Firstly, many thanks to those inspired people who have set up virtual activities to keep us entertained and intrigued.
For those of you who have not yet ventured to join in on Zoom, we thought a few pointers to get you started might help.
I’ve really enjoyed the virtual clog activities I’ve joined and being able to see people’s faces in these times was especially uplifting.
Zoom is free, can be used whether you use Windows or Mac, enables you to have 1:1 meetings (unlimited time and number) or group meetings (unlimited number, ltd to 40 mins duration per meeting)
- The easiest way to join a Zoom meeting is to just click on the link in an invitation email you’ve received from another clog member or friend. You may need the meeting ID number, also in the email, when you’re starting off and your name as you’d like it to be displayed to the group. From the choices you may see, leave audio on and decide if you want video on (see number 4 below )
- Zoom will download automatically when you join your first meeting.
- Follow any prompts to “open Zoom” (click “Open”) or “join the meeting”, or wait patiently if you see “you are in the waiting room”.
- You should see a video preview, so you can see what you look like! If it’s a bad hair day or you’re still in your pyjamas, then this is when you can choose to : “Join with video” or “join without video”. “Without video” means you will be able to hear everyone and others hear you, but no one will be able to see you.
- Once you enter zoom, you should see your host and some other familiar faces... say “Hello”. If they respond, then they can hear you too !
- You may need to check your microphone and video are working. The tricky thing is that the icons aren’t always obviously in sight. You need to just move your cursor either to the top of the zoom screen or the bottom strip of the screen, then the icons will appear.
- The icons are pretty self-explanatory : a microphone to turn your voice on /off, a video camera to turn your camera on/off. Click on this link to have a play with the icons and controls beforehand, so you don’t have to wing it during a meeting: https://zoom.us/test
- YOU’VE DONE IT .... ENJOY MEETING EVERYONE AND JOINING IN. You can leave at any time by clicking “Leave meeting ( bottom right hand corner, in red)
- You can register with Zoom, especially if you might want to host a meeting for friends yourself, but you don’t have to. Go to www.zoom.us and sign up : Enter your email address, you will then receive an email from no-reply@zoom.us which will ask you to “Activate Account “– click on this complete registration and enter a password.
Here’s a link to a video introducing you to the zoom screen and how to join a meeting, if that helps clarify things.
There was some publicity initially about privacy issues with Zoom but , as I understand it, this was only where links to meetings were made public, rather than the personal invitation you will receive from friends or Clog. Zoom have worked to address any protection issues and brought out an updated version (5.0) a few days ago, so if you join from now you’ll have the latest version.