This coming week, I will be presenting a case study at the "19th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning" at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. My topic deals with the blending of synchronous and asynchronous formats in a virtual classroom. "Groove" is the virtual classroom that I will be describing.
Recently, I began using a terrific video-conferencing program called "Sessions," created by Wave3software. Check out the company website at www.wave3software.com.
"Sessions" works through the Internet and does not require the use of a telephone connection. The quality of the audio and video is the best that I've experienced.
"Sessions" will enable me to work one-on-one with a student. It also will allow me to video-conference with multiple people at the same time. This is a significant improvement over Net2Phone which provides only an audio connection and limits the conversation to two people.
I would like to use MSN Messenger, Net2Phone, and Sessions to supplement the "voice chat" feature in the Groove workspace. The Groove workspace works extremely well. The voice-chat feature needs a lot of improvement.
I'm always looking for ways to create the "warm nose feeling" for distance learning participants. The "warm nose" is that feeling of comfort and satisfaction that comes from personal interaction.
My instructional design model began with archived materials on my website. Then, I expanded the model by adding Groove to the equation. Now, I'm expanding it again with personal contact software.
Groove + Website + Personal Contact
The possiblities for improving the "warm nose feeling" are increasing at a fast rate. This is very exciting.
Dr. Rick Lillie
CSUSB
rlillie@csusb.edu
12:12:02 PM 
|
