Online meetings, good or bad?
The best technology and most useful technology I have come across whilst working at Pontydysgu is probably the use of porgrammes such as skype and flashmeeting to support online meetings of more than one or two people. It was not until my Mum called me to ask good programmes to use that I realised the real value of this technology. She was having issues as some of small companies she worked with were required to attend meetings that they couldn’t afford, as travel costs were too high. Using a programme such as flashmeeting meant that these companies big and small could be involved without huge cost. This led me to more questions however of whether this could really replace physical meetings and whether online meetings were really the same. With so many advantages, low cost, time saved, making more regular meetings possible they certainly seem to solve a lot of problems. However it seems to me that online communication can prevent a proper working relationship being formed as all of the informal conversation and time spent getting to know each other is lost, and it is often that it is only when people meet in person that they get a real idea of who they are working with.
I think this is something that could become in important question in the future as more people work from home and international connections become even more common.
