Reflections on Live

Reflections on Live Classroom:

Thanks to the great team at Wodonga TAFE for their professionalism and enthusiasm, this project could not have proceeded without that.

My role at Wodonga TAFE as mentor for the teachers exploring Live Classroom for their students is coming to an end for 2005
During that time we have enabled 4 members of staff to become familiar with, explore the potential of and pilot the Inclusive Eclassrom in the Live Classroom suite provided at TAFEVC. I will share with you my reflections on the stages we've moved through for this project.
 
Stage One:
A great deal of time was spent in ensuring that the system could be accessed successfully from various PCs in Wodonga TAFE and this proved to be quite frustrating as we tried to unravel the technical issues preventing our success. Wodonga has in place extra security for the use of any web based software, and does not allow the downloading of programs by individuals without authority. So this process required the assistance of authorised Network IT support services and needed to be logged for action electronically. During this stage, I re-learned the importance of building an amicable relationship with IT service personnel. I also learned the importance of asking the right questions to ensure that I was well informed. e.g. being able to use the Live Classroom administration effectively.
 
Stage Two:
During the weeks of preparation prior to the student trials the teachers were optimistic, enthusiastic and excited about its potential for their issues with the group. However, they eventually felt exhausted in trying to ensure a successful and enjoyable experience for their disadvantaged students. The infrastructure at Wodonga TAFE was not sufficiently supportive or effective to enable the use of the room by any more than two or three participants. The audio was slow, delayed and intermittent through the Network links and the major use of the Live Classroom - Shared Applications - was not able to be used effectively. During this stage I was encouraged by the enthusiasm and resilience of the staff involved.
 
Stage Three:
We ran a series of pilot lessons with the student group over a period of 3-4 weeks. Students in group one (including some with a variety of disabilities) have participated in the pilot with mixed results.
There was an initial fear of being different (wearing headphones), then a feeling of excitement as they explored the capabilities of Live Classroom, to a feeling of frustration when the functionality became too slow or inoperative. We measured the time it took for all 8 of the students to login to the Inclusive eClassroom and this took as long as 30 minutes for the last person in. Much of this was due to the Network firewall rather than the operation of the software. In fact when using it from either Broadband or Dialup from outside of the Wodonga Network, it worked very well. During this stage I was frustrated with the delays and their effects on the student behaviour and realised that this was not a viable option for groups of students with such disabilities.
 
Overview of Live Classroom functionality:
This tool has great potential and is quite easy to use, however, I feel that it is still in an embryonic stage and will with further upgrades become more reliable. A teacher using this tool for sharing applications is challenged by the multiplicity of tasks they need to perform. A teacher wishing to make effective use of voice tools is challenged by the fact that anyone can talk over anyone else. The ease of process for the uploading of ppt slides and being able to do that prior to sessions is an excellent feature. There are some complexities in the use of the eboard that need to be addressed, such as the use of the tools e.g. they don't indicate their function before use. (no popup flags). The additional feature of a phone bridge is an excellent feature and one that should be retained.
 
All of the technical issues experienced at Wodonga were discussed with personnel at Netspot and the IT services at Wodonga and we were provided with individual assistance from Netspot. We are now at the point where Wodonga is employing outside consultants to look at their system.
 
Next steps:

We are now pilotting a series of lessons with Group Two students (in Business/IT studies) using Elluminate Live software. We have found the training for teachers in the use of this software enhanced by the training they had previously received in the use of Live Classroom. A great advantage as we moved forward in setting up a classroom, accessing the software in the computer lab, and selecting the students.

Progress: Live Classroom Administration

A new learning curve for me today in getting into the Administration aspects of Live Classroom. I learned a number of intriguing steps today:

1. How to change the settings for the room itself. e.g. enabling use of eboard for all participants
2. How to add folders ready for uploading files e.g. Access & Management folder for Jenny and Naomi's files
3. How to add an image for the Branding Frame e.g. teacher's photo.jpg
4. How to change the default slide for the room's content frame. eg. LIRNspace.jpg

Most importantly I learned that everything to be uploaded must first be placed in a PowerPoint slide.

No teachers present today, but did spend considerable time in exploring the support sectionof HorizonWimba website. Worthwhile to listen to some of the archived sessions there. Will plan to include this in next session. Also registered to join the HUG Horizon User Group to enable some discussions amongst other users.

Note: What I noticed was that mostly they are American users.

Next tutorial planned for Tuesday, October 11 at 2.00 pm.

