Building an Interactive Video Facility Thomas A. Warger Edutech International Donna L. Baron Five Colleges, Inc.

What is a video classroom? A re-purposed room Equipment for interactive video and sound Telecommunications Objective: interact with people elsewhere

Overview - Technologies Standard a/v devices Compressed video and audio for transmission Telecommunications interface Telecommunications infrastructure

Overview – Facility design Sound and video quality Human comfort Pedagogical suitability Technical equipment Controls

Overview - Vendors PictureTel Polycom Tandberg VTel

Five Colleges, Inc. Interactive Networked Classrooms History of Five Colleges and I.N.C. project. Tandberg Educator 6000 Strategies for Success

Five Colleges, Inc. is a consortium of: Amherst College Hampshire College Mount Holyoke College Smith College University of Massachusetts Amherst

Interactive Video in Residential, Liberal Arts Setting One room per campus equipped for interactive exchange of text, video and sound Enhance collaborative teaching and learning among our five schools, encourage team teaching and student cross enrollment Access teaching resources (content) more cost effectively Allow us to explore how technology enhances teaching and learning and the creation of new knowledge.

Selecting Equipment Highest quality possible in the transmission of audio and video when connecting to each other over IP network System and room that is set up with teaching in mind - students and teachers should be able to see and hear video and audio in a natural way - moving beyond talking heads.

The Real Challenge Schools often have trouble recruiting faculty to teach in interactive video classrooms. Faculty are skeptical Training for interested faculty is often ad hoc, one on one and in the area of button-pushing Faculty often want to explore issues of pedagogy There is often little follow up or feed back given to faculty who have used the rooms Faculty often want time to practice Faculty need good technical and instructional design support

Strategies for Success Publicity Identification of Faculty Interest and Likely Collaborators Better and more training that brings together faculty, staff and students Evaluation Dissemination

What to watch for Improvements in one-to-one Internet teleconferencing Internet2 MPEG-quality video Integration with campus video network Production studios