Category Archives: Distance Learning
2011
Obama Orders Use of Video Conferencing to Promote Efficient Spending by Federal Government
Reducing business travel to save money has long been recognized as one of the major benefits of video conferencing. However, a November 9th executive order promoting efficient spending made it official when President Obama ordered the following: “…to ensure efficient travel spending, agencies are encouraged to devise strategic alternatives to Government travel, …such as teleconferencing and video conferencing.”
When it comes to video collaboration, the most commonly used measure for return on investment (ROI) is savings from reduced business travel. Companies around the world have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by offering employees alternatives to flying to meet with colleagues, partners, or clients face-to-face.
But reduced costs is just one of the benefits of reducing the need to travel for business.
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2011
Telepresence and Digital Signage Offer 21st Century Tools for Schools
Is telepresence technology at the leading edge of a fundamental change in how future generations of students will be educated – not just at the grade school level, but also in institutions of higher learning? As the world becomes more oriented towards visual representations of information, the chance for video conferencing and delivery systems to play a formative role in bringing a fresh perspective to learning looms large over the entire industry.
Students at Pymble Ladies College (PLC) offer an interesting example of how administrators and teachers alike are partnering with telepresence providers such as Cisco in order to create a blended curriculum that places a heavy emphasis on participatory, image-based learning. The PLC campus has embraced connectivity as part of an effort to engage children and teenagers (from kindergarten to grade 12) who have grown up in a world where mobile phones and internet messaging and browsing software allow for instant communications and easy access to information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pymble Ladies College has deployed an array of technologies – including Cisco MXE and Digital Signage – to enhance its telepresence strategy and create an environment where students feel comfortable interacting with digital video media.
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2011
New Solutions Extend Benefits of Video Conferencing to Educational Institutions
Adopting video conferencing technology in a classroom setting involves more than simply purchasing and installing cameras, displays, and codecs. Taking advantage of the benefits of video conferencing when it comes to teaching means choosing a solution that has been specifically designed to be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of modern educators, while still offering a simple interface, advanced customization features, and a variety of different deployment options.
A 2008 fire devastated the Main Building at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, TX. But the eschewing reconstruction gave administrators the opportunity to extensively integrate video conferencing and telepresence into the university’s technology infrastructure.
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2011
Video Conferencing In Academia Post Sparks Interesting Feedback and Discussion
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Last week’s blog post discussing the advantages of video conferencing in academia triggered a wave of response from this blog’s readership, particularly from members of the Video Conferencing Professionals LinkedIn group. Although the original post focused on areas where video conferencing has penetrated outside of the classroom setting, many of the comments tackled the distance learning concept and the effectiveness of using telepresence as a tool for engaging remote students.
2011
Moving Past Distance Learning – Video Conferencing in Academia
Video conferencing technology in the academic setting is often presented as a tool used by teachers to remotely connect with students. While it is true that the capacity for facilitating distance learning is one of the key advantages of video conferencing, telepresence also has many other benefits to offer learning institutions.
Research
Universities and colleges have always performed a crucial role in moving scientific and social development forward through a focus on research. Telepresence increasingly serves as a bridge between colleagues separated by geography who are working on the same project together, facilitating a level of communication and collaboration not possible over email or the telephone. This is especially important for researchers working at smaller schools where access to the same level of resources found at larger urban campuses is simply not available. Connecting rural academics with better-endowed institutions levels the playing field for researchers investigating areas of interest that are heavily dependent on specific equipment or subject matter experts.
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2011
Telepresence Technology Helps Rural Communities Retain Skilled Workers
It used to be that part of small town life meant watching some of the best and brightest members of your community leave for better employment and education opportunities in more populous cities. But now, thanks to the increased adoption of video conferencing technology, this particular trend might be on the verge of slowing down – or even reversing. In some communities, the advantages of video conferencing and advancements in technology has allowed for the creation of partnerships between universities and other educational institutions in order to provide high quality, professional-level classes. Such classes help professionals keep their careers on track without having to leave for the big city.
One such partnership has developed between the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Otero Junior College, which is located in La Junta, CO. The University of Colorado provides engineering and nursing courses via a telepresence link, which has had an important impact on the rural community’s ability to provide high level healthcare to its residents.
2011
Cisco Introduces 3 New Video Conferencing Products
One of Cisco’s goals for TelePresence in the video conferencing industry is to make it simpler and faster for companies and individuals alike to interact with video and make it an important part of their business operations. This includes improving the searchability of video content and making it easier to share within a business environment.
Cisco has recently announced a trio of new video conferencing products that together go a long way towards helping to ease video integration into corporate workflow. The first is the new Cisco TelePresence Content Server 5.0, which offers a host of improvements to traditional video conferencing. Most prominent is the ability to completely record all Cisco TelePresence video sessions and offer them as streaming content, which allows companies to improve the distribution of video, via intranet as well as through a corporate web presence. Cisco TelePresence Content Server 5.0 supports resolutions of up to 1080p at 30 frames per second, and is compatible with the Cisco Quad social software platform.
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2011
Red River, Relief Spark and KBZ Partner for New Orleans School Revitalization Project and TelePresence Distance Learning
New Orleans has seen more than its share of hardship over the past few years, with a number of disasters rocking the city and surrounding region economically, socially and environmentally. KBZ partner Red River elected to hold its 2011 National Sales Meeting in the Louisiana city, in part so that it could direct the energies of its staff in a positive direction and help give back to this community.
Red River, headquartered in Claremont, New Hampshire is an IT business with contracts to sell integrated solutions to the government, focusing on Help Desk, Integrated Services and Collaboration. The company has been repeatedly recognized by a wide number of publications and industry groups for the quality of its services and the strength of its growth.
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