Steve Rowe, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia <stephen.rowe@scu.edu.au>
and Troy Klep, Yellow Edge Pty Ltd, Canberra, Australia <Troy.Klep@yellowedge.com.au>
Audiographics emerged in the early 1990s but largely disappeared as the Web became more available (the Internet moved from institutional to private and commercial use) and carried more educational content, the resources that had previously been put into lesson planning and delivery were replaced by students searching and interacting with Web resources and directly with each other. This change reinvigorated calls for a move away from a teacher centred to a student centred environment with the teacher losing some degree of control (Barr & Tagg, 1995).
Rowe & Ellis (2007) consider the development of Web-based audiographics. Current programs open up accessibility by being cross platform, and fully functional over dial-up connections. This means that features from VoIP through to application-sharing is available to any user, anywhere with a computer and an Internet connection. The VoIP features enable more natural or traditional communication from within the single program, all synchronized with the suite of tools (Ice, et.al., 2007). This removes the need for a dedicated network of phone connections between users required in pre-Web versions. The limited number of connections (a maximum of 5 in pre-Web versions) becomes an unlimited number (subject only to the licensing agreement). The ability current programs to stream and buffer data means that the disconnection and loss of data/information that occurred pre-Web versions is far less likely. This feature of the Web-based programs allows a very similar experience for all users, irrespective of their type of connection. Current examples include Elluminate Live!, Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (Breeze 5) and Centra. Schullo, et.al. (2007) provide a detailed comparison of pedagogical and technical aspects from the point of view of instructors and students for the first two mentioned examples.
The range of tools now available within Web-based audiographic technologies allow everyday tasks to be done online with a minimum of training by staff. In fact, some of the capabilities actually extend what is now possible in a physical classroom and to do so with far fewer resources. The additional benefit in all this is that we can now effectively treat students at dispersed locations as a single cohort, all able to attend and participate in activities simultaneously or at times that suit them; in other words, even the divide between asynchronous and synchronous contact is converging (Rowe & Ellis, 2007a). The exploration of this convergence is an important challenge.
The ability to record the session is a very powerful convergence feature. The ability to record the synchronous session, complete with voice, slides, whiteboard activity and participant involvement effectively creates an asynchronous version for those unable to attend the session, or those wishing to review the session at a time more suitable to them. As an example, at Southern Cross University where we use Elluminate Live! we had in excess of 6,000 recorded session downloads from January – June, 2007. The compression capabilities of the recordings and the decreasing cost of on and offline memory means this is now a very viable and affordable means of making learning material accessible. As an example, the average file size for a 50 minute recording has been less than 4MB. Pre-Web versions had no built in recording facilities or cheap easily accessed storage options.
In addition to sharing some highlights from the adoption of Elluminate Live! at Southern Cross University, we offer you the opportunity to see this potential while at AUSWEB08. We will be using Elluminate to hold panel discussions involving remote participants and attendees during the conference. Troy and Steve are also available to demonstrate and allow you to try Elluminate Live! We can even show you how to get a free fully functional room (though without the recording feature) to try out for yourself. Troy will be happy to talk about technical, system and licensing matters; Steve will be happy to talk with you about pedagogical and learning matters.
Barr, R.B. & Tagg, J. (1995) From Teaching to Learning – A New
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Rowe, S. & Ellis, A. (2007) From single tool to complex teaching and learning toolkit: Audiographics comes of age. In proceedings for E-Learn 2007: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education, Quebec City, Canada
Rowe, S. & Ellis, A. (2007a) How the Web has changed lecturing:
going the full circle. In J. Richardson & A. Ellis (eds) AusWeb07: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Australia World Wide Web Conference, Novotel Pacific Bay Resort, Coffs Harbour, Australia
Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. & Wells, J. (2007) Using
Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students’
Sense of Community Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 11:2, July (Accessed at http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/index.asp 21/8/07)
Schullo, S., Hilbelink, A., Venable, M., & Barron, A.E. (2007)
Selecting a Virtual Classroom System: Elluminate Live vs. Macromedia
Breeze ((Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional). MERLOT Journal of Online
Learning and Teaching Vol. 3, No. 4, December, 331
Hypertext References
[HREF1] Elluminate Live!: http://www.elluminate.com/
Stephen Rowe and Troy Klep © 2008. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.