Module 4: Synchronous Tools
(Technologies Part I)
Windows Live Messenger
Summary
Windows Live Messenger is a general purpose communication tool,
with an emphasis on compatibility with
other Microsoft technologies. Because of
the market dominance of Microsoft, this
tool is easily adopted and used, both because
of organizational pressure, and general
familiarity with the interface which is
characteristic of Microsoft. Like a swiss
army knife, this tool is currently cutting
edge with respect to functionality. It
does not anticipate any future interface
requirements for haptics, or plug in capabilities for external
devices other than cameras or microphones.
Who
The target market for this tool is literally the general public.
Because the application itself and most
of the functionality are free to the public,
the tool could potentially be used in almost
any setting. In addition, since the tool
is rather simple to use, there would likely
be a greater number of people who would
be willing to test it out.
Interactions
Because of the scarcity of audio capable webcams on many computers
which are installed (perhaps around
1 to 5 % of the total number of PC's which
are currently used in the USA to access
the internet), the type of interaction
which are most likely to take place via
this tool are text messaging/chatting,
and basic file sharing. However, for those
who do have webcams, video conferencing
is also very likely to be used.
Advantages
The advantages of Windows Live Messenger
can be framed several different ways.
Perhaps the most important method,
is in choosing the reference of comparison.
In the same way that luxury sedans
are not usually compared to SUVs
when attempting to compare relative
advantages and disadvantages of vehicles,
likewise the Windows Live Messenger
should be compared with other tools
which could probably be considered
within the same "class" of
tools. As a swiss army knife tool,
the primary advantage is ubiquity
and name recognition. Certainly it
does have some features that other
tools do not have, and yet, those
tools are not ATTEMPTING to compete
on those functions and are not intended
to provide those functions.
Disadvantages
There are very few disadvantages
of Windows Live Messenger. However,
that depends on WHO you are. If you
are a Unix or Linux user, it can
be quite frustrating, since M$ does
not provide the source code to anything
(virtually) and therefore, there
is no easy way to port many of their
app's to the Linux API.
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Distance Ed Uses
Because this tool is ultra simple and intuitive to use, the primary usage in distance education might be for small team meetings. In order to have a larger video conference gathering of users however, you would need some other (perhaps a free tool such as XMeeting for Mac) tool which is capable of H.323 or H.239 --- which are far superior.
Personal Reaction
My feeling is that if you are capable of using this tool, then you should download and begin using Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 which is similar, but has expanded capabilities and is slightly easier to use. Since apparently TTU has invested in SIP, it would also be highly convenient if the phone system and exchange mail systems were tightly integrated with these services.
Windows Live Messenger is a very convenient and easy to use tool.
Unfortunately those, it excludes a lot of people just because
they do not want to use a major operating system.
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Elluminate
Summary
Elluminate Vroom is a very convenient and easy to use tool which provides for a common interface for shared collaboration, with emphasis on the whiteboard space.
Who
Unlike many tools, Elluminate actually caters to educators and
trainers. It may therefore be more responsive
to the needs of this group, and in fact does seem to be more suited
to an educational atmosphere. In fact, this is somewhat apparent
right from the start, for instance, just looking at the home page
of their site, you find the following:
Educators: Add real-time interaction to distance learning. Extend the boundaries of the traditional classroom. Engage more students in more ways.
Corporate Trainers: Enhance employee productivity. Improve customer satisfaction. Increase overall profitability. |
Interactions
Because of the superiority of this
tool when used for the purpose of drawing
on the shared space, and reviewing
as well as marking up other illustrations
(for instance Power Point Slides),
this tool has an emphasis on collaboration
via the shared space.
Advantages
To the
right you can see the actual tool bar
which appears on the screen when using
the Elluminate tool. Not only are the
buttons large and easy to see, but they
are brightly colored so that they become
more easily distinguished FROM each other.
Some whiteboard applications (such as
WebCT) have a much more bland and unicolored
set of components which makes recognition
slow.
In terms of ability to interact in
a distance learning environment, this
tool would perhaps be my first choice,
because it is VENDOR NEUTRAL.... meaning
that almost all students will be able
to use it. It is much like forcing
handicap students to sit in cramped
little places, rather than accommodating
them, when technology PREVENTS learning,
rather than facilitating it. In the
case of Elluminate, this is obviously
one of it's strongest points.
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Disadvantages
It is almost debatable whether
this is a disadvantage or not. However,
one possible disadvantage is that
this system requires authentication.
Because of the way that this authentication
mechanism works, it may be difficult
to remain truly anonymous when interacting
in this environment.
