Week Eleven

Contrast Internet broadcasts, live cams, and Net meetings. How can each of these Internet-based video technologies be used in teaching and learning? Internet broadcasts, live cams, and Net meetings use a technology called dedicated compressed video system which digitizes the video and transmits an image and sound as clear as broadcast video. . Internet broadcasts range from musical and scientific events to talk show and interview programs. Internet broadcasts use streaming video technology which compresses and plays back the digital video while it is being received. All you require is a player installed on you PC. The player software is available free off the internet. The sponsor of the event being broadcast may also add links as to allow viewers to see what the live audience sees. The Internet broadcasts technology is most appropriate for viewing live entertainment at less cost that TV where as the live cam is useful for producing a surveillance type image for the viewer. The camera is pointed at an object such as a high traffic tunnel or bridge. The viewer can go to the cameras website and watch live images and discern if they wish to visit that location. This technology is useful to monitor a subject or area of interest. There is no commentary usually provided and the audience can make their own assumptions about the material being survived by the camera. Where as the Internet broadcasts, live cams are one-way communication, the Net meeting allows the subjects two-way interface without leaving their office or home. This software allows for the cost effective management of importune meetings without the hassle of the participants commuting to a central meeting place. The net meeting technology allows for viewing of and audio of all participants. Power Point or other presentation material can be broadcast and the participants can comment and interact with colleague as if they were in the meeting room together. All three of these technologies have application is the classroom. The live cams could take a class to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Parks for observing wildlife. The Internet broadcasts could be used as a classroom observation of a lecture presented last week at a local college. And the Net meeting could be a truly virtual classroom where high school chemistry classes from two different states come together for a common live lab experiment presentation.