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