Videoconferencing Certification Continues

[Elaine Shuck (polycshuck)]

As students delve into the world of videoconferencing, this week students talked about videoconferencing Guidelines and Policies. Ben Newsome, CEO of content provider for Fizzics Education in Australia and Sue Porter, Coordinator of Polycom Special Events discussed tips for scheduling connections with content providers.

Ben described the challenges he enjoys in keeping the connections interactive. He uses a variety of technologies to demonstrate his science experiments: document cameras, PowerPoint slides, whiteboards and mobile apps that allow him to display the information in interesting ways. He also gives classes the opportunities to perform some of the experiments in their own classroom.

Dealing with the different configurations of networks and equipment in each district is one of the challenges in scheduling schools for events. Sue pointed out that advanced planning and test calls are critical in ensuring successful connections. She also mentioned the importance in paying attention to time zones. There are a number of web sites that will translate times for you. Ben added that when dealing with global connections you should know that the way we display dates in the US is different i.e. 6/10/15 in the US is June 10, but in the rest of the world it is October 6.

These students will be scheduling events for teachers in their district and found this discussion helpful in making sure they have successful connections.

In my resent post I posed the following question to the students:

Q:   If you could create a technology, what would it be, and what functions would you want it to have?

Here were a couple of their answers:

A: “In the Bio that we read about you Mrs. Shuck you said that one of virtual field trips you talked about video conferencing with a The Cleveland Institute of Music because a lot of your students had an interest in playing the guitar. While reading that the idea of sensors popped into my head. What if while video calling a Musician or instructor the student had an instrument like the guitar with a sensor on it so that every time they played a note the computer would display what they did to the instructor on the screen. The display would probably look more like playing guitar hero but if you played a wrong note and you couldn't hear that he played it wrong but you could see it. This would help the student get tips on how to play better which would increase their chances of perusing a future in the music industry”. 

A: “For people with disabilities, I thought that with voice calling like siri they would be able to connect with whomever or like on Xbox kinetic it reads your body movements for people who are deaf or blind”

After receiving this comment:

“Sometimes it is hard to hear people talking because of all the background noise. It would be nice if there was a technology that would make it go away”

Later in the week we scheduled a demo with David Colbert, Polycom’s Briefing Manager, to showcase acoustic fence.

David Colbert demonstrating Acoustic Fence

Alaska Senator Dunleavy and Superintendent Dusek observing class.