As some of you know, I've been fascinated with pedagogical uses of video conferencing technology for the last year. This year, as I begin serving our department as the Chair, I'm starting to understand that there are uses for video conferencing technology at the programmatic level, as well.
At the beginning of the semester, we piloted a "New Student Orientation" in Breeze for our online graduate students. The purpose was two-fold. First, we wanted to introduce our new graduate students to using Breeze, an initial training in how the tool operates and functions. Second, it was a chance to provide program information and resources. Finally, it was a chance for students to see our faces, hear our voices, understand we are real people behind those screens, and ask questions.
Later this semester, we will try a live "open house." This is a chance for instructors and students to visit "classrooms," see work in progress, meet upcoming instructors in future classes.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
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2 comments:
Realizing that there are real people teaching online classes, representing real institutions of learning where there is not only online content, but also classrooms of students and dorms and football games and book stores was extremely important to my decision to work on my degree through BSU. Using video conferencing to bring people together and make things "real" seems of real value to me.
Lisa,
We used Breeze to conduct an online open house at Bloomsburg University for our Instructional Technology program, it went well but we hoped for more participation than we actually received. I'd be interested to hear how your open house went.
Take care,
Karl
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