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Explore the technologies, facility design, and vendor options for building an interactive video classroom. Learn strategies for success and overcoming challenges in implementing interactive video in a residential, liberal arts setting.
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Building an Interactive Video Facility Thomas A. Warger Edutech International Donna L. Baron Five Colleges, Inc.
What is a video classroom? • A re-purposed room • Equipment for interactive video and sound • Telecommunications • Objective: interact with people elsewhere
Overview - Technologies • Standard a/v devices • Compressed video and audio for transmission • Telecommunications interface • Telecommunications infrastructure
Overview – Facility design • Sound and video quality • Human comfort • Pedagogical suitability • Technical equipment • Controls
Overview - Vendors • PictureTel • Polycom • Tandberg • VTel
Five Colleges , Inc.Interactive Networked Classrooms • History of Five Colleges and I.N.C. project. • Tandberg Educator 6000 • Strategies for Success
Five Colleges, Inc. is a consortium of: • Amherst College • Hampshire College • Mount Holyoke College • Smith College • University of Massachusetts Amherst
Interactive Video in Residential, Liberal Arts Setting • One room per campus equipped for interactive exchange of text, video and sound • Enhance collaborative teaching and learning among our five schools, encourage team teaching and student cross enrollment • Access teaching resources (content) more cost effectively • Allow us to explore how technology enhances teaching and learning and the creation of new knowledge.
Selecting Equipment • Highest quality possible in the transmission of audio and video when connecting to each other over IP network • System and room that is set up with teaching in mind - students and teachers should be able to see and hear video and audio in a natural way - moving beyond talking heads.
The Real Challenge • Schools often have trouble recruiting faculty to teach in interactive video classrooms. Faculty are skeptical • Training for interested faculty is often ad hoc, one on one and in the area of button-pushing • Faculty often want to explore issues of pedagogy • There is often little follow up or feed back given to faculty who have used the rooms • Faculty often want time to practice • Faculty need good technical and instructional design support
Strategies for Success • Publicity • Identification of Faculty Interest and Likely Collaborators • Better and more training that brings together faculty, staff and students • Evaluation • Dissemination
What to watch for • Improvements in one-to-one Internet teleconferencing • Internet2 • MPEG-quality video • Integration with campus video network • Production studios