We have yet to really utilize teleconferencing in distance learning. I think it would be a nice way, maybe instead of the introduction being put on the conference, professors and students could have a first day teleconference to greet and meet one another.
The only con this is how would we be able to have everyone meet in the same place on the telephone. Everyone would have to be sitting at one table, so that would be like meeting face-to-face on the first day, which would be like a blended course.
Trying to get a group together for an online course is hard because most of us don't live in the same location. Maybe in the future, some kind of technology will help bridge this part. Of course, the question is would people be willing to use it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think many people would be willing to participate in a teleconference, just as we did for this class. There are conference bridges that will allow the phone portion and with more and more people having access to VOIP the phone won't be necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe issue of time differences is something that will have to be accounted for in the instructional design of the class. There may have to be multiple conferences on the same subject. Then you have the issue of not everyone getting the same inputs, so archives would need to be made for listening to at a later time.
I think most people would have no problem attending a video-conference on the weekend, when the time is appropriate; or at night when dinner is over. It's hard to go online and chat during work hour. :-)
ReplyDelete