Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing (or video-teleconferencing) is a set of interactive technologies that allow individuals in two or more locations to interact via full-motion, two-way video, and audio transmissions simultaneously.

Videoconferencing can take place through high-end dedicated systems (consoles and remote control video cameras) such as Polycom's Converged Management Application and Cisco's TelePresence system, which use multiple video cameras and high-definition screens, or via low-end Internet-based desktop systems, such as TeamViewer or Skype, in which participants communicate via a built-in or external computer webcam.

Videoconferencing is a powerful distance education option, since it approximates face-to-face interactions at a distance.

Considerations: television and video as distance learning tools

Television and video possess numerous strengths as a medium for learning. Like radio, television is a mass communication medium with extensive reach; it is a technology with which teachers and classroom learners are familiar, thus requiring little training; and programs can be recorded and rebroadcast at their convenience. If produced well, television and video can be an engaging medium for learning content, procedures, processes, modelling techniques, and strategies that are difficult to present in either print or via radio.

A real strength of television and video is that they combine words and moving images. Moving images serve as powerful shorthand for communication and are an engaging and familiar cultural and professional communication medium. Images are concise-several pages of text can be encapsulated by a brief video segment, and conceptual, abstract information can be made concrete. A video can unfold in a nonlinear fashion, whereas nonlinear text sometimes proves disorienting to the reader. Because video is a dual-channel (aural and visual) learning approach, as opposed to a single-channel approach such as print and radio, the involvement of both aural and visual memory may result in greater long-term retention of information (Mayer, 2001). The use of video, particularly as part of an online or Web-based course, lessens the reliance on print-based learning, thus enhancing the accessibility of whatever distance learning medium is used. Most important, television and video can blend multiple media-still images, moving images, and sound to offer a more multimodal learning experience than either print or audio.

Thus, ‘televisually' based technologies-television and particularly video-hold tremendous potential as media for and components of any distance learning program. The decreasing cost and increasing ease of video-editing tools means that video examples can be captured and edited locally and used for teacher self-study, case studies, and group study-all of which can then become the basis of discussion and analysis. Videos can be archived and viewed in multiple formats-via the Web, video compact discs (VCDs), television, smart phones, or tablets. New video cameras offer 360-degree image-capturing capabilities that can be transmitted over the Internet to provide a panoramic classroom view. Videoconferencing can bring isolated teachers into synchronous conversations with a larger community, which can be enormously beneficial, particularly if a well-trained facilitator ensures productive and focused discussion around the video examples.

However, television (in particular) and video suffer from a number of inherent and exogenous weaknesses. Television has extremely high initial production and recurrent costs and demands an extensive distribution network and highly skilled personnel. Broadcasts can be interrupted for a number of reasons: electrical, technical, programming, or political. Broadcast schedules may not be convenient for teachers and students, though this problem can be eliminated by using recording devices such as videocassette recorders (VCRs) and DVRs. Much instructional television and video fails to capitalise on the medium, instead falling back on traditional talking heads. It is often difficult to create engaging instructional television or video programming; locally produced video, in particular, is often too long, of poor quality, or lacking narration. Finally, in the case of in-class television broadcasts that are more broadly educational, rather than directly instructional (that is, directly involving the teacher) in nature, television may be used to "babysit" students as teachers take a break.