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Classroom Focus
Software Aids Collaborative Teaching and Learning at U Georgia
12/12/2007
The instructor can use NetSupport to set each showcase student's computer into a demo mode, leaving the remainder in view-only or in share modes. At the front of the class, the instructor can control each student's desktop in a separate window, and can choose when to share a student desktop with all or some of the class, and when to interact with any student desktop himself via pen or keyboard.Capturing the Lecture
Meanwhile, Camtasia Studio can be running to record what is happening on the desktop, as well as anything spoken by the instructor. The classroom configuration also allows interactive student input, such as a group review of test solutions during class.
Because of cost, Thai elected to use pen-enabled desktop computers for the students, in which a pen tablet connects to a standard PC via a USB port. The instructor uses a tablet PC and another pen-enabled desktop PC. The pen tablets also allow the university to continue using existing desktop PCs. The collaborative classrooms were upgraded to Windows Vista, Thai said, because he found it to be "the only [Windows operating system] that would allow full digital ink capabilities for pen tablets" at this time.
Thai is also experimenting with a new idea--providing each student PC with dual graphics displays. That allows the student to use one display for his or her personal workspace, while the second display can display information from the instructor desktop, or share other students' work during collaborative sessions. Thai said he also hopes to begin using microphones dropped from the ceiling in each classroom in order to pick up student questions for Camtasia recordings. Currently, the instructor must repeat student questions in order to have them recorded in Camtasia Studio.
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Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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