The use of videoconferencing and connecting simultaneously with another person or class is what is called face-to-face. This is a way of connecting a face or voice with an email, text, blog, etc. The article introduces the concept my examining a fun and creative activity that has connected over 86 kindergarten through either grade classrooms which is a connection of 1800+ students between two states. Each classroom designs a Halloween monster using classroom materials and creates a list of instructions to go with their particular design. Included in the design the students have to include formulas that relate to math to help align particular angles, shapes, etc. These details are posted in a wiki or blog that connects the classroom with another class located in another area. The second classroom then designs a monster using the specifications given. To finalize the activity the students use a video conference to display and share their monsters to see if they match up.
There are several helpful organizations and websites to help teachers who are currently active with the videoconferencing programs as well as teachers who are newly interested. The groups, Polycom Collaborations Around the Planet (PCATP) and Two Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE), provide a website that allows educators to connect and present information about curriculum and program ideas as well as unite to collaborate with other schools and classrooms. PCATP and TWICE are connected alongside a program called Read Around the Planet which occurs every year in March. This connection is another way that the use of video conferencing is connected to education.
The article also talks about the concept of mashups. The idea of mashing up is the use of combining two web applications to join and work as one. The most common example used in the article is combining Good Maps with another application such as Ebay real estate to create a new and exciting use of technology. This is relavent when the Read Around the Planet connected with videoconferencing This new technology is beginning to connect K-12 classrooms with a large social network. The connection here is the creation of a social network using videoconferencing.
The article addresses what may come in the future as far as face-to-face activity goes online. According to the FaceTime article, “Video interactions have grown significantly in the past three years, from a single project with 20 classrooms participating in the 2003-2004 school year to more than 500 connections among numerous projects serving 15,000 students during the 2006-2007 schools year.” It is discussed that teachers in technology ready and enhanced districts are having the highest amount of project collaboration overall. This then presents the idea that videoconferencing may come to be more popular outside of the classroom. It is presented the online videoconferencing is the next form of social networking and is a personal alternative to the faceless online chat. The company Paltalk is one of the first companies to use this videoconferencing technology which at the time of the article had over 4 million users worldwide.
Lastly the article briefly mentions some perks and downfalls that might arise with the use of face-to-face technology in the school setting. The upside to students and classrooms connecting with blogs and wikis is that they can be accessed during any time of the day and do not need collaboration or synchronization with another time zone. Real-time, however, is the one downfall to this idea of connecting with other schools through video conferencing. This keeps students and teachers from being able to “time-shift” as they do when using blogs, emails, etc.
