Video Teleconferencing/ Virtua l Field Trips

1. Video Teleconferencing/ Virtual Field Trips Courtney Marionneaux, JaQuita Johnson & Casey Teague

2. Videoconference/ Teleconference • A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware. It differs from videophone in that it is designed to serve a conference rather than individuals.” • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videoconferencing • Uses two way communication

3. Video: • http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3c1cdbb0e54c3fbdaeb3

4. Vendors and what they offer: • Tandberg: • http://www.tandberg.com/collateral/product_brochures/tandberg_cisco_video_telephony_solution.pdf • Polycom: • http://www.polycom.com/usa/en/products/products.html

5. Effectiveness of Video Conferencing • “The strongest argument for distance education is its potential to provide instruction to students who, because of distance, time, or financial constraints, do not have access to traditional learning opportunities or specialized courses (Davis, 1988). Distance learning courses have been developed to provide equal access to an educational opportunity for schools, especially rural ones, that have to operate with a limited curriculum and staff (Wohlert, 1989).” • commonly used to teach languages • designed to support two-way video • audio communication between multiple locations • “Presenters design and conduct videoconference-based presentations and activities focused on both academic and cultural issues. Participants are able to address questions to presenters and to collaborate with geographically diverse peers in collaborative learning activities, thus building international cultural awareness.” http://www.megaconferencejr.org/ • Video Teleconferencing- is used as distance learning in many colleges.

6. Advantages of teleconferencing: • Interactive video can be effective because it: • Allows real time visual contact between students and the instructor or among students at different sites. • Supports the use of diverse media (Reed and Woodruff, 1995). Blackboards, handwritten documents, and videos may be incorporated at all sites. • Enables connection with experts in other geographical locations (Reed and Woodruff, 1995). • Can provide access to at-risk or special needs students (Woodruff and Mosby, 1996). • Provides additional access to students at remote sites. • http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/distance.htm

7. Limitations • Limitations of Interactive Video • As with any technology, interactive video has its limitations: • The initial cost of the equipment and leasing the lines to transmit conferences may be prohibitive. • Companies which produce codecs have each developed unique methods of compression which are incompatible, although protocols have been established to allow communication among brand names. However, this universal standardcompromises resolution and quality to a certain degree. • Unless a strong effort is made by the instructor, students not located with the instructor may remain uninvolved in the course. • If visuals, like handwritten or copied materials, are not properly prepared, students may have a difficult time reading them. • If the pipe that carries the transmission among sites is not large enough, the students may observe ghost imageswhen rapid movement occurs in real time (Reed and Woodruff, 1995). • If the system is not properly configured, class members may observe an audio echo effect (Reed and Wooduff, 1995). The result is audio interference that detracts from the learning environment. • http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/dist10.html

8. Virtual Field Trips • “A virtual field trip is a guided exploration through the web that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a structured online learning experience.” • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Field_Trips

9. Vendors/Products: • Free virtual fieldtrips- • www.esd113.k12.wa.us/templates/Container.aspx?ID=2350 • Virtual Fieldtrip resources and ideas http://aldenschools.org/technology.cfm?subpage=35987 • http://www.adventuresci.com/fieldtrip/distance/

10. Effectiveness of Virtual Field Trips • Virtual exhibits that duplicate real-world settings (e.g., museums) will form the basis of most field trips; these environments make possible a wide variety of experiences without the necessity of travel or scheduling. Distributed science projects will enable conducting shared experiments dispersed across time and space, each team member learning more than would be possible in isolation about the phenomenon being studied and about scientific investigation.” http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dede1.htm • “Within two decades, K-12 educators will use the virtual communities’ information infrastructures to make it possible to dramatically improve learning outcomes. Learning is social as well as intellectual; individual, isolated attempts to make sense of complex data ……….”. http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dede1.htm

11. Virtual Field Trips: • Virtual tour in use- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/subsecrets/spriconhi.html • http://www.andrill.org/iceberg/

12. Credits: • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/subsecrets/spriconhi.html • http://www.andrill.org/iceberg/ • http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dede1.htm • http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dede1.htm • www.esd113.k12.wa.us/templates/Container.aspx?ID=2350 • http://aldenschools.org/technology.cfm?subpage=35987 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Field_Trips • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videoconferencing • http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/dist10.html • http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/distance.htm