At the 2015 Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event  I conducted a hands-on workshop that explored internet collaboration through the use of low-cost video and audio teleconferencing tools. These could be used to enable virtual meetings, classes, and webinar presentations in your congregation. Participants explored the basics of Skype, Google Hangouts, and join.me. We also explored best practices for a virtual teaching presence.

The linked PowerPoint presentation has an overview of the products we looked at with a connection to their pricing. If you want the “bottom line,” the most capable collaboration tool I can recommend is Zoom.us — an affordable and capable video conferencing and webinar platform that supports 25, 100, 250+ participants.

If you’d like to discuss this further, you can reach me in the Facebook group TechTools4CE, where you are encouraged to share the tech tools you use and recommend.

Von Clemans, D.Ed.Min.

Associate Pastor of Adult Education, Myers Park Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC