Elearning - June/July 2008 - (Page 24) Teaching &21st Century Learning In the EXPERTS WHO HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS SAY THEY ARE THE TICKET. B Y J E R RY R O C H E Virtual classrooms are taking the world by storm. Call them what you will — e-seminars, Webinars, netcasts, synchronous online learning, net meetings or e-learning — they are the most profound difference between learning in the 20th century and learning in the 21st century. Though virtual classrooms are currently making larger inroads in the education field, it will not be long before corporate trainers realize their full potential. The basic virtual classroom system consists of voice (VoIP, teleconferencing), text (whiteboards and PowerPoint) and video (via Webcams). Content can range from slides and multimedia (specifically Flashbased visuals) to application sharing, polling, quizzing, breakout rooms, emoticons and “virtual” hand-raising. Lance Dublin is the founder of Dublin Consulting. In April, he presented a virtual classroom on virtual classrooms for Elearning! magazine. “Learning goals in a virtual classroom are promoted by the display, explanation and discussion of relevant visuals,” he said, “along with interactions using unique 24 June/July 2008 Elearning! tools and learning in small groups.” He added that virtual classrooms can be used in hard- and soft-skill training, education, conferencing, meetings, coaching, support and many other instances. Benefits include reduced traveling time, expenses and instructional costs; replicating classroom sessions; reaching dispersed audiences; and extending learning experiences. “It’s not the media that cause the learning,” Dublin said, “it’s how the media are used.” STUDENTS LOVE IT George Siemens is associate director of research and development for the Learning Technologies Center at the University of Manitoba (Canada). From his home base, he can teach and manage courses both faceto-face and online through synchronous dialog. He also runs several online conferences involving up to 2,000 participants. “Both have been very successful,” Siemens says. John Bourne is executive director of the Sloane Consortium and a professor at Olin and Babson colleges in Boston. He uses the Elluminate platform for conducting online synchronous workshops involving up to 1400 colleges. (Elluminate is a provider of distance learning and synchronous collaboration software and tools.) “Students really like the convenience of the synchronous activities,” Bourne says. “They tell their professors that this system works, they really like it, and there’s no significant difference in attending class physically. It’s particularly good for evening MBA students.” In the online “Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks” during the past 10 years, Bourne has reported that there is no significant difference in learning quality between virtual and real classroom experiences. “There may be even a slight improvement with online classrooms because of the ability for students to do things at their own pace,” he notes. “Overall, it’s about the same as a classroom experience.” Vicki Davis is a middle-school teacher and “Coolcat” blogger who conducts online projects for students residing her there is no significant difference in learning quality between virtual and real classroom experiences.
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