Do Beliefs About Learning Affect Installation of VC?

Today we had a vendor come in to write up specs to upgrade our distance learning room. We use this room for interviews with vendors, sharing with community/government organizations for workshops, private schools coming in to connect to content providers and collaborations, professional development and meetings, and more.

The vendor was surprised that we didn’t have a row of four monitors on the back wall and a podium for instruction.

As my supervisor and I were discussing his visit, I suddenly made a connection to my current studies about learning theory.

If you believe in direct instruction/lecture/”talking head” learning, how would you install videoconferencing?

If you believe in constructivist learning or social constructivist learning, how would you install videoconferencing?

What do YOU believe about learning? Is it reflected in your installation of videoconferencing equipment? Please feel free to comment!

0 replies on “Do Beliefs About Learning Affect Installation of VC?”

  1. I love the connection you made to your work on learning theory. Technology should be designed and set up to faciliate and enhance learning. If we believe that we learn through interactions with others and through hands on experience, then lecture mode may not be the most effective if we really want learning to occur.

    I am so happy to hear that videoconferencing can be set up in ways that support social constructivist theories of learning. I look forward to hearing more about how technology can enhance the learning process!

  2. Sounds a lot like the vendor is more higher-ed oriented. I would hate to feel tied down to a podium. If I could control placement of the cameras, I’d place it in the same position as a desk near the front of the room would be (student’s perspective). Of course, I’d also like to have students in the room with me to make it feel more “live”.

    But since I’m a relative VC neophyte, I’m not sure if my thoughts make sense.

  3. I am always pushing our vendor to think in different ways b/c I like to adapt the environment to both my content and my audience. I prefer that the content and my students’ needs drive both my instruction and the tools that I select…

    which explains that the more videoconferencing I do, the more I think of different ways to use the equipment. We have Spectrum tables in one room and little movable ones in the other and I am always moving the furniture to accommodate different audiences.

    This post made me think of way back in the day of my teenage years when we had the one phone that was in the kitchen and had a 30 foot cord on it and I would stretch it two rooms away for a conversation. Now, we all have cell phones.

    Maybe we will have the hovering cameras, mics, and monitors that Jason suggests…and then, knowing this group we would dream up even MORE ways to use them differently.

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