A major premise underlying these shifts is that research, extension and education need to be farmer-participatory and interactive in order to contribute agricultural knowledge and technology that results in collective learning, enhancing local capabilities and generating sustainable development processes and practices. The first developments in video conferencing can be traced back to the 1920s when AT&T Bell Labs and John Logie Baird started experimenting with video phones. The CU-SeeMe software was commercially released in 1995; it introduced the first internet radio stations. In 2004, many businesses started adopting video conferencing systems for the first time since broadband technology was finally more affordable and widespread.
What is video conferencing:
A video conference is a live, visual connection between two or more people residing in separate locations for the purpose of communication. At its simplest, video conferencing provides transmission of static images and text between two locations. At its most sophisticated, it provides transmission of full-motion video images and high-quality audio between multiple locations. The main purpose of video conferencing is to enable face-to-face communication between two or more people in different locations. It is a popular alternative to phone conferencing for businesses and provides individual users with an inexpensive means of communication with distant friends and family. Video conferencing is the technology that allows you to hold meetings with several correspondents who are located in different places while seeing and talking to them in real-time. It is different from simple video calling, which is normally one-to-one video communication. Some time ago, video calling or conferencing was a luxury that required expensive and (then) complex equipment and expertise.
Today, you literally carry it in your pocket. You can participate in or host video conferencing sessions on your smartphone and mobile device as well as on your computer with basic hardware and adequate Internet connectivity.
Benefits of Video Conferencing:
Video conferencing is important because it joins people who would not normally be able to form a face-to-face connection. In businesses, it can increase productivity amongst employees as well as provide an improved way of communicating and interacting with colleagues, partners and customers. For businesses, the tangible benefits of video conferencing include lower travel costs especially for employee training and shortened project times as a result of improved communications among team members. The intangible benefits of video conferencing include more efficient meetings with the exchange of non-verbal communications and a stronger sense of community among business contacts, both within and between companies, as well as with customers. On a personal level, the face-to-face connection adds non-verbal communication to the exchange and allows participants to develop a stronger sense of familiarity with individuals they may never actually meet in person. Other benefits of video conferencing are no need of travel, bind your mobile workers, it aids tell the community, organize meeting independent time, humanize your conversation, show things, learn and teach online. By video conferencing farmers were get the knowledge about agriculture and farming.
What is Webinar and how it is helpful:
Webinars are also important for transferring the information related to agriculture, education, Farming, Businesses etc. in the duration of lockdown. A webinar is a live, web-based video conference that uses the internet to connect the individual (or multiple individuals) hosting the webinar to an audience of viewers and listeners from all over the world. Hosts can show themselves speaking, switch to their computer screens for slideshows or demonstrations, and even invite guests from other locations to co-host the webinar with them. Webinar platforms also offer interactive features that the audience can use to ask questions and chat with the host. Many people who host webinars include Q&A sessions at the end to answer viewers' questions about the content from the presentation. Professionals use webinars to give educational presentations related to their businesses or organizations and to connect with their audiences in a much closer way. The main benefit is that they are life and occurring in real-time, which makes it easy for audience members to interact with the host. And if you're an expert yourself, hosting webinars can be a great way to help you connect with your audience.
Some also use webinars to sell their own products and services. In addition to teaching and selling, webinars are also helpful tools for conducting live interviews with other professionals. Put simply, if you want to learn something about a particular topic of interest, webinars are one of the best ways to expand your knowledge by learning directly from the experts.
Here are three popular webinar service providers that people use, among many others:
-
GoToWebinar: A lot of professionals use this one. As one of the most popular webinar platforms today, you can get started with GoToWebinar with its 14-day free trial.
-
AnyMeeting: AnyMeeting is another popular webinar platform choice and offers a less expensive plan than GoToWebinar along with a 30-day free trial. It’s got great screen sharing options, social media integration, and a variety of management tools as well.
-
Zoom: Zoom is a great cost-saving tool since it offers a totally free plan for up to 100 attendees and a 40-minute cap on meetings.
Nowadays, google meet and Webex meet etc. are also useful in conducting national and international webinars.
Share your comments