AV Technology - February/March 2009 - (Page 54) yourworld education IS WEB 2.0 OUTPACING THE IT DEPARTMENT? The “Ninth Annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey,” published in the May/June 2008 issues of EDUCAUSE Review, cites “e-learning and distributed teaching and learning” as one of the top ten issues in higher education. Of concern is the ability of IT departments to keep up with emerging Web 2.0 technologies such as e-portfolios, wikis, blogs, podcasts, e-learning repositories, and virtual worlds, and to implement them into their institution’s overall technology strategy. As the study’s authors note, “The CIO invests in e-learning and distributed teaching and learning by efficiently hosting enterprise-level hardware/software, securing access, and ensuring data integrity. Through strategic dialogue with campus stakeholders, CIOs are responsible for adopting and implementing new technologies to support teaching and learning. However, the rapid rise of Web 2.0 technologies to support user-generated content, build collective intelligence, and share information across a participatory community of learners internal and external to the campus has altered the pace of adoption, the points of entry for adoption, and the configuration of leaders who should be discussing resulting issues.” Social networking tools and applications are rapidly being adopted by students and faculty, often outside the purview of university IT staff. New issues are emerging, such as the impact to the underlying IT infrastructure, content retention, and protection of user (and content) rights. But as CIOs and network managers worry about network security and integrity, it may be better to figure out a way to incorporate these technologies instead of fight them. The EDUCAUSE study concludes, “A roadmap must be created for turning the emerging technologies into productive tools for supporting the nextgeneration e-learning environment.” [Source: EDUCAUSE, www. educause.edu.] Classes at the University of Akron are recorded and stored for distance learning and review sessions. No Class Left Behind USING CONTENT SERVERS MEANS NO MISSED DISTANCE LEARNING CLASSES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON. By James Careless I n 1997, the University of Akron in Akron, OH began delivering synchronous ‘Post Secondary Option’ distance learning classes to a handful of rural high schools. Today, the University offers a full suite of undergraduate/ graduate courses and degree programs to many two-year and four-year institutions, plus 10 high schools, via a fiber optic network. To serve these locations, the University has 26 distance learning classrooms located on and off its main campus. Each classroom is equipped with a Tandberg 6000 MXP codec for point-to-point and multi-point videoconferencing; a Dell computer with touch-sensitive Smart Board; Panasonic DVD player and VHS player/recorder with instructor and student audio; an Elmo EV-4400 document camera, printer, and port for laptop connectivity; and auxiliary audio/video inputs. The classrooms also have Polycom teleconferencing phones, portable wireless laptop carts, and — on the main campus — real-time Sony DVD recorders. Students in the classroom can hear distant partici- pants through the room’s JBL loudspeakers. So far, so good. But what can students do if they miss a distance learning class? Do they have to beg for handwritten notes from another student, or can technology help solve the problem? For the University of Akron, the answer was the latter: They decided to archive their classes digitally using Tandberg Content Servers (TCS). These are storage platforms that interconnect with the University’s Tandberg video systems, Multipoint Control Unit, Gatekeeper, and Management Suite; the foundation of its distance learning infrastructure. “We record nearly all of our distance learning classes,” says Jeanette Carson, University of Akron‘s manager of Audio/Visual and Distance Learning Services. “Many of our Post Secondary Option Students are based at rural high schools. When the snow flies, road conditions become unsafe and schools get closed. However, the University may still be open and conducting regularly scheduled university classes. With the Tandberg Content Server, class recordings are available online five 54 | AV TECHNOLOGY | february | march 2009 www.avtechnologyonline.com http://www.educause.edu http://www.educause.edu http://www.avtechnologyonline.com
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