It’s not nearly as good as being there — Especially if I could have been in Sidney Sydney, Australia. But, lets face it. It’s a flat world. To export my services, I do not, necessarily, have to export myself.
So, after only two and a half hours of sleep last night, the alarm on my phone strummed a single guitar chord,
Waking me up,
To get dressed, and
Walk down to my office,
To deliver a presentation for a conference,
Clear Around the world,
Where it was 14:15.
We were using conferencing software from Adope called Connect Professional — which provided for video and audio from me, video from their side (which they were not using), and the ability to project PowerPoint slides and even my computer desktop.
I’m actually taking to this virtual teaching much better and much more easily than I had anticipated, as I’ve presented from my office several times. I find that using body language in front of an iSight camera is different from a stage, but it can be just as effective. The experience is far better, and, frankly, a whole lot more honest than the teleconferencing we use to do from the State Departments of Education back in 1991, when I was trying to be Peter Jennings. No way but failure there.
The technology, in my opinion and from my experience, is simply not there yet. We’d worked everything out, before I went to bed. I was logged in, my audio and video were going through just fine — if a little choppy. The slides were loaded and I had control over them. I was able to confidently slip off into a few hours of restful sleep.
When I re-entered my office, I found that the slides were not working. Alex Hayes, the Project Officer, worked on things, but they didn’t get better. With only minutes to go, I got bumped from the virtual room entirely, and couldn’t get back in. I was reminded of a nightmare I’d once had, where I stepped out of a presentation hall for a drink of water, just before the address was to begin, and on returning, I found that the doors were closed and locked.
 |
| Signs I was going to use with the camera |
I finally raised Alex on Skype, and after trying several things (now eight minutes into the presentation time), we decided to do the session with audio only, over skype, with Alex advancing the slides. It was a little clunky, and not the first time I’ve had to resort to Skype or iChat.
What’s put a spur under my skin, is that Alex said that the error messages I was getting indicated that there were bandwidth problems on my end. I was plugged directly into my Cable Modem, after midnight. Should have been pretty fast.
I do not know why I wasnot getting the bandwidth I needed. I do not understand the nuances of this stuff. But the question that this experience compells in me is — “How is my country going to work in an increasingly flattening world, with a telecommunications industry that seems satisfied with and forgiven for taking our money and then providing substandard service?”
I agree that the technology isn’t really ready yet, at least not with the inconsistency of broadband connections in the US. Adobe Connect works fine for small meetings; we use it with 4 people every week and it’s pretty reliable. Once you get more than 10 people though, connection problems are pretty much par for the course.
I’ve seen Adobe employees unable to get through an entire hour webinar with a solid connection before, which was fairly disheartening. I mean, if they can’t even make it work, how could any instructor in a classroom do so?
All you neighbourkids were probably downloading Prison Break 3
Dave,
If you’re using Skype, I think you would love Yugma. Here’s the post I did on it the other day. I love this service.
http://nlcommunities.com/communities/brianmullnl/archive/2007/09/14/143961.aspx
Should have told you, I did around 100 Adobe Connect sessions last year, and I found it to be a real bandwidth hog. Lost connections all the time. There are several subtle settings you need to make sure are set to have a really successful experience.
It’s strangely comforting to see that even the great one’s have technical difficulties from time to time.
Been there, done that:
http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2007/09/ss-open-pd-tanks-in-round-1.html
Darren
I have been so hit over the head by the magic of “the net” and web 2.0 , that it hasn’t ever occurred to me that I should advocate for more, and better, faster, and (probably) cheaper. I am personally appreciative. I am better connected socially than at any other time in my life. I share jokes with my sister, keep up with an elderly aunt, and ask volcanologists questions. Since I am interested in everything for about five minutes, there is no other way to engage socially at an information level without taking on more social baggage than I am equipped to maintain. Professionally, I simply consider this community the “Mother Lode”.
This summer, I took several grad courses. All were part of a greater total educational whole. I saved the best for last. In a new lab, with faulty air conditioning on the 5th floor in 92o heat, I was guided by Alice Barr and others to explore blogging, wikis, and my most favorite, Nings.
Now, it’s taken me a while, but such is the boomerang effect of blogging–how an idea, a mention, a toss off, becomes someone else’s action plan. The solution to reducing FFF (Fossil Fuel Footprint)is to require internet carriers to set and achieve goals to improve. If you get in your car and drive to an office to stare at a screen all day, your work can come to you. Many meetings are routinely set up and attended that could be handled via video conference if the components were more efficient and accessible.
I know people who work in virtual offices. It’s how to live where you want. It’s how to be a stay-at-home parent, it’s how to take maternity leave and not lose your place on the promotion track. But what if we shift that POV from “It’s good for me” to it’s good for the enviornment”?
How much would connectivity have to be improved to reduce the air traffic over Atlanta, eliminate three hour commutes in CA, or cut out the brown tones in the haze off the eastern seaboard? Is anyone crunching those coefficients? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hi Dave,
Wow! Cool blog… great sidebar! Also, I love the spam buster you use.
We’re running another LearnScope event next Friday and have Sue Waters and co joining us in Adobe Connect… I’m scared now!!!
Have started to follow you in Twitter as well.
Regards,
Alex M
Sidney ?
That should read ‘Sydney’
🙂
Thanks for coming in David….sleepless and all. Very much appreciated.
ps. connect learning is more readable…..did I just say that ?