Sundar Subramanian from Dim Dim left a comment on my blog recently regarding my review of DimDim.

After I responded to his comment, I was been invited to attend an early trial of the new version early next week. It will be interesting to see how far this software has progressed since the version I trialed. This version will include two-way communication, which will make it a much more valuable product. I get the feeling it does not have two-way video, however this does not really concern me as I am not a big user of this feature anyway.

DimDim is based out of Boston USA, Ottawa Canada and Hyderabad India - I will be adding input from Mount Gambier, Australia and I get the feeling that some one from Sydney (Julian)might have been invited to attend also.

I am in the process of working out my criteria for the software from an educational and philosophical standpoint.

Interaction, Engagement, Feedback are all key items that I believe are important. I want to have a whiteboard so I can split the screen into sections and have each student answer questions or draw diagrams in their own segment.

For the two way communication to work in a class setting, there needs to be a way other that interrupting for someone to gain the attention of the teacher to ask a question. How have they handled this? It will be interesting to see in the new version.

They have totally redesigned the interface so it will be an interesting experience. I promise to report back on the trial next week.