With millions of educators and students worldwide plugged into Zoom as their remote learning platform, questions about integration of other software and education technology tools naturally arise: Will I be able to teach using my favorite tools and software via Zoom? How time-consuming and/or tedious will it be to integrate my essential teaching tools with Zoom?
One company has taken steps to assure that its software is fully integrated and smoothly operational with Zoom. HoverCam has redesigned its Flex 11 software to integrate with Zoom, one of the chosen UC platforms for remote classrooms. Previously, HoverCam was already compatible with remote conferencing programs including Skype, Google Hangouts™, Google Meet™, and Microsoft Teams™. Now, teachers can initiate and schedule Zoom calls directly from HoverCam's free document camera software.
"We recognized some teachers were confused using their document camera, with Zoom requiring settings changes that interrupted their lesson and were a distraction to students," said Bayley Pierson, HoverCam's marketing director. "By integrating Zoom, we're standing by our commitment to transform the teaching and learning experience — whether it's in a classroom, remotely, or blended learning — by engineering simple, smart solutions. With Zoom capabilities built into Flex 11, teachers don't have to spend valuable time wrestling with technology and can get back to creating an engaging, successful lesson. We recognize some users have security concerns and may not feel comfortable using third-party video conferencing programs, so we've made it easy to disable Zoom functionality within the software settings."
HoverCam's redesigned Flex 11 document camera software now incorporates Zoom's familiar interface. With this integration, teachers no longer have to run HoverCam's Flex 11 document camera software and Zoom as separate applications. They can schedule and launch meetings directly from Flex 11. This capability eliminates the black screen that previously appeared when switching between Zoom and the document camera software. In addition, teachers can now see students on the call as they work in Flex 11. They can access Zoom's spotlight and screen sharing features as well as other Flex 11 features, including virtual whiteboarding, annotation, camera control, split-screen viewing, and recording with annotations.
HoverCam's software allows teachers to use their webcam to keep students engaged with their face and eyes while simultaneously displaying the HoverCam camera image, or any lesson material on the computer screen such as websites, slides, whiteboards, videos, or PDF documents.
More information is available at www.hovercam.com/zoom.
