The following is a transcription of the audio portion of the video of Colleen Capper.
Colleen - The Wisconsin Idea goes two ways. One the course brings these ideas and learnings that we have here at the UW-Madison now to the rural areas and other sites of the state, but then students here and myself we benefit from the variety of experiences that the folks have out in the other parts of the state that can enrich our work here.
My name is Colleen Capper and I'm Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And I'm teaching the course Student Services and Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education. I'm teaching it over the Four Lakes Network. I purposely have picked this particular class to try the technology with because I've taught it a lot.
The important reasons that I'm using videoconferencing are - the first one is equity in access, is that I think students, particularly in the state of Wisconsin, no matter where they live, particularly out in the rural areas should be able to have access to high quality education and ideas that can come from a research university like the University of Wisconsin. And I believe that the students that we prepare who are going to be school administrators need to know more about technology in the schools. So it's a great opportunity for our students to learn about technology. Another reason is that I think I'm taking a risk in teaching the class in that it's something brand new and again I don't have a technology background myself, and so it's a risk for me for me to do this kind of work and I want to model for them the kind of risk taking I would like them to as school leaders, taking risks as school leaders and also supporting their teachers to take risks in their own teaching.
Voice over - A Four Lakes Training Workshop provided by ICS prior to Colleen's course, proved to be most helpful.
Colleen - Yes it was it was very helpful and answered all my questions. Very straightforward as far as exactly what we needed to know and be able to do in order to teach in this format. It was very hands-on. We had four different sites on the four lakes network that students were gathered at and so we got to experience what it was like to be a student the videoconferencing environment. And then we were also asked to design a little mini-lesson that we needed to teach to the other students in the class over the network. And so that variety of experiences and opportunities I felt really well prepared to be able to do this on my own this fall.
The biggest surprise for me that I found in the workshop that I took on doing this kind of teaching, is that the way I teach is very naturally suited to what's needed to be successful in this environment and I've always used lesson plans in the class and I've always chunked my lessons down into sections when I taught without videoconferencing. And I also have always emphasized student interaction and variety in teaching methods. And so because I did those things in the regular classroom, those are the same kinds of techniques and strategies that are successful in the videoconferencing classroom.
Students submit all their assignments to me over the email. They get their assignments off the Web, they post their assignments to the Web Board, and those have been very useful additions to the class. I use the document reader, I use Powerpoint with my laptop computer, we've used video clips, we've used the CD player. It's really served to build that community in the classroom I mean I believe in that very strongly that students need to feel comfortable with each other and build a classroom of learners.
Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The students are excited, so I feel that it has been very effective so far and I think it's just a better course.
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