So, I set out taking on the challenge placed in front of me to learn about this new tool.  I asked if anyone on my main social networking site, Plurk, would join in the evaluation process of tokbox.   I was joined by Eddie A. (JettaGLI), and two close friends from my former school district.  During the original evaluation we discovered that folks can join a conference by just using audio to collaborate with the others using video.  Eddie was successful in sharing photos from his Flickr account as well as showing a presentation from SlideShare.   I found that a YouTube video could be played within the conference window for all participants to view and control.  The interesting point about this feature is how the feed comes via tokbox.  Thus, the participants behind the firewall could see the video.  Another very nice application included with tokbox is Etherpad.  You can have a private or public Etherpad used within your conference.  Each person participating in collaborating via the Etherpad are identified by the color associated to their typing.  A great feature provided by Etherpad is the ability to upload or download in a variety of documents to go along with the “save version” option to revert to a previous saved copy if needed.  One of the lesser features that we felt was a really nice turned out to be the links for each video, Etherpad, presentation that can be re-visited by just clicking on them as you browse back over the main options.  As we continued to chat and play with the features the school day ended with us hoping to reconnect.

Later that evening Eddie and I hosted another session in hopes of truly testing the limit of 20 participants that tokbox says can participate in a conference.  Unfortunately, we were only able to get 6 people at one time to take the challenge.  In testing tokbox that evening we had participants on PC and Macs collaborating and sharing resources without any issues.  One of our participants, Dyane Smokorowski (aka Mrs.Smoke) even used CamTwist to share her Mac Book Pro desktop so we could see her demonstrate “How To” processes.  Unfortunately, it did not come through as clearly as one would hope.   Another thing we discovered dealt with bandwidth.  We had one participant connecting to the Internet via his Alltel connection.  Needless to say, he had troubles communicating with us due to delays while the rest of us were streaming smoothly.

Tokbox provides a wealth of other  creative options for it’s users.  One of the commonly used features is the ability to record and e-mail video messages to friends.  These video e-mails can be for some simple message or for special moments including holidays via the templates hosted by tokbox.  Tokbox also provides users the ability to embed it’s conference feature within a blog, wiki, or website.    In addition, the opportunity to embed tokbox is now officially part of Ning networks.  I have even went to the point of adding it to my Ning site that is used for promoting future teachers to districts looking to hire young educators.   Click on this thumbnail picture to see an example of tokbox’s Ning feature.

Finally, I hope you consider watching the following overview video I created to show the features and functionality of tokbox.  The video is 11 minutes in length.

Free online screen recorder

All in all, I have been impressed with the features of tokbox and the potential ability to have several people involved in a single video conference.  Maybe the challenge of hosting 20 people simultaneously can be answered after everyone reads this post and lets me know that they want to join the party.  After all, I plan using this site on October 5, 2009 with my pre-service students so we can bring in educators across the globe to discuss how social networking and media can strengthen us professionally.

7. My sister is the head of the Education Department at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, KS. She has serviced as an assistant at the Hogel Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah as well as serving as an intern in Kansas City, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

6. I met my wife while I was teaching middle school and she was student teaching.

5. Believe it or not during high school I had a lot of hair, enough to even perm it during my senior year…..now I look like a cue ball.

4. My favorite song is “Eye of the Tiger” and two favorite tv shows are “M.A.S.H” and CSI ( the original series).

3. I learned a lot about pitching in college from John Denny, 1983 CY Young award winner with St. Louis Cardinals while he served as an assistant coach. I went on to be a high school assistant coach for five years followed by being a head coach for another five years. During my five years as a head coach the program won 1 Kansas state title (2004), 2 league titles (2 more 2nd place finishes), 3 regional titles with an overall record of 96-20. But the best part of those 10 years was the connections I made with those gentlemen and seeing them mature and become fine young men. To this day I can not say their is not one of them I would not coach again. I find myself reflecting back to many of our conversations about what lies ahead for them as college students and adults. It was those conversations that I used to relate with them and provide them a venue to see there was more to life than just baseball.

2. I was born in Smith Center, KS and attended 5 different schools while growing up and graduating highschool in Enid, OK. When attending junior high in Spring Hilll, Kansas, I came out of the PE locker room with my gym shirt on….only problem was I forgot to put on my gym shorts…can you say “whitey tighties”?

1. During my senior year my grandfather (mom’s dad) passed away due to cancer. I remember the days of coming home from morning kindergarten and papa was there to pick me up at the farm. We would do chores including feeding the cattle or watering the horses. Then we would go into town for his afternoon “tea” break. He was a fairly quiet man that worked from dawn to dusk to provide for his family. I would say I have inherited that trait from my grandfather and father. Anyhow, when grandpa was diagnosed with cancer he was given 6 months to live. Well, this hard headed, workaholic, farmer was not going to give into cancer because he wanted to reach his 70th birthday. Well, that was about 9 months away. Amazingly and defiantly, grandpa made reached his goal regardless of having a cancer count that doctors were amazed had not already taken his life. It was not until two days after his birthday that he accepted his rightful place in heaven. When I was told grandpa passed away their in his bedroom at the farm I did not shed a tear. I could not accept that grandpa had passed away for he was the strong determined model that has assisted in shaping the person I am today. I did not attend his funeral and that bothers me secretively to this day. So, I am taking advantage of this post and expressing my appreciation and love from “Grandpa Mathes”.

P.S. For those of you not getting to say “Good bye” to the ones you love take the time and do it. Do not let it go unresolved! May God bless each and everyone that reads this, knows of someone suffering from a terminal disease and needs prayers, or those that have lost loved ones and not been able to close that chapter.

Here are two people and their videos I fully respect for it was terminal illnesses that took their lives too. Jimmy Valvano and Randy Pausch

Now I “tag”
@dennisa
@scarter
@MrsSmoke
@Ritabee
@Tuana
@cmay
@judyb64