need to log in - which, like the Message Forum and Message Center is restricted to only those registered on the site. Let me know if you think my approach works OK...AND if you can actually get to see them...

Also - If I show the website on my phone, I can project the YT videos to my TV and also get Closed Captioning on both TV and Phone Any idea how to get the ZOOM Names to display on YT as they disappear once recorded? ... Dick

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Edited 09/19/20 6:32 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 5:43 PM - Response #22

Dick,

Please email me a temporary password (system password) by private message so I can log in to your site and see the page. To do so, click on "email" at the bottom of the gray box to the left of this post.

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 6:47 PM - Response #23

Dick Rubinstein wrote:

Jack - yours seems much more secure as you can only see the YT link you're playing and can't wander off...Much more secure, but also a bit more complex to incorporate - although I didn't actually try it.

Please let me know if you can get to my links,
http://www.hhs63.com/Zoom-Meetings-Sept-2020.htm
because it appears you need to log in - which, like the Message Forum and Message Center is restricted to only those registered on the site. Let me know if you think my approach works OK...AND if you can actually get to see them... Dick

The link to generator makes all the code (pick options) and you just copy and paste in Source. Pretty much the same how one does a single Youtube embed - just more options. However, the only thing that varies is the Youtube ID and descriptions for each one. Like anything new, takes a few experiments. The biggest mistake I see is TYPOS - that make stuff not work Twisted Evil

A user can "browse" and "see" the video list very fast and see what it is about vs plain non-interactive text descriptions that go off site. For "links" user has to close and go back to site. It's pretty easy to forget to close the tabs and it gets real busy.

Yes can't see your page. You could just make it public for a short time. Or see Scott's page and confirm that is what you did (I think is what you did too).

I prefer for all content to "stick" on the website in terms of where a user thinks he is. It's somewhat a personal choice getting more tabs opened. On an Android or Apple portable device it is harder to see where one is. So once on Youtube site, they can easily get lost there Smile

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 6:52 PM - Response #24

done...i think - oops - that is Scott - sent temp system PW OK...Jack - I'll send you the same one...hope they work...and again, what is different in your sites that I can see yours, but you can't see mine? is it the .htm vs the .cfm - not sure what the latter means or is ... Dick

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Edited 09/19/20 7:10 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 7:59 PM - Response #25

Yes, you did it the same way as Scott.

I modified the test page I made to use your videos so you can see how different it is. The main difference is that all the menu choices remain. Your page stays focused on the content.

This is the code for that Demo Page showing your videos now

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 8:01 PM - Response #26

Dick Rubinstein wrote:

what is different in your sites that I can see yours, but you can't see mine? is it the .htm vs the .cfm - not sure what the latter means or is ... Dick

Scott's pages are not protected. Some of mine are.

The test pages I made are NOT active for classmates to see, however, they can be viewed by anyone I give the link to. That's how a lot of my pages are made: A main page and then several "not active" pages that are linked. Keeps menu clutter down.

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM - Response #27

Jack - Really neat...thank you ... Not sure the best way to do this...but I really appreciate what you've done. Not sure how to take what you did to put on my site...I guess I need to download and use the software, and just insert the code that you created, yes? So what's the difference from .htm and .cfm? But mine can't be seen unless you are logged on to the site, which is what I wanted...yes?

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Edited 09/19/20 9:08 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 9:40 PM - Response #28

All that is required is to copy that code in Editor Source mode to a page. No download. So to put on your site the exact same code would be put on a page you create.

You can add other elements on the page to explain what the page is about. Either before or after the video.

The difference between htm and cfm is just a naming thing. .htm is normally the standard (for Hypertext Markup) and .cfm is the convention used by Cold Fusion for Cold Fusion Markup. Cold Fusion is a scripting engine sort of like Java to generate web pages. CC uses Cold Fusion.

Whether a page can be seen without logging in is purely determined by how you set up the link in "Edit Site Pages".

A page only shows up on your menu list if you make it "active". An inactive page can still be accessed. When creating a new page, it's best to not make it active until you are all done. Then just click "active" and it show up as a menu item.

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Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 11:29 PM - Response #29

Dick, confirming Jack Vermeulen, your Zoom meeting links are set up like those on our site.

On another subject, you mentioned you can see our custom pages without logging in. We designed them to be that way from the beginning of our site.

We intentionally welcome people other than registered members to view our pages, including former classmates with us from kindergarten through some portion of high school, our upper and lower classmen, faculty and staff members, parents, siblings, and people from town who knew us growing up. We view our site as more than just about our class.

Making custom pages available for viewing without logging in is a personal choice you as the administrator make, based on your feelings about privacy and security. When you click on Edit Site Pages, for each page you've created, you then click on Edit Link, then check "Restrict to Classmates Only" to force someone to log in to see the page, which is what you've done, or uncheck "Restrict to Classmates Only" to make the page viewable without logging in, which is what we've done.

Private contact information on classmates' profiles, including email, street address, and phone number is blocked by default to view to everyone except administrators. Other profile information is blocked from view if the classmate checks "Block Profile Visibility" under Edit Profile.

We feel our site experience has been enriched by having our custom pages viewable without logging in, but I know some administrators are nervous about having their custom pages publicly viewable due to perceived privacy and/or security concerns. We feel everything on our custom pages is innocuous information, much of it easily available on the internet. I'm happy Class Creator gives administrators the choice to make custom pages viewable only by logging in or viewable without logging in.

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Edited 09/20/20 6:47 PM
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