Webinar Technology for distance education collaboration

                                         Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

If I were tasked with designing an interactive tour where students could take a

tour of a museum’s new exhibit and interact with the museum curator, I would

choose to set up a webinar online.  The term webinar comes from Web

technology and a seminar blended together. There is usually a host that will

guide participants through a module which is both visual and audio.  It can be a

PowerPoint presentation, pictures, or video and it can be both synchronous and

asynchronous.  This type of technology is advantageous for use in many

different settings and according to Wang and Hsu, there are 5 notable

advantages for using a webinar in instruction.  This article can be found at

http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/7.3.2.pdf but I have included an excerpt

which discusses the 5 advantages (Wang & Hsu, 2008).

 (1) Webinar tool is affordable (de Gara & Boora, 2006). Users can participate in a webinar session with a computer, video/audio capture devices, and broadband network connections.

(2) Webinar tool enables synchronous communication. Instructors can communicate with the learners in a synchronous format to provide immediate feedback to learners (Hotcomm, 2003).

(3) Webinar tool facilitates real-time multimedia demonstrations. Instructors can share the application on the presenter’s site with all participants.

(4) Webinar tool facilitates multi-level interaction. Instructors can lecture, interact with the audience, facilitate participant group collaboration in a real-time format (Marjanovic, 1999), and designate certain participants to be in charge of the sessions.

(5) Webinar tool provides an environment in which participants can archive seminar content for personal review or for people who missed the realtime session.

 

There are many exciting webinar technologies that designers can use to facilitate this type of interactive communication such as Live Meeting, Elluminate (which Wang and Hsu discuss), WebEx, and Adobe Acrobat Connect.  I have experience with Live Meeting and find that this is very easy to use and makes for a nice sessions.  The facilitator has choices on how to make it interactive such as allowing participants to ask questions and make comments verbally on the conference call or by writing them in and showing them visually to all participants.   The website for the WebEx software has some examples of their technology. http://www.webex.com/why-webex/who-uses-webex.html

Webinar technology is a great way to make any type of distance trainings or even corporate meetings more exciting and collaborative among participants in different locations. Everyone can log in and call into the meeting phone number to participate and exchange ideas.  Usually there are some meeting rules like everyone mutes there phones until they want to make a comment.  As with other means of distance instruction, there is planning that needs to take place when setting up this type of event.  As Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek caution, “To be an effective educator, it is important to consider what can happen within an instructional event” (212, p. 164).  It the presentation is such that it would be more effective to hold questions and comments until the end of the session, the webinar facilitator has control over all of this. Live Meeting has a feature where all phones can be muted automatically by the facilitator so that the presentation can be effective and then opened up for discussion.

 I would like to see a museum tour set up and delivered this way.  It would be very interesting and there are so many other uses for webinar technology it is a powerful tool to for designers to have knowledge of and to use.
Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Wang,S., & Hsu, H., (2008). Use of the webinar tool (Elluminate) to support training: The effects of webinar-learning implementation from student-trainers’ perspective.  Journal of Interactive Online Learning (7)3.

WebEx( 2013) Who Uses WebEx. Retrieved at http://www.webex.com/why-webex/who-uses-webex.html

Defining Distance Learning

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Defining Distance Learning
Distance Education is rapidly changing keeping pace with technology changes that are happening all around us. The definition of distance learning as described by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) is a separation of teachers and student either through time or geographical location (p. 33). This means that the teacher may have a lesson planned taped or written and delivered to the student to be viewed at a later time. The tools that we use in our education have evolved rapidly.

 During the early years of distance education, the term was called Correspondence School. This was where the course materials were delivered via the mail and all assignments and grades were mailed back and forth. The university where I currently work started this way with PhD in Education programs. There were residencies, however, which allowed the students to come together a few times during their program to meet face to face with the professors. Other than that, everything was done via mailed correspondence.

Growing up, I remember seeing commericials for schools that offered classes via the television. In fact, Public Broadcasting System channels still have painting and art classes shown this way. All a student needs is access to a T.V and the painting materials to be able to follow along with the teacher. Very effective way to show painting and art techniques which is interactive and entertaining as well. The programs were previously recorded to be broadcast in different timezones than the students.
As technology changed, eventually the instruction was designed to be put onto the internet and we have the early years of our current online classrooms. Most online instruction now is delivered asynchronously meaning that you do not have to be online at the same time with everyone in class. The lectures are pre recorded and students are given access to class through webpages complete with th media software required to view the lectures.

As interactive video and conferencing softwares develop further, there is an opportunity to actually bring the students and teachers together this way. Live classroom lectures can be held through Skype or other systems. However, having to have this type of interaction takes away a little bit, in my opinion, of the flexibility of the program. Many of my students that I advise in my daily conversations are looking to do online programs because they do not want to have a time commitment to be logged into class.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearsonansitional.dtd"> Defining Distance Learning

Distance Education is rapidly changing keeping pace with technology changes that are happening all around us. The definition of distance learning as described by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) is a separation of teachers and student either through time or geographical location (p. 33). This means that the teacher may have a lesson planned taped or written and delivered to the student to be viewed at a later time. The tools that we use in our education have evolved rapidly. During the early years of distance education, the term was called Correspondence School. This was where the course materials were delivered via the mail and all assignments and grades were mailed back and forth. The university where I currently work started this way with PhD in Education programs. There were residencies, however, which allowed the students to come together a few times during their program to meet face to face with the professors. Other than that, everything was done via mailed correspondence.
Growing up, I remember seeing commericials for schools that offered classes via the television. In fact, Public Broadcasting System channels still have painting and art classes shown this way. All a student needs is access to a T.V and the painting materials to be able to follow along with the teacher. Very effective way to show painting and art techniques which is interactive and entertaining as well. The programs were previously recorded to be broadcast in different timezones than the students.
As technology changed, eventually the instruction was designed to be put onto the internet and we have the early years of our current online classrooms. Most online instruction now is delivered asynchronously meaning that you do not have to be online at the same time with everyone in class. The lectures are pre recorded and students are given access to class through webpages complete with th media software required to view the lectures.
As interactive video and conferencing softwares develop further, there is an opportunity to actually bring the students and teachers together this way. Live classroom lectures can be held through Skype or other systems. However, having to have this type of interaction takes away a little bit, in my opinion, of the flexibility of the program. Many of my students that I advise in my daily conversations are looking to do online programs because they do not want to have a time commitment to be logged into class.



Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Welcome Distance Learning classmates!

Hello!

I am continuing my Instructional Design journey and am in the Distance Learning class.  Time has flown by and I cannot believe this year is almost half over. 

I started this blog originally, as a way for fellow animal lovers to come together to share tips and pictures of their animals.  I did have some pictures of my dog Roscoe and my cat Teddy but I took them off.  I think I will put some more back up to spruce up the look of my blog.

Kathy