Transcript Navigating the Elusive World of Virtual Collaboration in the Real World Classroom Steve Hallman | July 26, 2011

Navigating the Elusive World of
Virtual Collaboration in the Real
World Classroom
Steve Hallman | July 26, 2011
Today's topic
• We will discuss the tools available for
online collaboration. How the technologies
relate to each other and the common
misconceptions about their interoperability.
• We will also discuss steps to help IT staff
and faculty determine an appropriate tool
and enable them to share their content.
My Background
• I have been evaluating and selecting tools for distance
collaboration at UNC – Chapel Hill depts. for 20+ years.
• I’ve spent the last 13 as the IT Educational Media Manager
at the Business School which heavily utilizes these tools for
international programs and distance learning programs.
• My contact info is [email protected]
We had an 18 year old miss class because
she had a diving competition in California,
while we had a 57 year old miss class
because his business was going under water.
We virtually brought in our keynote speaker
for a conference when he was stranded in
Germany due to last year's volcano
eruption.
The Promise in the Ad
“Cutting edge innovative solutions to allow real
time collaboration"
“A turnkey solution to allow anyone anywhere to
connect to anyone else in the world.“
The Reality
These tools are all excellent options in their own
way; unfortunately they don’t all play well with
others.
Instructors see these ads, think
it’s great and strike out on their
own to bring in their guests
remotely.
The Promise in the Ad
“One button connectivity- no technician
required”
The Reality
“ Hey, this is Prof XXX…..I have a guest speaker I
need to beam into class in an hour. Can you call
his admin assistant and find out what he’s using? I
think he said he wanted to use Telepresence or
Skype on his iPhone.”
The Solution
We realized that we needed to get in front of our
users to help them categorize the array of
standards, operating systems and protocols
available and to guide them in choosing products
and technologies that would actually help them
share their content and expertise in a classroom
setting.
The Solution
We allow instructors to use any tool that they want
on their office computers and laptops, but highly
suggest they consult with us before purchasing.
It is important to leverage yourself or someone on
your team as the go to “guy” that can be trusted.
Determine your uses
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Virtual office hours.
Guest speakers in the classroom.
Students missing class for valid reasons
Student interviews- admissions or jobs
Faculty missing class for health issues like shingles.
Distance learning recordings for asynchronous
playback or video homework assignments
Rationale and ROI of purchase
Saves big money on travel and lost
productivity time…blah, blah, blah.
At this point it’s a given that distance
collaboration is valuable.
Rationale and ROI of purchase
The Big Equation:
Return
On
Investment
< > quality of experience
What are the technology
choices?
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Standard IP or ISDN videoconferencing
Mobile device to mobile device
Document sharing software
Document sharing with streaming video and
voice
• Telepresence
What are the cost levels?
• Works OK, but is free.
• Just good enough to do this ad hoc thing
occasionally, I’ll pay a small fee.
• Need reliability and a lot of document sharing, I can
pay for a full license.
• I Need to feel as though I’m in the same room and
need to see every expression- Yes, I do have a donor
lined up…
A few Online Meeting Tools
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Elluminate
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Skype
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Adobe Connect
•
Centra
•
Go to Meeting
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MeetMeNow
•
Yugma
Tokbox – breathed its last •
Glance
iLinc
Fuze
WebEx
Dim Dim
Facetime
Spreed
Vyew
Determine Required Features part 1
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Pricing (basic version) (Full version)
Cross platform – Mac compatible? Will it work on mobile devices?
Meeting Capacity
Desktop Sharing
Application-specific sharing
Desktop Recording
Whiteboard
Record other attendees, the whiteboard, the chat windows
Determine Required Features part 2
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Web Teleconference
Control Granting- can hosts let others share
Video Conferencing
Annotation Tools
Scheduling
built-in VOIP Phone Teleconference
• Do participants need accounts and log ins
Skype 5.0
allows video chats with up to 10 people. You can
share your screen during calls and record videos
using an add-on.
Telepresence – immersive
videoconferencing
• Display of life-size images of the face and upper body of
remote participants maintaining a perspective that makes
the remote participants appear to be sitting on the other side
of a conference room table.
• High quality audio and video subsystems, with specific
requirements with respect to bandwidth and quality of
service.
• Deployed in rooms where lighting and sound are carefully
controlled.
Immersive ExperienceCisco telepresence
Immersive experience -Lifesize
• http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=J0jrm
Tf_0tE
• http://www.youtube.
com/watch?feature=
player_detailpage&v
=vHFUwFgu5w4
• Wait- China is how many hours ahead?
How do they Interface
• Better than they did six months ago when I
submitted this proposal, but not seamlessly.
• Interoperability is definitely coming, but
expensive at the moment.
• The dial down in quality defeats the purpose
generally.
Cisco Unified 3515 MCU Video
Conference Equipment
• The Solution Supports Multiple Protocols To
Facilitate Connectivity With A Wide Variety Of VideoEnabled Devices From Desktop Video Telephony To
Standard- And High-Definition Room Systems And
Cisco Telepresence Systems.
Tips for our technicians
• Choose a product and buy 2 licenses.
• Learn that product well enough to work it on the fly in
front of people.
• Insist on using that tool instead of someone else's
suggestions.
• Have a well thought out reason for why
• Create users guide to email to other sites.
Tips for our technicians
• Use a hard wired connection, not wireless.
• Do a test call if at all possible.
• Ask for specifics on the content – planning on
jumping over to Youtube?
• Always have a speaker phone in each location.
• Know the number associated with that wall jack.
• Have the slides sent separately ahead of time.
Most important points
• No group of 5 or more will ever be 100% satisfied
with the product that you are currently using.
• There are so many variables that inevitably
someone will do something on their end that will be
blamed on the technology.
THANK YOU