This podcast covers the use of Adobe Connect as ‘Virtual Classrooms‘, the use of various Social Networking and collaboration tools, such as wiki’s, blog’s and Facebook to engage trainee’s in industry.

Linda also talks about the mutual benefits to TAFE and Industry and the importance of these tools for life-long learning.

You can visit the podcast site here.

Attended e-Learning Networks web conference about Virtual Classrooms, let me clarify; the virtual classroom is an online classroom using web software such as Adobe Connect or Elluminate. Sessions run in these applications have a URL (web address) and offer interactive tools such as polls, share document spaces, whiteboards, chat and much more. You can facilitate quite an interactive session using the software, which often includes the use of a web camera and headset for audio and vision.

I run frequent online sessions in Adobe Connect and have attended quite a few in Elluminate. I found this session very helpful, it was highly interactive and closely examined how much interaction to include on both your online sessions and your e-Learning material.

The session looked closely at the following points;

• Is learning better in a face-to-face or virtual classroom? What the evidence says.
• What are the important instructional elements of any learning event?
• How to engage learners productively in virtual classroom events with visuals and interactions.

Guest speaker Ruth Clark led discussion on the above points, which she expands upon in her recently published book;

The New Virtual Classroom: Evidence-based Guidelines for Synchronous e-Learning,
by Ruth Clark and Ann Kwinn.

This session was recorded, so stay tuned for the link, it’s worth having a look at.

Ruth focused on how to harness the power of a virtual classroom by looking at the techniques required (such as interactivity, instructional design, multimedia, use of graphics, etc), rather than the technologies (although there was a slight focus on Elluminate).

Link to view recorded Elluminate Session: (link coming soon)

Link to Ruth’s slides: (link coming soon)

Website: http://www.clarktraining.com (download book intro here)