A new report "Multimedia Communications Brokerage" has just been published by the Education and Training Technologies Unit of the UK government Department for Education and Employment. The report describes a project directed by Niki Davis the University of Exeter Prof. of Educational Telematics. The main purpose of the report is to provide information of value to any potential new provider of DeskTop Conferencing services. It covers the creation, organisation and management of the multimedia resources required to implement, support and deliver a such a service.
The report is based on six case studies created by the project: cell biology, Earth sciences, Internet education guide, CD-ROM evaluation, school-based student teacher training and psychometric testing and guidance for industry.
The online multimedia services were delivered mainly via ISDN. The participants also need to have a dedicated line for the duration of the call over which they can talk to each other, plus a second telephone line which enables computer screens to display the same graphics, data and text. The point-to-point communication required both participants to have a Fujitsu desktop conferencing card and software.
The project claims to have broken new ground through its use of a single delivery point to co-ordinate a wide range of educational and information resources for a broad customer base. It highlights that a particularly successful element of the project was the use of live desktop conferencing to create point-to-point teaching sessions linking individuals or small groups to a remote tutor. Other forms of interaction included consultancy, mentoring, testing and hands-on product evaluation.
Although not explicitly stated it appears that the method would be less successful with larger groups mainly due to the limitation of screen size for remote tutoring. However the report does make interesting reading and some of the techniques used for creating and storing images could prove to be very useful when applied with a rather more advanced technology configuration in the near future or in a more appropriate learning context.
To obtain the report:
Tel +44 1709 888688.
For further information contact:
Prof. Niki Davis, University of Exeter,
School of Education, Exeter EX1 2LU, UK.
Tel +44 1392 263263