Videoconferencing

In this 20 minute podcast, we feature an interview with Alex Wirth-Cauchon, Participant Relations Manager for the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE). This interview was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington.

Alex Wirth-Cauchon is Participant Relations Manager for NITLE. In that role he attends NITLE's relationships with participating colleges and partner organizations and builds new relationships with interested organizations and campuses. He serves as a first point of contact for inquiries and expressions of interest from participating colleges. In addition, he advises senior staff regarding the needs and interests of participating colleges and the usefulness of NITLE services and programs to them. 

I said to someone last night, half-jokingly but half not, really…that I think Massively-Multiuser Virtual Worlds (MMVW’s for short, but to be honest, I wish we’d pick one and stick with it, there are too many acronyms out there for this.), are going to have the most profound impact on education since the book.

I don’t know what I could have been thinking when I said that. That is simply ridiculous, clearly I should have said the chalkboard.

But seriously, folks…is this thing on? [thump thump]

I am completely convinced that SL will have an immense impact on teaching, learning, and research. I know every thing that comes out is going to “replace” the in-class experience – TV, VCR, videoconferencing, LMS’s…everything has been the next big thing. But MMVW’s have the potential to do just that. Well, per se.

See, the thing about what happens in class in SL is that there IS a teacher, and there IS a class, and there IS a classroom (or can be). The surroundings can be anything we want – a glacier melting or a tsunami, like on the NOAA site, or a Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, like on my little corner of the digital world.

The University of Toronto's Ron Baecker and  Kelly Rankin have an article about their ePresence system entitled Open-Source Webcasting and Media Archiving Software for E-learning in the most recent issue of ACM's eLearn Magazine.  Later in the article, George Beckett of the Health Sciences Information & Media Service at the Memorial University of Newfoundland offers some thoughts as a practioner of the system. 

I had the great opportunity meet Ron and the team from KMDI earlier in the year.  Ron will be at the Annual Conference next week offering his thoughts in a couple of sessions.  

• http://www.educause.edu/E05/Program/5085?PRODUCT_CODE=E05/SEM09P
• http://www.educause.edu/E05/Program/5085?PRODUCT_CODE=E05/SESS085