November 2005 — Features
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Creating a Global Classroom
The globalization of learning has changed education methods and resources. Today, educators are neither tied to the four walls of the traditional classroom nor to the language of a single book. And with the advent of videoconferencing, they’re no longer even tied to one group of students.
Videoconferencing is a telecommunications medium allowing individuals or groups of people at different locations to transfer video and audio in a real-time or face-to-face setting. Originally used by the military to encourage interaction among soldiers abroad, and by corporations to facilitate communications between personnel and business clients, it is now finding a home in today’s global classrooms. By traveling beyond the physical classroom, K-12 educators are beginning to recognize how videoconferencing becomes an extension of the classroom.
In the past, distance learning with two-way video and audio was inaccessible for many professional and academic organizations. Videoconferencing allows educators and students at all grade levels to introduce and reinforce subject matter with real-world experts from various educational and professional organizations and institutions, as well as with peers from around the world.
Advantages of Videoconferencing
An ideal tool for the digital generation, videoconferencing is
in step with education’s shift away from short, isolated,
teacher-centered lessons to a student-focused, interactive experience.
Sometimes called electronic field trips, videoconferences
(such as the ones held via NASA LIVE) take students
on virtual tours through research centers, zoos, and historical
and cultural sites, bringing them face-to-face with experts and
other students with whom they would otherwise never have
direct contact because of the substantial transportation and
administrative costs involved in bringing the groups together.
There’s almost no end to the benefits of this technology:
