Videoconferencing Instructional Delivery Roles

The "Team"

Critical staffing roles have been identified that must be filled in order to ensure success with distance education and K-12 videoconferencing classes. These include:

One person may play several of these roles, but it is essential that each role is filled or the videoconferencing learning experience will not occur without great difficulty.

Originating Teacher

There will be a teacher at the near, "producing," end of the distance learning videoconference, referred to in these Web pages as the "originating teacher." The originating teacher will develop the curriculum and instructional strategies for the specific teaching area (math, science, foreign language, art, etc.), and write the lesson plans in accordance with school, district, and state guidelines and requirements.

Facilitator

There will also be a cooperating partner at the far, "receiving" end of the videoconference, who will be referred to as the "facilitator" in these Web pages. The facilitator helps coordinate the event by doing things such as taking roll, handing out papers, collecting assignments, helping to answer questions, keeping an eye on classroom management, and generally helping to facilitate the learning experience for the students. As a supporting educator, the facilitator will be in constant contact with the originating teacher. The facilitator may be a licensed teacher in some regions, and in other jurisdictions may be an aide given the task of working with the originating teacher; it will vary with region and need. This cooperating, facilitating educator has proven to be an important and essential part of every successful distance learning experience using videoconferencing.

Technical Support Person

Not every teacher will know every part of the technology and infrastructure in use for videoconferencing. A technology coordinator assigned to specific events and/or available daily is essential to insuring that distance learning videoconference events occur without disruption, in a manner similar to what we expect in a regular teaching environment in a single classroom. Each site, originating and receiving, needs to have this support for optimum teaching and learning.

Curriculum Planner/Coordinator

As an education professional, the Curriculum Planner will be developing, organizing, and generally implementing the distance learning videoconference experience by considering resource and curricular support, scheduling, assignment of students, and cooperating teacher coordination, among other things. It may also be the responsibility of the Coordinator to bring the teacher(s) and technical people together to insure smooth delivery of the material.

Clerical Support

Successful and effective teaching, whatever the venue or environment, does not occur in a vacuum. Certain clerical support is important for data management, attendance recording, test validation, curricular information management, and reproduction. Extra time and personnel are required to maintain the important contacts between the originating and facilitating teachers and the students at each receiving location. This requires more than a single teacher can be expected to handle given the preparation requirements for instructional videoconferencing.

Principal/Assistant Principal/Other Administrator

The primary administrator, whether principal, assistant principal, or other administrator, will ultimately have to make the decision about staffing, scheduling, financial, clerical, and technical support, FTE allotments, and other key components of a successful distance learning videoconference experience. Whether a one-time class or a semester or yearlong session, it is essential to have the site and district administrator part of the team that implements a teaching experience using this technology.

Parents & Other Community Members

When videoconferencing becomes a part of regular teaching opportunities, it is essential to enlist all of the support available in a school, district, and community. Parents, business people, legislators, and other community members can be an important resource for technical and financial support, information resources, and as a part of the videoconference delivery team. A resources inventory and needs assessment will be the initial guide to just who those people are in an area.

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