There are conceivably many different
possible scenarios where you might
want students to be provided anonymity.
For instance, if you want honest
feedback.
Lastly, if someone is in a very
high security environment, some of
the communication techniques this
system uses might be blocked by a
corporate level firewall system.
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Distance Ed Uses
One of the most creative uses of this tool within a distance
training paradigm might be to get students
to discuss the development of an engineering
plan while it takes place on the actual
screen in front of them. If all the students
have at the very least microphones, it
can be very interesting to debate the various
qualities of the design plan at each minor
step/stage of the development. With the
eraser tool, it would be possible to back
track.
Personal Reaction
My personal reaction
to this tool was that I love it.
It is VENDOR NUETRAL and easily accessible.
There are a lot of people who work
on a computer where they do not have
the security access to be able to
install an application. In other
words, this could even work on some
public usage computers!
Accessibility has been
in my experience (as a distance education
technologist) one of the most important
issues, next to training and support.
To the right, you see
an illustration of just how easy
it is to understand exactly what
the interface is trying to convey.
Although in the instance of my group
there was some initial confusion
over the nickname as it appeared
in the interface. This is a configurable
option though, and so I did not consider
it a very large hurdle.
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WebCT Whiteboard
Summary
WebCT is an extremely
stable and reliable tool. Unlike
the advanced and cutting edge technology
of Elluminate, it instead is built
upon a much older code-base, which
will have rock-solid performance
under low-bandwidth network connections.
Overall, WebCT is built
for the absolute computer novice,
since you do not have to understand
anything about programming in order
to be able to setup an entire learning
environment for a distance ed. course.
There is a serious
problem with WebCT however, and it
is only getting worse with the trend
toward consolidation (for ex., the
recent acquisition of Blackboard).
The problem is that the costs both
in terms of initial purchase, adoption,
implementation, and ongoing support
and training are huge.
To the right you see
a course I designed to help train
faculty on WebCT, which shows some
of the typical functionality you
can setup inside a WebCT course. |
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Who
Those who are most like to benefit from using
this tool, are likely to be faculty departments
or trainers who will be using the same
course content over and over to teach
or facilitate a course, or who may be
likely to only make minor adjustments
over time, AND who also are required
to be the primary responsible party for
course content development and instructional
design.
While professional programmers and instructional
designers are like to use a variety of
tools, some of which may be more powerful
in terms of e-learning deliverables,
this tool makes it possible for non-commercial
instructors to develop their own content,
and to do so in a very controlled, stable,
and secure environment.
Interactions
Most of the interactions that I have had in WebCT
courses have been asynchronous. However,
this review is intended to cover specifically
the whiteboard tool inside WebCT, which
is of course a synchronous tool. This
tool could be used more often, but may
not be except in rare cases where students
are all able to meet at the same time.
However, this tool could also be used
in small group interactions and in those
cases, the students are likely to feel
frustrated if they do not understand
that the WebCT Chat tool, cannot be opened
at the same time as the whiteboard window,
in the same browser tab, but must be
opened in a separate window or tab.
Advantages
One of the biggest
advantages of the WebCT whiteboard
tool is that this vendor has first
mover advantage in this market niche
and therefore already has a very
large user base. For the many instructors
who already have a course they have
designed, it can be quite a simple
and easy matter to just install this
tool into their course and begin
using it.
In addition, this tool
makes it possible to track what is
done in the room because of the ability
to save the files created and then
immediately post them back into a
download area within the same course. |
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Disadvantages
Besides the rather
bland and ugly appearance of this
tool, in a time when interface
designs are more and more becoming
appealing and bright, there several
areas that WebCT could easily update
with a simple software patch, and
thus provide much higher value
to their customers.
The biggest change
that really needs to take place
soon, is to include a separate
button on this same page (see the
right) to launch a chat session.
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Distance Ed Uses
Part of the idea of creativity is that you may
not have the opportunity to plan ahead.
More than that, it is often the case
that creativity is situationally specific,
meaning that for creativity to be useful,
the production results of the creative
process should be appropriate for the
intended purpose. The are difficult concepts
to convey and it could be that a whiteboard
could serve as a simple place to quickly
type out some ideas on a board, while
the class attempts to flesh out the major
ideas or concepts through verbal discussion.
Personal Reaction
My personal experience and reaction to WebCT was
less than positive, and certainly it
was inferior to my experience with Elluminate.
It is sad that so much money goes to
pay for this product and yet so few enhancements
or software upgrades have been delivered.
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