Week 7: Brainstorming with Guest Speakers

EDUC 391X Week 7

Today in 391X we had two guest speakers and we participated in a brainstorming session geared toward checking the ABCD’s of their product. The first guest speakers: PhD candidate in Engineering and MBA student (names not recorded). They were pitching an idea for our consideration and feedback.

Their site was called ViewExtreme, which serves up video onto the web in a richer format.

After doing some research in the area of video web servers, they found traditional video viewing to be problematic. They decided that they needed to explore how to make the video viewing experience vivid and spoke on finding a way for video viewing to match the classroom experience. They felt that this would allow students to focus in on parts of the lecture that were important to them.

Their attempt to solve the problem:

In order to allow the user to effectively navigate the scene, they made it so that the viewer could maneuver and zoom in to specific visual points of the lecture by using high-resolution photography. A fixed camera would capture the whole scene and the user would select relevant aspects of the classrooms by using their mouse. It is also configured so that the camera tracks the professors or slide changes. Slides will also be listed on the site so that you may use the slides to navigate through the video. These video clips will be streamed to the web and while the current videos that are up are prerecorded they hope to have a live-feed up in the future.

Class evaluation:

When asked how they would record student questions or statements, they informed us that this could be problematic, but can be remedied by having multiple drop-down mics or seat mics. This however could be costly.

When asked how they might take notes on the computer while they are watching the video, they agreed that this might also be another issue. But they could foresee the use of implementing a writing tablet. As a side note to this question they brought to our attention the use of screen shots from board clips that can be labeled and shared with other participants creating a shared learning experience. (Questions and comments)

Benefits:

When going into the benefits of the ViewXtreme Suite, they shared some comments from their teacher feedback. The teachers they spoke with said they had some difficulty with the aspect of teaching to a camera. They spoke on how this process was seamless as teachers could teach class as normal and still make use of the video functionality available to them on campus.

Brainstorming with 391X class

Students were given the floor to make suggestions.

Thoughts on the table were:

-Interaction between online users.

-Options with regard intense users and laid back users: audio, video, quiz, and chat rooms.

-Highlighting and marking clips for storage.

Summary:

I find that much of what we are discussing deals with study habits and learning modalities. There is much room for scaffolding video lectures for student use. The technology has an innovative start but is need of much more functional classroom environment exposure. Students manipulate their classroom environment in a variety of ways to enhance their learning experience in ways that are relevant to them. They will find that many options are needed.

2^nd Speaker from Chicago (Veronica Anderson)

Platform: Urban and Racial consideration/ Focus on the activist community

Background:

She works with a magazine that writes stories about lack of support for marginalized children and their efforts to make it in public education system. (Specifically getting into the network of schools.)

Her Question: How might we aid people in getting comprehensive information about schools; with parent and student feedback, school resources, rankings, deadlines for application, exam dates, and what schools are still available.

Current Sources of Information: realtors, family and friends

Problem: How can she bridge this information gap for parents and students?

Interest in: The usage of mobile technology.

Summary:

I personally find her idea to be highly resourceful. The only potential problems are the early access to this time sensitive information and the legal matters surrounding the ranking of teachers on an organized website. Within the open realm of the public this is fathomable but if facilitated by an organization there could be a potential lawsuit as it infringes on individual constitutional rights.

My hope is that the federal government will make such a site possible so that families participating in the public education system can make well informed decisions as to where to send their children.