Hayling Island U3A
The Science & Technology Group has restarted meetings back in October 2021. So far we have had 2 presentations from local u3a members on 'The Future of the Jet Engine' and 'Squaring the Green balance in the National Grid'. These were then followed by 'Why should you buy an Electric Vehicle' and the 'Hubble Space Telescope'.
The next meeting on 25th May will be a presentation on the James Webb Space Telescope, its development, deployment and what is is doing now.
If you are new to video conferencing then there are any number of applications in the market including:
Our web site provides a free video conferencing facility via each group's page, so go along and have a look and set up your first group meeting.
What do you require to join in a video conference?
The following notes help you join and participate in a Zoom meeting. Having read them, click here if you are interested in hosting your own Zoom meeting.
The key to successful video conferencing is to ensure that you follow some simple rules:
To ensure that your computer equipment is OK for video conferencing you need to check it is configured correctly. Use zoom.us/test to do this. When you are on the Test page just follow the instructions. There are tests to configure your microphone, speakers and video.
Below is a brief description of the icons you will see on the test and normal screens. When you move your mouse pointer over the screen you will see menus appear either along the bottom or top of the screen.
These are the icons you should see: (There are couple of other icon that the Host will see)...
Click/tap this icon to mute and unmute yourself. If you have a keyboard, you can also hold the space bar down to temporarily un-mute yourself. When someone speaks their screen will have a yellow border around it, because they have the ‘focus’.
Click/tap this icon to allow/disallow people to see you via your camera.
Click/tap on ‘Participants’ to list the names of people in the meeting. If you want to change your name (Zoom can give you the 'name' of your computer as a default). mouse over/tap your entry to see a 'More' icon; click/tap it to see a 'Rename' option.
This icon allows you to send a message to ‘everyone’, or one person in the meeting by selecting them. Consider sending questions to the speaker or host rather than everyone so they can see it and answer accordingly.
The Host can also ‘Record’ the meeting so that it could be shown to others at a later stage.
The host and and any participant (if allowed by the host), can share views from their device. For example, a presenter can share images or a PowerPoint presentation to attendees.
There are other more advanced features in the Zoom application, which I will leave you to explore.
Now that you have tested your computer you are ready to go.
To join a meeting without downloading the Zoom application you need a link you can click on from an email or notice invitation.
This is an example email notification sent from Zoom that shows a typical meeting link:
Fred Bloggs is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Tuesday School presentation
Time: Jan 12, 2021 09:15 London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/99999999999?pwd=ejhLeUptYWt4UjdKaFBORWYxd2tMdz09
Meeting ID: 838 0504 9148
Passcode: 345201
When you click the link you will be taken directly to the presentation. If you are too early, you'll either see a message telling you the presentation date and time, or one asking you to wait until the host starts the meeting.
Just before you join the meeting you will see another window that:
When you join the meeting you will see the host's screen and your image in a small window with your name on it. If you select 'View options' at the top of the screen you can switch to gallery view that attempts to show images of all the participants However, there is a limit to how many people you can see due to the screen size of your device. It's not a particularly useful option if there are a large number of participants.
Note that you can reduce the load on your internet connection by using 'Active speaker' view. You will see just one other person, but Zoom will try to switch automatically to the person who is speaking.
This note explains how to get a copy of the Zoom software and use it to create an online meeting.
If you want to host meetings using Zoom then you will need to download the ‘Zoom Client for Meetings’ application, this will allow you to schedule your own meetings and you can also use it to join in other meetings. We suggest you download the app from the Zoom download page as there are other apps that pretend to be Zoom and it's not always easy to tell the difference.
If you find yourself in a list of apps, the one you want is called ‘Zoom Client Meetings’ and has a logo like the one on the right. Install the application and follow the instructions to create a free or paid account. The free version has a time limit of 40 minutes, but you can always sign out and back in again to continue if you wish. The alternative is to pay for one of the various Plans that Zoom offers.
Run the Zoom application you downloaded and you will see this screen:
Click 'Sign In' and you will see this screen:
When you enter your email and password and click 'Sign In' to see this screen:
Here you can select to:
I will leave you to explore these options, which are easy to follow.
The 'share screen' option shown during a Zoom meeting or the Zoom application allows the host or any participant to share their desktop or an open window. For example, if someone wants to use a PowerPoint presentation they open the presentation on their computer, click on ‘Share Screen’ and select the PowerPoint window to share it. Everyone in the meeting will see the presentation and follow it as the presenter moves from slide to slide.
As the host, you can prevent participants from using this feature.
It's usually best to share a window rather than your entire desktop to prevent alerts intruding on your presentation. It can get confusing, however. If, for example, you share a Windows Explorer window containing a list of images and click an image the other participants won't see the image because it displays in a new window - not the one you are sharing.
Run the Zoom application and sign in as shown above.
When you created your meeting you set up a meeting ID and Passcode. Click 'Join' to see:
Enter your meeting ID and your name and click 'Join' to see:
Enter your meeting's passcode to start it. Participants will join automatically.