HOME

The following information is excerpted from "Teaching with Videoconferencing: Lessons Learned" produced by Lucy Tribble MacDonald, project manager for the Oregon Technology Infusion Project. It contained a compilation of lessons learned from faculty who taught during the 2000-2001 school year with video conferencing. This is just one section from that project.

• Make 4 x 6 cards of students' names at remote sites and color code for them for each site.
• Call on students by name at remote sites. Once a student has answered, turn card over for ease of attendance taking.
• Make 4 x 8 cards folded lengthwise table tents for students in local class.
• If I did this again I would require distant sites to color-code all work turned in. Perhaps a blue cover sheet on all local papers, a yellow sheet for all distant sites, etc. Despite my best efforts to not confuse what papers were to be separated and mailed to different locations, I made mistakes delaying feedback to students. The class was too short to learn all the names and locations of students to make sure I didn't make this mistake.
• All correspondence (e-mail or snail mail) should have been labeled with the student's name and their location. I should have made this mandatory in the beginning but I didn't.
• Let local class know when to pay attention. Sometimes they think that the teacher is speaking ONLY to the remote site and then they can talk and not pay attention.
• Use an audio cue to bring the group back together after individual group activities. We tried chimes but that was too soft. We tried a whistle, which was too loud. What worked best was a synchronized clap that was repeated by the remote sites to indicate that they were ready to return the whole group.