Video conferences. A multidimensional effort to make from a video conference a powerful tool for the didactic unit

Video conferences A multidimensional effort to make from a video conference a powerful tool for the didactic unit Matías J. Kremer Mecabell [email_address] www.ort.edu.ar

Quantity, quality and variety of didactic experiences.
The subject presentation
The workbooks
The path that the student takes to meet knowledge sources
Enforcing knowledge exercises and solving problems
Activities that bring reality to the classroom (e.g.: didactic tour to a plant, use of true sensors, engines, use programming languages and video conferences).
Tests/evaluations

Why do we think that the students will learn the things that we teach?
Because the students learn (know) the content
Because the students learn the multiple ways to get the knowledge

Our experience
1998 Celebrating 10 years of 1988 ORT Technical School electronics class. Buenos Aires, Israel and USA
2001 Architect César Pelli (1995 AIA´s Gold Medal). Constructions Department. New York-Buenos Aires.
2002 Dr. Stephen J. Edberg, NASA´s Jet Propulsion Labs. Technology Education Area students

Our experience (2)
2004 Cabrí Geometry Workshop (Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France) for two ORT Argentina schools mathematics teachers
2005 Engineer Rina Zelmann (Canada). Electronics ex alumni, member of Quebec Brain Imaging Research Group (REPRIC) for 3rd. Grade and electronics students.
2005 ORT Buenos Aires-Strasbourg for English Spanish language practise, discuss jewish affairs and bi-cultural young contemporary problems

Why we choose a video conference?
This technology overthrow some barriers:
Distance
School organization
Own regional culture
How do we must know to plan a successful video conference? Some of the main tasks to do... Let´s see them

video conference with Dr. Stephen J. Edberg Jet Propulsion Laboratory- NASA (june 19th, 2002)
Subject unit “Technologies for explore the space”
3rd grade targeted

How we planned this activity?
This activity was planned with 4 dimensions:
Didactic dimension
The expert dimension
The technical dimension
Adds on to get a powerful experience

Didactic dimension
This dimension has two main actors: The students and the teachers of our school
This subject was not new for us. We teached it for the recent years. We tried to add the video conference to our didactic strategies, so it had been during the time that the students learned it.
The 3rd grade population have different English level
The students population have different interest level for the subject

Didactic dimension (2)
Some logistical tips to solve
The video conference must be on a special time on the year, when this unit were been study.
On 2002 we had a very large 3rd grade population (around 15 groups of 30 pupils each, 10 teachers)
We don't have any place at the school with capacity for all of us together
The video conference must not interrupt other subjects

Didactic dimension (3)
How we started to plan this activity? The students must be ready for the video conference
We selected 5 students for each division (around 75 students)
They researched about the remote expert (his life, his workplace, the organisation where he works) and about the robots used by the NASA to explore the space and planets
They researched how to make questions taking advantage of the video conference.
We planned “warming-up” activities with a teacher -a robotics local expert (taking special lessons, having casual interviews with teachers, viewing special videos) ( see doc )

The expert dimension
Choose for an expert. (If we must choose for a person, we choose the person that best know the technology and he works at the best organisation: the NASA)
Set up contact
Institutional presentation
Search for common interests. The expert had affinity with American ORT or WAO. This was an advantage
We asked him for their own technical resources or possibility to rent them (ISDN lines, broad band)

The expert dimension (2)
Exchange learning stuff
Get NASA’s learning stuff to future lessons (he sent them by post mail). It was a pros
Schedule for same date and hour for the video conference. It will be on a school date time. Argentina's time zone is a cons
He speaks in English (American English and slang), our students are learning English, so the video conference must be translated. Professional translator service was specially rented

The technical dimension
Dr. Edberg is a robotics expert. He did not had time for technical specifications. Too many technical things could fatigue the relation, so our local technicians must contact their remote technicians
Verify and test the selected technologies (we used 3 ISDN lines, they sent the presentations files by FTP)
Schedule communications tests. The video conference have to be only one hour and a half
Identify risks

Adds on to get a powerful experience
The video conference was made with simultaneous English Spanish translation. Another technicians take his own equipment.
Live transmission for an internet portal . The video conference was delivered to the Internet network by the biggest Argentina's Internet Portal (Ciudad Digital) and they put advertisements on a national delivered daily (Clarín Diary). Another technicians take his own equipment that compress video to the proper bandwidth.

Adds on to get a powerful experience (2)
The video conference was transmitted to another places on the school buildings with 400 students estimated audience. Our media technicians made the properly connections to transmit it.
Special refurbishment for the main auditorium for 100 seats (students, teachers, school authorities, slides projection, sent/receive video and simultaneous translated audio) and the 250 seats secondary auditorium (teachers and students, video projection, translated audio reception was needed)
Live transmission for our intranet (15 computer labs, around 250 PC´s)
Specially designed graphical and electronic advertisement to invoke the greater quantity of audience

Own equipment used at the main auditorium
384 Kbps broadband (3 ISDN Lines)
Tandberg 2500 video conference system
3 Video cameras
2 data projector
2 projection screens
1 notebook with previous stored slides
3 microphones (1 wireless)
2 speakers
1 8 channel audio mixer console

The video conference
3° grade students
Educational Technology Area Teachers and school authorities
Introduction, exposition and a big time to make spontaneous questions moderated by a teacher ( see doc )
Reflection and evaluation

Main auditorium Connections Diagram

Conclusions
Classic lessons
on the classroom
Didactic dimension Didactic tours The expert dimension Video conference Technical dimension Video conference as a powerful tool Adds on Multidimensional effort +

Thank you Visit us at www.ort.edu.ar

Video conferences. A multidimensional effort to make from a video conference a powerful tool for the didactic unit

by Matías Kremer

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Video conferences. A multidimensional effort to make from a video conference a powerful tool for the didactic unit Presentation Transcript