Hi. A student has just introduced me to Zoom. We've just finished our first lesson. WOW. It's like someone took a wishlist written by all italki teachers and built an app based on that list: You can share a window and still see both your video and your student's video. I was also able to draw on top of this window. I even saw sharing options for a second camera and for a nearby iPhone or iPad! That's fantastic! A Chinese teacher could use his iPad and a drawing app to teach calligraphy, for example.

At first, I could not install Zoom on my Mac from the link my student sent (He created the meeting), so I was ready to resort to FaceTime if it didn't work. But then I figured, if  I could login to my account from Chrome and then click on the Meeting link, I should be able to see an "install" button somewhere. And yes, I was given the option to install the Chrome extension. It worked pretty well. My student's sound was a bit noisy, but I don't know the cause. I was able to have the following on screen at the same time:

1) My video

2) My student's video

3) An image I was sharing

4) The chat window

This is pretty difficult/awkward to do with Skype, so I'm happy with this first experience with Zoom!

I'll keep using it with other students. And no, Zoom didn't pay me to write this. I just wanted to share it with others. Zoom is free for 1:1 conferencing.

EDIT: I have just noticed this: Right after you login, you're given the option to install the Chrome or Firefox extension. You can login with your Google or FB account. And BTW, I selected "computer audio" in the audio options. The default option was "both computer and telephone audio".