Student Results
A variety of results for students when they are involved in videoconference learning experiences, as described in the commentaries below, give a broader meaning to the vision and goals that schools and districts may develop for addressing the educational needs of all learners.
Increased Access to Opportunity
Through two-way videoconferencing, students have the equivalent of face-to-face contact with their peers in communities outside their own, potentially worldwide. These contacts allow students to gain information and insights, and provide an audience for their ideas and creativity.
Equity
First, students have access to students their age from other races, social systems, geographical environments, and governmental systems. Second, students in small secondary schools can have access to the same specialized courses as in larger schools.
Improved Learning
Improvements are seen in opportunities to learn subject matter not previously available, and to enrich their knowledge from experts not usually available in school. Important work and life skills such as problem solving and collaborative research are enhanced in some applications of the medium.
Addressing Individual Differences
Instruction for students having special needs can be improved through contact with specialists not available in the district. Interactive video experiences offer a way to respond to different learning styles and ways of self-expression.
Preparation for the Future
In the workplace, skills in problem solving, independent research, concise self-expression, and the use of video technologies in the practice of those skills is becoming more and more important. Interactive video use by individuals and work groups is becoming commonplace in many organizations, and is itself a new career field.
Kathy Dormaier Elementary Principal, Kent, WA and Diana Eggers Teacher, Kent, WA Kathy Weeres Elementary Teacher, Butte, MT.
Comments on student results from the field: Cathy Dormaier, Elementary Principal, describes the benefit of greater equity:
"We are a school that has tremendous economic diversity, we have tremendous ethnic diversity, academic diversity, and you name it. I see this as a tool that will level the playing field. In other words, all children, regardless of their ethnicity, their economic status or whatever will be able to have the same experiences. We have several children who have computers at home, and many who do not. We have many who have telephones and some who do not. So I see this as an opportunity for all of our children to get educational opportunity here at school in an equitable environment that they may not have out there in the real world. I think if they can see themselves and see others on the screen, and see that other people around the state or even around the world look like them, talk like them, and have the same interests and capabilities, that again just provides the global perspective that I think is so important for children to learn."
Chris Anderson, Technology Coordinator, Kent, WA, on motivation and goal attainment:
"Definitely engagement, the kids are very engaged in the types of activities that we've done. [They are] highly motivated, and that's not always the case with some kids. So it's made a big difference in terms of motivating their learning. Again, we've tried to focus very directly on areas of curriculum for the class so it's not just motivation for their learning but it's directed toward the goal that they need to be directed toward."
Diana Eggers, Teacher, discusses improved learning skills, active involvement, and workplace skills:
"One of the purposes of the Where in Washington program is to meet some of the standards that we have in social studies and reading. Students will be using various sources of material to gain information to try and locate each other across the state of Washington. Students are reading off the web page, they may be reading encyclopedias and they are definitely reading maps. So using all that information, they are improving their reading. We've had teachers comment that they've taught more about geography within the 2 to 3 weeks of the Where in Washington project than they have all year. "Our Executive Director was talking to one of the students and saying, 'What did you learn today? and the student said that he didn't learn anything. This is something that you don't want to hear out of a student's mouth, so Kent asked him, 'What were you doing?' He said, Well, we were using the Internet and we were looking at maps and we were reading the books, and we had taken notes, so we were using our notes to try and find these other sites.' After that conversation, we could see that the child was learning something, he just didn't know it. "I think that the reactions we get from the kids they really want to find the other sites, so they are really engaged in what they are doing, they are actively involved in the project. As a former Special Ed teacher I didn't see all kids involved at all times, and I think one of the remarkable things about this project is that in all of the classes that we've had so far, all of the kids are actively involved. "I think one of the biggest benefits for the kids in having the videoconferencing available is that as we proceed into the future, videoconferencing will become more and more a part of the workplace. Students will experience videoconferencing in school and not be intimidated by videoconferencing when they go out into the workplace and get jobs."
Kathy Weeres, Elementary Teacher, concerning the development of inquisitiveness and motivation:
"Children, when they use computers or when they get on a videoconference and talk to other children, you see their eyes sparkle, you see the questions develop in their heads, and you see the wonder. I think that's what education is, developing wonder in children's minds. We have some tools that can take them somewhere else. I can take my class to Hawaii and they can ask questions, and they can develop their own opinions and their own conclusions, and they can learn and grow on their own. I think that's what education is all about---first to develop that excitement, and that enjoying and enjoyable thing to be in school and to learn. Then you have that piece of equipment in front of them and they're shown another child or another situation that's new and wonderful to them, that's how kids just get excited about school. In the morning when they get up, they want to come to school instead of want to sleep in."
Detlef Johl, Elementary Teacher, describes benefits in opportunity and learning skills:
"The effect of having this in the building is to provide a lot of opportunities for students that they wouldn't ordinarily have. When they do share information, their audience is limited to their classroom. Now their audience is no longer limited. They can share what they're doing, what their environment is like, with students all over the world. They're bringing things into the classroom that they normally would not be able to see.
"The activity that we're doing becomes a real-life experience for the students. They are connected with other people, they can see that person, that there is an audience actually for them. When students do a writing activity, nobody ever reads it except for the teacher. When students do an experiment like this, they do it for people in their classroom. Now, not only are they doing it for students in their classroom, but they're able to share their results with classrooms in other places as well. The benefit from this is that students are able to communicate with other people. They break down what I call many of the cultural barriers that we had. It doesn't matter what kind of culture the other class is from, and it doesn't seem to matter what age those students are. Now that we're doing video, students see themselves as scientists, as collaborators, as people communicating with someone else, and that's what makes it a real experience for them. "One of the benefits of doing this experiment is that it leads the students to higher level learning skills. If we would have done this and talked about boiling water and looked at it on the textbook page, [the result is] 'OK, water boils, fine, we move onto something else.' Here the students are looking at it and becoming more involved with it, they're beginning to question what is happening here. 'What are my results going to be? What did I think was going to happen that is not happening?' They begin to look at the entire process, and by looking at it and by getting more involved in it, they get much more excited."
Marko Lucich, Probation Officer, speaks about the importance of immediate intervention with troubled teens:
"I feel it's going to be of great benefit, and these are the reasons why. For example, right now, if the youth is having some problems in the school building, and the school calls up and asks one of the probation officers to come down to that school building for an intervention, the probation officer could be tied up, unable to leave the building, for example for an hour or two hours, or maybe not even until the next day. By that time the problem is in the background, and also the youth has probably forgotten about it. Then the frustration starts to build: 'Well, the probation officers couldn't come down to the building today; if they could have come down, it really would have helped us out, but they couldn't.' With this type of equipment, we could have done that intervention immediately, and with juveniles, the more immediate the consequences, the more effective they are. The longer we wait with consequences the less effective they are. By not intervening immediately, it gives the youth or the child the thought or perception that it really wasn't that important, or their behavior was OK."