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folklorists are very sensitive to the importance of place. While videoconferencing
does not negate the importance of place, it certainly throws some twists
into the discussion.
K-12 videoconferencing is a rapidly expanding phenomenon; tens of thousands
of schools now have active videoconference facilities. K-12 videoconferences
are sometimes referred to as “virtual field trips,” allowing
students to, from afar, receive lessons from cultural institutions, meet
with other students, and even interview tradition-bearers.
A well-designed videoconference can almost give participants the sense
that they are in the same room. Below are some tips for creating conditions
for successful videoconference interviews.
The placelessness of institutional videoconference rooms can be overcome
in a number of ways, such as pointing one’s camera out the window;
switching to a second camera on the roof; and playing video recordings
or showing photographs of local everyday life (accompanied by live commentary
perhaps).
In a videoconference interview—especially if the interviewee is
telling about a community and a tradition of which she is a member—it
is often a good idea for the interviewee to be accompanied by other members
of her community. Nothing creates a sense of place like a community of
people.
One never wants interviewees to feel that they are on exhibit, like animals
in a zoo, or objects in a museum. In tele-present interviews, as in physically-present
ones, interviewees should feel free to ask questions of their interviewers.
When people meet via videoconference, they sometimes feel that their distant
partners are a bit “off.” One factor that can cause this sense
of disjuncture is time delay. Often, it takes a half-second for one’s
sound-and-image to reach the other party, and then another half-second
for that party’s sound-and-image to reach one. Thus, one’s
distant partner may constantly be responding a second late. One way for
participants to get a clear sense of the time delay is: Someone at Site
A sings, and someone at Site B sings along. At Site B, the voices will
be synchronized; but at Site A, the voice from Site B will be coming a
half-second behind. Then, reverse roles.
Another frequent cause of disjuncture in videoconferences is lack of eye
contact. If one’s camera is above one’s screen, and one is
looking at one’s screen, one’s camera will produce an image
of one looking downward. Ways to counteract this include moving further
away from one’s screen and camera; placing one’s camera in
front of one’s screen; and looking directly into one’s camera.
When an interviewee is speaking, she needs to be speaking to someone.
Thus, it might be helpful for the interviewee to have a close-up one-on-one
visual relationship with a single interviewer. Other interviewers can
speak from off camera, or can temporarily, or subsequently, come into
the frame. Another way to indicate who the primary speaker and listener
are is for a feather, stick, or other object to be placed in front of
these individuals.
Full-body shots are valuable especially for the demonstration of gestures,
walking styles, and dance moves. For optimum flexibility of camera use,
the human body, and videoconference-room space, it is best to not have
any obstacles—such as large tables—in the center of the rooms.
Instead of having the camera constantly panning, tilting, and zooming,
it may at times work to keep the camera stationary, and have students
move into and out of the frame.
It is often helpful to let a videoconference interviewee know that one
has heard and absorbed what she has just said. One way to do this is to
repeat what was just said, and incorporate that into one’s next
question or comment. For example, “I hear you saying [such-and-such].
Is this always the case?”
In multi-party videoconferences, thought should be put into how the videoconference
windows will be configured on one’s own and on one’s distant
partners’ screens. Many videoconference systems enable the speaker’s
image to automatically appear full-screen for all of the other participants
to see—but this prevents participants from seeing how people at
the other sites are responding to the speaker. Another option is to divide
the screen into a grid of windows: in this case, one sees smaller images,
but the situation is stable and information-rich. Usually the screen configuration
can be changed in the course of a videoconference, so alternation between
options is possible.
To discuss the form and content of a videoconference, participants might
want to communicate before and/or after the event via e-mail and/or other
means. It may be helpful to put aspects of the meeting (including agenda
and schedule, and photos and other material submitted in advance) on a
shared Web site. |
Getting
Started: Resources
Free software such as Skype on a personal computer with a broadband Internet
connection can be used for surprisingly-good-quality videoconferencing
(some new laptops have a camera built-in, above the screen). For more
elaborate videoconferencing, specialized equipment is needed.
A growing number of individuals and institutions offer classroom experiences
via videoconference: see http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/directory.cfm
and http://tinyurl.com/4cj6t.
Internet2 (http://www.internet2.edu),
a new generation of the Internet, enables excellent-quality multi-party
videoconferencing. I2 is a university-based initiative: one of its most
exciting applications is in the K-12 field: see http://k20.internet2.edu
and http://k20.internet2.edu/getstarted/k-12.
The I2 Teaching and Learning Special Interest Group (http://www.internet2.edu/teach)
co-chairs are Jennifer Oxenford (jmacdoug@isc.upenn.edu)
and Marty Siegel (msiegel@indiana.edu).
Ms. Oxenford is assistant director of MAGPI, the Mid-Atlantic Gigapop
in Philadelphia for Internet2, at http://www.magpi.net,
a group that facilitates educational videoconferencing in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware. She is also a lead organizer of the annual
Megaconference Jr., a 12-hour marathon showcase videoconference which
is webcast live, consisting of many brief K-12-related videoconferences
(http://www.megaconferencejr.org).
This is a spin-off of the annual Megaconference (http://www.megaconference.org).
The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, advancing learning
through videoconferencing and other collaborative technologies,”
originally served Indiana, and now is national: http://www.cilc.org.
Minnesota is a hotspot for K-12 videoconferencing: see http://www.ties.k12.mn.us
and http://www.informns.k12.mn.us/MN_K-12_Internet2_Day.html.
One leading K-12 videoconference facilitator is Janine Lim (http://www.janinelim.com).
She teaches an online course about K-12
videoconferencing: “Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections”:
http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl/k2k.
Information about the annual K-12 “Holiday Traditions” I2
videoconference is available at http://www.cermusa.francis.edu/holidaycon.
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