Videoconferencing Research Community of Practice

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Video-conferencing Research Community of
Practice

• Overview and Summary
• August 2004-2005

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Overview

• Studying the use of IP-based video-conferencing
  (VC) by early adopter school divisions in Alberta
• Research design participatory collaboration
• Focused on development of a research community
  of practice
• Funded by Alberta Education

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Collaborative Research Community

• Professional research team
• Athabasca University
• University of Lethbridge
• Galileo Educational Network Association (GENA)
• Input and collaboration from
• Teachers
• Administrators
• Students
• Support from Alberta Education staff

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Participating School Divisions
Fort Vermilion School Division No. 52
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Broad Research Questions

• What specific activities is broadband VC used to
  support?
• What types of information reveal the merit of
  these activities?
• What are the successes and limitations of the
  projects, activities, existing technologies,
  facilities, and PD activities?

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Broad Research Questions

• How are face-to-face classroom and asynchronous
  networked-based learning activities used together
  with VC?
• Which pedagogical models best support broadband
  VC activities?

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Research Activities

• Created initial review of the research literature
  on K-12 Internet-based VC
• vcalberta.ca/community/litreview.pdf
• Examined five Alberta school divisions use of
  video-conferencing

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Research Activities

• Mentored individual teachers in inquiry-based
  teaching philosophy and practice
• Conducted professional development (PD) activity
• in face-to-face meetings,
• online via a web portal,
• and in distributed VC activity

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Research Activities

• Created videographies documenting the use of VC
• Developed a web portal to support Research
  Community of Practice

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Research Activities

• Documented activities and issues
• Highlighted emerging promising practices and
  lessons learned

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Major Applications of VC
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Videographies

• Short introduction video to VC activities
• Use of VC for distance education
• Highlights of the course enhancement activities
• Inquiry-based model, enriched with VC activity
• (Will be available from VcAlberta.ca)

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Administration Professional Development

• Use of VC technologies for administration and
  professional development effective
• Significant savings
• Reduced travel expense
• Effective use of time
• Increased opportunity to attend sessions
• Cost effective consultations

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Course Enhancement

• Enhanced learner motivation
• Increased collaboration between schools and
  communities
• Increased access to outside expertise
• Development and support of learning communities
  at all levels

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Distance Education (Course Delivery)

• Used by itself, VC provides a somewhat limited
  distance learning environment
• Potential to provide a robust distance learning
  environment when integrated with asynchronous
  tools
• computer conferencing
• group workspaces
• email
• threaded discussions
• websites, blogs, personalized learning objects

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Early Findings

• Following are some findings from this research
  that are currently in the process of being
  validated.

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Enhanced Audio

• Audio most critical component
• Audio quality at each site varied significantly

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Site Visits by Teachers to Remote Classrooms

• Enhanced engagement and community
• Appreciated by both students and teachers

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Face-to-face Interaction

• Students benefited from face-to-face interaction
• Enhanced learning motivation and engagement
• Built community among students
• Encouraged subsequent VC interaction

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Technical Support

• Critical to all models of VC
• Remote diagnosis seen as best support model

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Central Coordination

• Scheduling
• School bus coordination
• Professional development for teachers
• Policy development
• Support for teachers
• Programming decisions
• Equipment purchases

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Connectivity Beyond a Single Jurisdiction

• Maximum effectiveness when connectivity is
  supported to locations anywhere in the world
• Seamless connectivity that spans secure
  firewalled systems is not currently possible in
  most Alberta schools

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Blended Learning Environment

• Effective, high quality learning environment
  becomes possible when VC combined with other
  synchronous and asynchronous tools

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Professional Development

• Develop appropriate instructional designs and
  learning activities
• Participate in learning networks

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Professional Development

• Increase personal competency with VC and other
  digital technologies
• Integrate other media use into instructional
  design

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Professional Development

• Develop blended learning opportunities for
  students and teachers
• Develop activities whereby students learn to use
  and control the VC technology

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Administrative Implications

• Central coordination, policy making, and support
• Opportunities for formal training and informal
  networking among teachers
• Technical support available in real time

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Administrative Implications

• Support policies for teachers
• Cost effective ways to provide effective
  supervision and support for students

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Administrative Implications

• Seamless document exchange
• Accounting procedures

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Technical Considerations

• Support seamless connection of VC technology with
  other users
• Provide fall-back audio-conferencing capacity

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Technical Considerations

• Ensure that high quality audio connectivity is
  available to all VC participants
• Develop and maintain the capacity to diagnose
  remotely
• Opportunities for professional development and
  training

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Support for Teachers

• Delivering distance education courses, especially
  to multiple sites is challenging and time
  consuming
• Support for teachers to participate in this type
  of delivery are useful to encourage participation

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Site Visits by Teachers to Remote Classrooms

• Enhances engagement and community
• Appreciated by both students and teachers

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Blended Learning for Distance Education

• VC should be combined with other synchronous and
  asynchronous tools to create high quality
  learning environment.

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Continuing Research and Evaluation

• Study reveals much knowledge remains unknown
  including
• Effective learning activities in multiple
  contexts
• Cost effectiveness
• Best PD strategies
• Collaboration between researchers and teachers,
  students and administrators produces most
  effective results

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VcAlberta.ca