Progress: schedule for October-November

Teacher training: tba
Other teacher training: Tuesdays at 2.00 pm and/or 4.00 pm EST October/November

Student orientation(group 1): 19 October 3.00 pm EST
Student trials (group 1): Wednesdays at 3.00 pm EST October/November

Student orientation(group 2): tba October
Student trials (group 2): tba October/November

Progress: student orientation

Now as we approach the middle bit of our pilot study in Live classroom, we need to ensure that we prepare our students in small easy steps.

Their first orientation should be enjoyable and exciting with new tools and practices to learn. With that in mind we should plan their sessions like so:

Session 1: Orientation
a. Learning how to access and navigate the Live Classroom
b. Learning how to use the polling tools and hand raiser
c. Learning how to use the voice chat tool
d. Learning how to use the text chat tool (and whisper mode)

Session 2: Communication
a. Mastering the use of text and voice to communicate
b. Learning how to use the eboard to communicate

Session 3: Demonstration
a. Learning how to participate/behave in a live demonstration/presentation
b. Learning how to view an application being shared from the teacher's desktop

So the Learner Guide will highlight the best way to do all this.

Success: our first words

I was really pleased that all went so well today for our Live Classroom tutorial. Thanks to the teachers who attended and our support person from NetSpot.

There was some delay in the voice for those behind a network firewall and those dialling up, but everything functioned today including the use of eboard, uploading images and slides and enabling participants.

Learning for presenters included: uploading ppt slides and floating the admin panel to maximise the screen view. We also did a little sharing of applications: and I learned yet another skill.

Next tutorial we'll be diving into the 'share' function so that all can be 'presenters' and get comfortable with the sharing of their desktop applications. This will be the major focus for our use of the Live Classroom with our pilot groups.

Still working on producing the Learner Guide and we're now happier with an A4 six page publication. I have the introduction and the accessing instructions done. Just need to find time now to produce the protocols and the navigation pages.

Would really like to know if we do have such learner guides in the Help feature of the Live Classroom, must go there and find out.

We even saved a little of our text chat from today's tutorial - boy that looks weird without the context and voice conversation wrapped around it.

Next tutorial scheduled for 2.00 pm Tuesday, September 20 in the Inclusive eclassroom.

Links to other blogs: http://liveclassroomnaomi.blogspot.com/ and http://liveclassroomjenni.blogspot.com/

Getting down to it

Now we need to ensure that the first steps to the Live Classroom are made simple for our learners. We don't want any technical hitches to confuse or frustrate them. It will be critical for teachers to be confident that the software won't let them down. They will also need to feel confident that they can operate within the Live Classroom without having to adjust their normal practices too much in the real classroom.

We need to spend some time providing opportunities for teachers to build their skills and confidence with Live Classroom and so far at Wodonga we are moving towards that with scheduled tutorials and supported activities. The infrastructure is now set up for teachers to access Live Classroom in the Project Factory without any difficulties. Tutorials will be held in there prior to trialling with the learners. Some printed resources for teachers will also be developed as we provide the tutorials. This will enable them to mentor other teachers later.

Note: As a mentor, I am making use of the text resource ; "The synchronous Trainer's Survival Guide" - Facilitating Successful Live and Online Courses, Metings, and Events. Jennifer Hofmann, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

In the meantime we also need to consider the needs of the learners as they approach the Live Classroom, and prepare some simple to use printed guidelines. We've decided to make use of the Flip Pockets to house these Learner Guides and attach them to the PCs in EStreet where they will be accessing the software. As we approach trialling we will provide these printed resources at other PCs where learners will be located; for instance, in the classroom, computer labs and learning centres.

Note: some resources have been made available for the project in the Communications Hub; a module in the TAFE Virtual Campus. Each teacher has been provided with a login to this (firstname_lastname) module at: http://www.tafevc.com.au

Start of Project

At first we had difficulty in getting the Live Classroom to work for us. There were firewalls, proxies and authentication issues. The steps prior to that were also tricky as we had to get IT permissions to use the Wizard for downloading all the bits involved in the live classroom. eg. Quicktime, Java and Popups.

All of this sounds so jargonistic now when I read back over that.

Here in Blogger it was really simple to create and post to the blog. So I'll be recording my thoughts on the project in here for others to read.

Live Classroom has such potential for distributed learning in regional environments, especially under the current high cost of petrol circumstances. Some learners are finding it difficult to justify the journey to TAFE for all of their learning especially when their budget is limited. Learners who can spend some of the learning time online, either at home or in a supported learning centre close to home, will benefit from the Live Classroom.