EDUCAUSE | Videoconferencing

Video Jabber Client Worth Mentioning

ghsmith76 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:01:44 -0600

It is not that often that a software update exceeds your expectations, however, that is exactly what Apple’s new iChat 4.0 through their Leopard OS has done. I don't want to make this an advertisement for Apple, but the opportunity made available by a video communication solution of the qulaity of iChat could really change the Higher Ed commumincation landscape. iChat is an internal solution based on a jabber server that leverages many teaching and learning opportunities. And it rivals PolyCom for the quality of the audio algorithm, which means on an Apple computer you generally don't need a headset. Unfortunately this is only available on Apple computers running Leopard so I have begun a campaign to find an A/V capable PC Jabber client; maybe Apple is working on iChat for the PC.

We are now promoting our iChat Jabber Server here at GFU, which means we have opened up the required firewall ports so that it works most everywhere for our account holders. Unfortunately most universities do not open up these ports. I point you to an excellent YouTube video, “Apple iChat and Student/Instructor Collaboration”, by artistatech that demos how iChat is changing campus communications.

E07 Podcast: An Interview with Alex Wirth-Cauchon, from the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education

gbayne — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:47:50 -0600

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.

SecondLife: More than just a new way of teaching

AJKelton — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:37:24 -0500

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. We can “be” anyplace we want, doing many things that are not possible in a non-virtual space, and we are experiencing it also in our real lives, which is where the learning is going on anyway. What we have to learn to deal with now, though, is a new way of teaching. Note I didn’t say, new material to teach. We can begin to think about exceptional ways to deliver the content, ways in which the student is excited about being involved.

Article on ePresence/Open Source at ACM's eLearn Magazine

mpasiewicz — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:01:00 -0500

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.