In a remote area such as the Kimberley and in the current climate of cost cutting and travel restrictions we really do need to be thinking about how to best use this technology, which is available to us for free through the Blackboard Learning Management system provided by WestOne.
There are many free or low cost apps out there now that can be used for virtual meetings. However Blackboard Collaborate appears to be one of the best for emulating a face to face class room. You have the full range of class room tools and more available to you: Video so that participants can see each other and communicate; a chat box for text chat; a virtual whiteboard on which everyone can collaborate if you wish, or you can use to present PowerPoint presentations, or write up summaries or questions; a polling function to use during class; break out rooms that allow you to divide your group into subgroups for collaborative work and group discussion; file sharing and desktop sharing; the ability to upload images, videos and files for sharing and display; web touring that allows you to take your class on a tour of relevant internet sites; a quiz maker to test knowledge, and you can record your sessions to make them available to your students later.
KTI also has available another web conferencing program, called GoToMeeting. The Institute pays a substantial subscription for a limited number of licenses and to use it, you need to book (if you are interested leave a message here or contact Jill on jill.lyall@kti.wa.edu.au). This program does not have the classroom tools that Collaborate has, but it is a quick and easy way to share files and desktop, and the video runs very smoothly, bandwidth does not seem to affect it.
The Flexible Learning Framework's "Designing and Implementing e-Learning" tool has a page all about virtual classrooms - click here
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