A View from Downunder

Kippis & G'day

I'm looking forward to meeting you at VideoFunet - only a short time away now. It will be a great forum for us to exchange ideas about what is happening with videoconferencing in different parts of the world. (Very much the same things I suspect!)

The buzzwords at the moment are:

• Unified communication
• High definition
• Telepresence

What does this mean? Yes - better, faster, easier, more life-like videoconferencing. But what effect will it have on teaching and learning?

Very little I think. Why - you ask? Because in the case of teaching practice I don't believe that "the craftsman is only as good his tools". No matter how good some tools, if the individual's understanding of learning and design of learning activities is poor - the tools will not help.

In order to have great videoconference learning experiences, we need to start with sound principles of interactive learning and build from there.

I'll be addressing this - and other issues - in my presentation. To get an idea of my thinking, you can read a number of articles and papers or visit my Videoconference Blog.

Let's have some discussion about this here - to be continued in Tampere. What are your issues/thoughts/concerns?

Cheers, Carol Daunt