I was reviewing two documents today – Owston’s 2007 study on the factors for sustainable innovation of technology, and Anderson and Rourke’s (2005) VC literature review.

Owston includes in his “essential conditions” the student support of the innovation. Anderson and Rourke find a “promising practice” in “student empowerment through operation with the technology.”

It just occurred to me that I haven’t thought too much about how to get students excited about videoconferencing. Mostly because they usually are automatically excited about it.

But haven’t you ever noticed students who are quite nervous about videoconferencing and want to stay off camera? I have noticed this  especially with middle and high school students.

So, here’s my question to all of us. How are we making sure students feel comfortable with videoconferencing before they go into a content specific VC? Arnold, Cayley and Griffith (2004) have some interesting ideas for “first time VCs”. Our connections with Mexico lately have been very low-key informal events. Our connection on Friday with the seniors in TX certainly broke the ice for students on both sides.

What do you think? Should we think about this more? Are there some more specific things we can do to make sure there is student support for VC in our schools? Please comment.