Musings on Video Conferencing

I really appreciated Horan's (2011) piece on utilizing the digital tools we have with us to their maximum potential. Little things like using reminders to end a meeting and geotagging pictures are good ideas that I'll keep in my back pocket. This article, combined with the presentations in class, have really gotten me thinking about how I can harness the power of the tools I already have, and what other tools I might need in my arsenal. I hadn't thought to use my smartphone to do research, or use a tablet for anything other than reading and notes. But with transcription software and programs like Zotero, endnote, and Dropbox, my toolbox can be small, portable, and powerful.

I'm still putting together in my head how to use all of these technologies in harmony, but as I write these blogs, I am thinking through the ways in which these different tools can work together, and I'm getting very excited about my upcoming research. All of this coincides nicely with my writing of my early inquiry project and my preparations to extend that project this summer.

One tool that I found particularly useful this summer was Google Hangouts for video conferencing. Gratton and O'Donnell (2011) present the pros and cons of video conferencing, and I found myself nodding along with both the advantages and shortcomings of using this tool. While you do miss something not having everyone in the same room and reading their full body language, you can read a lot in a video conference. And after the first 30 minutes - and certainly after the first couple of meetings, the people meeting become a community, and they develop a rhythm, which helps address the issue they raise about turn taking.

Videoconferencing made the professional development work I did this summer possible. I didn't know it when I started the project, but the Hangouts held a major part in making these theoretically and geographically diverse group of teachers a community. Initially, I had planned to meet with the teachers three times during the first week of the intensive 6 week workshop, and once a week after that. But at the end of the first week, the teachers requested that we continue to meet frequently to check in on their designs and talk things out in a way they felt they could not or did not want to do in the discussion forums.

None of these teachers have ever met each other, but in addition to sharing lesson plans and feedback, they shared teaching stories, personal information, and they all participated in supporting one teacher whose son suddenly became paralyzed toward the end of the six weeks. In this latter incident, each member of the community offered to take up the work of the one so she could be with her son as the doctors figured out what caused the paralysis. They had a true community, and they worked and grew and breathed together.

At the end of the six weeks, one of the teachers shared that she was pregnant and that she would not be teaching in the upcoming semester.  I had a vague notion that the teachers had been communicating outside of our meetings and discussion forums, but when these two teachers revealed these personal stories, it became clear that the community of teachers had become friends who communicated outside the scope of the professional development. They reported updates about each other, and began sharing workloads when one got overwhelmed.

Now we are into the second semester of the courses the teachers designed over the summer. Since the end of last semester, we have taken a hiatus from the video conferences. The teachers have requested that we start those again. They feel distanced from the other teachers and isolated, which is something my research actively tries to combat.

A great thing about using Google Hanout or Skype is that I can do it from anywhere. Over teh summer I was working from California and went on many outings with my family. In addition to allowing the teachers to connect from different geographical locations, I could be anywhere - in California, at the zoo, on my way to see a student's new film - and check in with them. They even started conferencing with each other, unbeknownst to me.

My subjects meeting without my knowing is somewhat of a concern because I can't track their thinking and development when they do that, but I can see the results in both their growth and the strength of the community, so I decided the benefits were better than the downsides.

So the point of my musings this week is that I've already been thinking about how to use the tools I have to enhance my research process, but the presentations and these articles have helped me think of ways to use them that had not crossed my mind. I'm starting with looking into the features Horan and Drs Lubke and Varga mentioned. I'm going to bring up Mendely in our lab meeting tomorrow and see what everyone thinks (it helps when we all use the same system. Right now we're using Zotero.). Once I get my feet wet with these tools, I'll explore what else my smartphone and tablet can do.