A new generation of high quality, low-cost, and fully interactive video communications is prompt- ing a second look at videoconferencing as a way to bring geographically dispersed educators and students together for effective learning in classroom settings and even after classes.
This flexible new brand of Internetbased, face-to-face video collaboration can enhance student participation in the learning process while overcoming the isolation some students may feel if they are relegated to mere “distant observer” status instead of feeling fully engaged with their instructors. Some studies have shown a higher dropout rate (21% versus 14%) among students involved in online education compared to classroom education due to a sense of ambiguity with the progression of course material and a lack of interaction with the instructors (DiRamio & Wolverton, 2006).
Personal video communications via Web applications can overcome that. For instance, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill uses SightSpeed to allow one student to participate in classroom discussions from Washington, DC, according to Fred Thomsen, the school’s director of information technology. “We turned to SightSpeed because we want her to be involved in classroom discussions on a regular basis. The quality of the video is great; the service is good for synchronous discussion and that leads to better class participation,” says Thomsen.
SightSpeed (www.sightspeed.com) is an award-winning, simple-to-use, and lowcost videoconferencing solution. It brings high-quality video conferencing to people who, until now, had only traditional highcost, room-based hardware solutions that are very complex to set up. On average, the cost to set up one location with capabilities to initiate a multiparty video call can exceed $10,000. That doesn’t include outfitting each remote participant with his or her own hardware to participate in a video call.
Instead, SightSpeed offers a free download for students and a low monthly cost for educators. And now that webcams are becoming more commonly embedded into monitors and laptops, there no longer is any need to buy additional hardware.
SightSpeed also makes it simple to set up and add students or colleagues to the SightSpeed network for easy one-click video calling. It works across both Windows and Mac platforms, and it’s mobile, not tied to an expensive, dedicated videoconferencing room.
Bandwidth is becoming less of an issue, too, making high-quality online video even more attainable. With broadband becoming less expensive and 70% of all Internet connections in the United States on broadband connections, online video becomes a more than viable solution.
Some innovative educators have already begun using the record functions of online video communications services like SightSpeed, exporting the video programs to iTunes U and allowing students to download lectures and other instructional sessions to their iPods to absorb at times and under conditions they feel suit them best.
Another recent educational use was Focus the Nation, a grass-roots event on January 31, 2008, which has been called the largest “teach in” in U.S. history. SightSpeed was used so that members of Congress—including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—could reach out directly to college students and other constituents all around the country and engage in a dialog about global warming.
Other nonclassroom uses for affordable and mobile personal video communications include virtual office hours for teacher-student conferences, virtual student study groups, and student-to-student connections between friends now far away from each other because they attend different colleges or universities. Although separated by great distances, they can remain face to face; that means emotional bonds are not broken and friendships are retained.
From our perspective at SightSpeed, it is clear that forward-looking educators and students are seeing a new way to interact face to face and using our award-winning Internet video communications service to enhance both the traditional classroomeducation environment as well as learning that occurs after classes.
