TQ#6 cont'd.

One of the main necessities for educators is to be able to communicate and collaborate with other educators not only in their own schools or districts, but also with educators in other school districts throughout the state and country. With tools such as Elluminate, the cost of collaborating is essentially eliminated, we’re not tying up phone lines, and we’re not just making conference calls where we can’t see each other. One case study involving ElluminateLive! Involved the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU), the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and 12 school districts wanting to improve their abilities to share information and improve communication (http://www.elluminate.com/sales/pdfs/PDE_CCIU.pdf). Gail Kennedy, Supervisor of Education Technology at CCIU, was pleased that Elluminate supports the use of both Macs and PCs, PowerPoint Presentations, Whiteboard features, and application sharing, which are all important tools used in the classroom. Overall, this study indicates that the supports provided by Elluminate were helpful, ElluminateLive sessions saved them time and money and provided immediate face-to-face contact, and it sparked ideas for utilizing it in classrooms. ElluminateLive can also be used to reach students who are out of school for extended periods of time due to illnesses or other issues, and it can be used to communicate with other students throughout the country. For higher education students, Elluminate Live could create an endless list of opportunities for students to access classes that are not offered at their colleges.
Podcasting has benefits for both educators and students as well. The school at which I was employed last year used podcasting for its gifted students, where they would create weekly podcasts. Since I was not directly involved, I am not quite sure what they did with their podcasts, but I imagine they used them for communicating with other students in other school districts. So again, podcasting creates opportunities for students and educators to communicate easier with people who live throughout and the country and even the world in an instant. Students absolutely love working with technology, and they love having the opportunities to engage more frequently with different types of technology. It would be great, as in every other area of technology, if teachers were more comfortable using podcasts so that they feel comfortable guiding their students in how to effectively use it for educational purposes. How engaging it would be!