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iTV Educator Roundtables
February 14th, March 29th 2001 - San Mateo, CA
A roundtable of educators convened, on two recent occasions, to explore the benefits of interactive television as a medium for distance learning. A common thread among the majority of attending educators was their use of the Internet for administering curriculum. Convergence of the computer and the television is not an idea that escaped their attention, but it soon became clear that the concept of iTV had more breadth than most participants realized. Each roundtable enjoyed the benefit of this absence of clarity. Consequently, the clutter of current realistic iTV delivery struggles did not penalize the sessions. And so it was, that a collective of seasoned education professionals spent the afternoon enthusiastically brainstorming about a potential future student experience.
Attendees were primed with various video samples of dtv, interactive and enhanced material. The demonstrations exposed the group to the concept of multicasting, walled gardens, one and two screen experiences, virtual tours, personal video recorders, personal data management, and video on demand. As the video presentation progressed, growing interest became apparent. Many of the instructors used their experience of online course delivery as a basis for their exploration into the added value of an educational interactive television experience.
The most conspicuous applications were brought up first, chat, discussion boards, testing and lecture. Soon the group began to balance the conversation by identifying possible problem areas drawing on their own experience with Internet courses. Can the iTV vehicle hinder chat by capacity limitations? The popularity of the online course could congest the resources of the host. One observation was about the problems encountered when more than twelve participants shared a chat room concurrently. The struggle for "the floor" detracted from the chat session objective. It was noted that current televised college credit courses are often recorded by the student for use at a time more convenient. If viewing habits of current distance learning students are consistent with that of an iTV student the amount of chat participants during or immediately after any broadcast of an iTV course should be manageable. More solutions followed with reference to the success of e-mail, and discussion boards in a distance learning class. Through these familiar Internet applications, the iTV instructor could maintain a connection to the individual student. While acknowledging that some students prefer guiding themselves through an established curriculum, most roundtable participants felt it important that primary enhancements should keep the instructor highly accessible.
Many distance learning courses fill out the timeline of a traditional semester, but it was noticed that an interactive course may through negligence, or by nature, present an unabsorbable amount of data in that same traditional semester. One attendee courageously estimated a half-hour enhanced telecourse to be the equivalent of three hours of classroom lecture. The potency of an enhanced product could free producers from creating a historically typical 26 - 30 week telecourse, instead, using the tools of interactivity to significantly condense the course offering.
The importance of recordability surfaced numerous times leading to discussions about the TiVo model. Virtually, everyone offering a component wish list had a PVR at the top. Even with the benefits of multicasting some educators felt that too often their courses compete unsuccessfully for prime airtime, leaving competent VCR users and insomniacs as their audience. Naturally, the promise of the Electronic Program Guide in conjunction with the mass storage of the PVR was very compelling to the roundtable audience. The simplicity that this new recording process brings eliminates the discouragement of traditional recording, increasing the odds of student involvement. Key to the desired component is the ability to pause and review any part of an iTV course. Demand on the instructors time increases dramatically if students have only a one-time, linear exposure to material. The last thing these participants want is to spend valuable time replying to questions that could have been answered with the benefit of immediate personal review.
A discussion about funding iTV telecourse production ensued with inevitable skepticism. Some educators feel the cost of traditional telecourse production is already expensive. Adding enhancements might prove to be too costly. References to state funding led into a debate on worthiness. Those experienced in grant procurement offered projections of realism, citing causes of historical success and failure. The group was reminded of the varying degree of priority found in different states around the country. Ultimately, it was agreed that financial projections would be difficult without a successful production model.
Like iTV discussions outside the world of education, there was much excitement about the possible efficiency interaction can bring to and end-user. Sharing success and failures in the similar world of online course delivery helped develop natural links between the two emerging educational vehicles. However, even though technological roadblocks were not introduced, the educator roundtable had no trouble finding challenges to the development of iTV and enhanced television, leaving this interested group in a state of cautious optimism.
