Dinner with Ted Eagles at Clyde’s (Alexandria), followed by a long discussion/demo until nearly midnight. Ted is on a new kick, one I completely agree with and will try to get the STA administration to take seriously, namely that we should practice holding class remotely. After all, a swine flu outbreak, a leaky roof in the new building, or (heaven forbid) another terrorist attack like 9/11 could play havoc with the school schedule unless we have a plan in place.
In my demo of LectureScribe and Jing I manage to convince the ever-skeptical Ted that this technology, coupled with the recently available free online teleconferencing services, could make running classes in the event of a school shutdown a realistic option. However, we would also need several hours to train the faculty and some presumably longer period after that to ease them out of their 19th-century teaching habits that have always worked before.
Talking with Ted reminds me of what I really want to see, even more than the faculty using the technology, and that is . . . students using the technology. I decide on the spot that any student who answers a peer question with a LectureScribe video will get a bit of extra credit if I am cc’ed on the message, or if the video is a worthy reply to a modd.net blog or message board.
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