How to share your computer desktop in Wimba

This document describes the steps used to share part of your computer screen with everyone else in the Wimba classroom.

The first step is that an instructor must temporarily give you “presenter” status so that you can have access to sharing. When you have presenter status, you should see a “share” button near the top of the “presenter” console on the right side of the Wimba window.

Click on the Share button. This brings up a new dialog box, as below.

Make sure that the radio button next to your name is selected (don’t worry about the “Cursor control” box), then click “Begin Sharing.” You may have to scroll down the list of names to find yours. Leave the drop-down menu set to “Content Frame”

Another dialog box will appear.

Click on the “Screen Area” radio button and then click “OK”

An outline rectangle appears on your screen. Whatever appears within this rectangle will be shared in the Wimba window (except in your Wimba window). Drag the sides of this rectangle to move it. Drag a corner of this rectangle to resize it. Try to make your rectangle as small as is reasonable while still showing enough to be useful. You will also see the message “Your AppShare content is now being shown” in your Wimba content window (if it is visible).

Now position your GeoGebra window (or any other window you wish to share) under the rectangle.

At this point you may have lost sight of your Wimba window, unless you are using you have a large monitor or two monitors connected to one computer. Go to the Wimba window (a window in your browser) and engage “Lock Talk”, which is found in the “Options” menu to the right of the telephone icon under the Wimba content part of the Wimba window. You’re now ready to share your wonderful applets with everyone.

When you are done sharing, you need to release both the “Lock Talk” (repeat the previous step to toggle Lock Talk off) and the sharing. To release the sharing, locate the Appshare window (it’s browser window, probably hiding under other windows on your monitor), and click “End Sharing”. You will notice that the outline rectangle goes away and the message “The AppShare session has now ended” appears in the Wimba content window.