I was approached by an
adjunct professor at Assumption College and asked to come speak to her graduate
students about technology and special education. I agreed to do this and asked her if I could
somehow do it as a live broadcast, so it would meet the requirements of my
assignment. She agreed, so I began looking for a possible broadcast
platform. I looked at Google Hangouts, UStream,
and Skype. Google Hangouts looked a
little too casual and more like a live social networking option. UStream, was
very complicated, and I did not feel like I could figure it out soon enough to
meet my deadlines. I’ve used Skype before, so I decided that even though I was
comfortable using Skype, I should probably try something new. I also asked the professor if the broadcast
could be done through the college’s Blackboard platform, but when she checked
with the tech department they said that they were not set up for that as of
yet. I ended up signing up for a 30-day
trial subscription to WizIQ.
WizIQ was very education
friendly and easy to use. It allowed me
to upload content and to share my desktop with viewers. It also had a recording capability, and I
could easily invite attendees. WizIQ
gave me a link that I shared on my blog, and I was able to invite students to
signup via email too.
After finding my platform, I
started preparing my content and presentation.
Since I was using a new broadcasting platform, I decided to go with a
tried and true presentation tool. I
created a PowerPoint and uploaded it to my WizIQ class. When I uploaded the PowerPoint,
I saw that WizIQ did not support some of my fonts and formats were not
supported. So I fixed up my formats and
fonts and deleted the first PowerPoint and re-uploaded the improved
version. Then on another test run I
discovered the links that I had put into my PowerPoint were not hot after being
uploaded, so I double-checked to make sure that the links had been truly
working in the original PowerPoint on my computer. The links in my original PowerPoint
were all fine, so I tried uploading the PowerPoint a third time, but the links
still did not work. I thought it was possible that they would work when the
class was launched and that maybe they just were not working during preview
mode. To verify whether this was true or
not, I created a “Test” class to be launched in 5 minutes, and uploaded the PowerPoint
there. A few minutes later in my “Test” class I could see that I was not going
to be able to use the links in my PowerPoint.
I immediately decided that I would use the screen sharing option for
accessing the links, and since I was running a test class with my friend on the
other end, I practice transitioning from the PowerPoint to screen sharing.
On the day of the class, I
arrived at Assumption College 2 ½ hours early so that I could help the
instructor set up her equipment for her class, and I could get comfortable down
the hall in a separate room. I wanted to
be present in the building in case something went wrong, because I still had a
responsibility to make sure that I met the objectives for the class I was asked
to speak with. I met the class, made
sure that they were receiving my broadcast, and then walked down to my little
room. The broadcast was scheduled for an
hour, but I was scheduled to talk with the class for 1 ½ hours. When the broadcast abruptly ended one hour
later, I scrambled back down the hall to be truly live for the last ½ hour with
the class.
The recording works, but the
first 3 minutes are scrambly while I get the class hooked up and then change my
location. I had 3 additional students
attend in addition the students who were in the class with their professor. If I did this again, I would definitely use
WizIQ, but I might want to charge for the classes or be working for someone who
would pay for the platform. The least
expensive subscription is $19.00 per month.
WizIQ can be integrated with Moodle, and another feature that I liked is
that you can give your learners the ability to download all of the content
associated with the broadcast class. WizIQ notifies anyone who signs up for the
class whenever the instructor adds content to the course. This means that an instructor could upload
reading material or a video to view in advance of the class in order to provoke
more focused discussions. The bad part
is that I did not know that these notifications were being sent until after I
uploaded and deleted my PowerPoint 3 times.
I hope that I do get the
opportunity to try this again. I could
see myself teaching courses in the future from my home in Montana, but only if
I could improve my delivery and increase discussion opportunities between
myself and the learners.
If you are interested in
viewing the WizIQ recording of my live broadcast you can access it through the
player, however you will have to sign in by providing an email address.
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