7.6 Exploring Videoconferencing Projects

Video Conferencing via the Internet can enhance a classroom lesson by providing a vehicle that allows students to interact with those beyond the classroom walls. Using Internet-based conferencing, students can communicate with text, audio, and even videos. Widening learning horizons for students and teaching opportunities for teachers are endlessly enticing for the creative applications they hold out for innovative instruction. Examples of the versatile capabilities of Internet conferencing are widespread online and in hard copy education publications. San Diego State University, in collaboration with Century High School in Santa Ana, California, used conferences as a means of teaching the high school students web authoring (2003). They were engaged in the Nonprofit Prophets project and also through conferencing, met with nonprofit organizations and students from other schools who were involved in the joint effort to build web pages for the nonprofit groups.

An unforgettable encounter with a young NASA physicist and an Astronaut-in-training was arranged using conferencing for middle-school students who took part in a Mendocino (California) middle school Science/Energy Project (2003). Cory Wisnea, their teacher, prepared the students for the type of experience they would have so that they could ask pertinent questions of the NASA participants. Touring the Space Station Mock-Up Trainer and the Space Shuttle Mock-Up located in a 600-foot long building were two of the many stops on the students’ conference schedule. The two NASA guides escorted them on their field trip and “explained everything and how the equipment works and how it had been developed.” The question-and-answer give-and-take with the NASA guides saw the students asking questions as the tour took place. “Life in the Fishbowl” is a fine example of the great fun and great learning potential for students who take part in conferencing with other schools (2003). Bryant Elementary School, San Francisco, California, is where teacher Lupe Guerrero’s fourth and fifth grades teamed up with Deena Zarlin’s fourth-graders in Mendocino, California, to learn Spanish and conferencing. Ms. Guerrero summed up the results by saying, Sharing what they know and what they are learning with their counterparts in Mendocino has reinforced the students’ pride in themselves and has proven to be a great motivator for the acquisition of additional language skills. It has also begun to build a sense of community between the two classrooms as they discover the differences and similarities in personal interests, culture, and academics between the two populations.

As a new teacher, you may even be mentored by videoconferencing; and as a teacher, you may already or in the near future attend school-related meetings as videconferences. Community events for students to “attend” via videconferencing include “town hall meetings, government hearings, school board meetings, court function and other government-related activities.” Conferencing is of the utmost importance in Adult Basic Education. It gives these students a chance to be a part of a learning situation that might be impossible given the time frame for them to attend or it may ease the difficulty they may experience to be present on a high-school campus as an adult who is attending class.

Activity:

Search the sites below or other sites you find on the web for more projects or classroom ideas using video conferencing. Create a 1-2 page annotated Best Practices in Video Conferencing summary that describes your top five finds. Be prepared to share with your peers

Want to know more? Check out these sites:

Google Video Conferencing Education

http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/wfryer/necc2002/vc.html

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr120.shtml

http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/dist10.html

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/vidconf.html

http://web.mala.bc.ca/seeds/ivc/index.html

Source:

Videoconferencing: Ideas and examples for schools, colleges, and libraries. 2003. Retrieved August 1, 2003, from http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/ideas.html .