Video conferencing brings world experiences to the classroom

The Grade 3 immersion class at Jasper Elementary learned about butterflies at the Center for Puppetry in Atlanta, Georgia last week without setting foot outside their classroom.

They were hooked up to instructor Iyabo Shabazz via a camera, microphone, and television monitor, who in a southern drawl instructed the kids how to wave their arms like butterflies and stretch out their hands before starting their projects.

Between lessons on the life stages of a butterfly, Shabazz showed the children how to assemble puppets from construction paper, string, pipe cleaners and glue.

Gordon Booth, video content coordinator for the Grand Yellowhead Regional Division (GYRD) said the first video conference course was run as a pilot  in 1994. Equipment was put in high schools in 2000 and soon afterward every school had a video suite.

Programs like this have just recently started to gain momentum. Though the planning isn’t final, the 32 credit courses GYRD offered to Grade 3 - 12 students by video conference last year is expected to jump to 40 starting in September.

Because GYRD schools prefer to offer the core curriculum through their own teachers, the 32 video courses are strictly elective and include languages such as French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Cree, as well as Calculus, career and technology, wildlife, tourism, community health and music.

Traditional classes also have the opportunity to take advantage of video conferencing through program enhancements, such as the hour-long butterfly lesson by the Centre for Puppetry.

A number of enhancement programs were available this year from organizations across North America including the Alaska Sealife Centre, the St. Louis Zoo and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.

Programs in Canada aren’t compiled but the United States boasts a database of more than 2,000 enhancement sessions with nearly a half dozen added weekly. Teachers across the GYRD engaged their students in about 168 programs in total this year.

The sessions can bring some intriguing experiences to the classroom. For instance, some biology classes in the region have had the chance to witness a human autopsy, or sit in on an open heart surgery.

Video conferencing equipment can also connect schools in distant cities, such as a class in Edson that worked with a school in the Bronx in New York on a self-expression through poetry project.

“It’s an eye-opener,” Booth said. “Life in Edson or Jasper is not the same as life in the Bronx.”

Typical enhancement programs cost from $100-150, funding which comes out of a designated budget presided over by Booth. The cost of a video course includes just the instructor’s compensation, and inter-school collaboration projects don’t cost anything because all they use is the equipment which is already in place.

GYRD teachers who want to employ the technology put a request through to Booth, who selects and arranges for the appropriate programming. On the day of the session, the class sets up shop in the video conference suite. Session instructors also have a camera and microphone, so parties at both ends can see and hear each other.

Dale Karpluk, principal of Jasper Jr./Sr. High School, said this type of learning can be useful when it fits the curriculum. “Teachers are always looking for additional resources to enhance learning opportunities,” Karpluk said. “I think it’s a great tool, but it’s not the be-all and end-all.”

Booth, who did his doctoral dissertation on distance education, said video conferencing is a great way to offer a broader range of subjects to students, especially when teachers are in short supply.

“If it’s supported properly and our instructors and content providers are properly trained, it’s a very strong motivational tool,” Booth said. “What the literature has indicated is that as far as academic performance is concerned that students taking courses in this format do as well or better as those doing it in a face to face environment.”

There’s a strong backing for video conferencing, said Booth, who said he wouldn’t be surprised to see it continue to expand. “If it grows to double, I think our senior leadership team would be willing to support it financially,” he said. “It seems to be a priority.”

Another advantage is it allows students to “go” places they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. “I don’t know anyone who’s going to pack up the kids and take them down to the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri or the Centre for Puppetry in Atlanta,” Booth said.

Teacher Judith Desmeules, whose class participated in the butterfly lesson, said the children enjoy the interactivity and the program offers unique opportunities. “Sometimes we don’t have all the resources you want in a small town,” she said.

Student Teagan Lee, 9, said she didn’t know what to expect the first?time her class?participated in a program. “It’s like if you were getting away on a field trip because if you look at the TV for a while it’s like you’re there,” she said. “You actually forget where you are.”