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Kicking the Tires. Experimenting with Distance Education Technologies at the University of Michigan School of Information. Lija Bentley Vlad Wielbut. lija@umich.edu. wlodek@umich.edu. School of Information. http://www.si.umich.edu/. Alliance for Community Technology.
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Kicking the Tires Experimenting with Distance Education Technologies at the University of Michigan School of Information
Lija BentleyVlad Wielbut lija@umich.edu wlodek@umich.edu
School of Information http://www.si.umich.edu/
Alliance for Community Technology http://www.communitytechnology.org/
Act 1: Winter 1998 • Course: first-year, master-level, required • Lecturers: Maurita Holland and Thomas Finholt • Enrolled students: 65 • Main rationale: to accommodate 5 commuting students
Tools used: • Placeware Auditorium 1.2 • WebBoard 2.0 • Web site • E-mail
Challenges: • Hybrid environment • separate but equal? • logistical nightmare • Bandwidth problems • Sound
internet PW The classroom setup microphones slides mixing board capture black box floor
Remote students • Were variably engaged with lecture • Had diminished opportunities for “face time” • Had concerns about visibility • Attended office hours normally • Could not easily contribute to in-class discussions
Classroom students • Had a slightly better sense of what happened during lecture • Approved of the experiment • Disliked the disruptive effect of the technology in the classroom
Faculty members • Felt the remote students were “invisible” • Were dissatisfied with turnout to office hours • Agreed that microphones were bothersome • Could not easily involve remote students in the lecture
Major results and analysis • Hybrid environment negatively affects the professor-student relationship • Participating students report overall satisfaction with the experiment
Conjecture • Totally distributed environment would not have this negative effect • closer to original intent of software • would allow other benefits to be more fully realized
Act 2: Winter 1999 • Course: advanced, master-level, elective • Lecturer: Derrick L. Cogburn • Enrolled students: 7 from SI, 10 from Wits, 18 from AU • Main rationale: to deliver a course via the Internet while giving students the chance to practice international collaboration
Tools used: • Placeware Conference Center 3.0 • WebBoard 3.5 • DocuShare 1.5 • Web site (VSC) • Lotus ScreenCam • RealMedia G2 • E-mail
Training movie Recorded session
Challenges: • Technological gaps • Bandwidth problems • Time zones • Cultural differences
Research team: • Derrick Cogburn (CSIR) • Daniel Atkins (SI) • Mary Mulvihill (AU) • Vlad Wielbut (SI)
Do’s and Don’t’s: • Learn to sleep fast • Win lottery • Test, test, test! • Get help • Become a control freak • Never put all your eggs in one basket • Hire someone from Eastern Europe
Do’s and Don’t’s (contd.): • Raise the bar • Keep crybabies out
URLs: http://www.communitytechnology.org/ http://www.communitytechnology.org/placeware/ http://www.communitytechnology.org/courses/globalization http://docushare.si.umich.edu/ http://www.netopia.geocities.com/vladwiel