Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1036] Reply to "Marshal Anderson"
From: Art Recesso (amrecess@valdosta.edu)
Date: Thu 08 Feb 2001 - 04:33:05 MET
From: "Art Recesso" <amrecess@valdosta.edu> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1036] Reply to "Marshal Anderson" Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 16:33:05 +1300
> Marshal said: "thus far none have been able to explain to me /who/ they will video conferences with, about
> /what/ and how that will enhance the education of 9 year-olds."
We are working towards two goals by implementing a multi-conferencing unit.
1. Increased communication with student teachers.
Our faculty travel over 120 miles to visit some student teachers in the field.
Implementation of the multi-conferencing unit allows us to communicate on-demand
and directly into the classroom. A student teacher having a problem today, does
not have to wait for help from faculty days after the event. The student teacher
will be able to contact the faculty member directly from her desktop computer or
laptop. Through this same mode we are able to connect content experts from the
College of Arts and Sciences with student teachers in the field.
2. Synchronous Learning
We have redeveloped our Education Specialist Program and many Master's courses
to be completely online using multiple technologies (WebCT, Yahoo Messenger, MS
Frontpage). The software side of the system has been a challenge at times and
I think there are issues with the 'rush to market' mode companies are in right
now. But the instruction is constructivist. The multi-conferencing unit has
the capability of enabling synchronous learning over great distances. We are
able to train, teach, and communicate with that teacher of 9 year olds without
her having to drive 4 hours.
The technology is not delivering completely on its promise....yet. We are
struggling with firewall and bandwidth issues. But we believe these are
elements that can be overcome. We are able to have point-to-point discussions,
but the muli-points of presence has only worked when there are no firewall
present.
Using Roger's Diffusion Model we could argue multi-conferencing technology
will increase access and capacity to more in-service and pre-service teachers.
The impact on the 9 year old becomes evident when the teacher applies those
newly learned instructional strategies, content knowledge, or has the students
access resources not available in the classroom.
Art Recesso
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia USA
>
>
> Several contributions mentioned the possibilities for
> creative/experiential/collaborative learning via ICT. I'm really passionate
> about this, but it seems that the world generally is currently stuck in a
> behavioralist/only teach what's testable rut. While the demand is generally
> towards this approach, we will find it hard to develop the truly exciting
> possibilities ICT offers as no one really want's the ATM.
>
> This is a very quick reply - I know that some of the above is very blunt and
> a rather superficial posting, but it's often how it feels to be in involved
> in educational ICT.
>
> Marshal Anderson
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Thu 08 Feb 2001 - 05:07:29 MET