>>back to main story
As a Digital Media Consultant in eMedia Services at University of Alaska Anchorage, Chris Sturm supports instructional technology tools for the classroom, like Elluminate Live! He’s worked with faculty in many disciplines who are implementing Elluminate for distance courses by providing workshops, supporting instructors during the sessions, and cultivating student networks of Elluminate users inside and outside of the classroom.
From Email and Internet to Elluminate
"A lot of people at UAA using Elluminate Live! are not established instructional technology users," Sturm explained. "While they use email and Internet, they are not the typical early technology adopters. It was surprising and amazing to see so many mainstream faculty members embrace the use of Elluminate Live! It has a wide appeal, and the tool can be used as needed to help communication, keep connected, and share resources."
"This speaks to both the need served by Elluminate Live! and the way its sophisticated tools are really easy to use," he added. "A single menu item contains what you need to do instructionally, so it’s conceptually easy to teach."
One Tool, Multiple Applications
"One instructor had two sections of the same class, one face to face, the other at a distance," said Sturm. "Using our uniquely configured computer lab, we brought both classes together via Elluminate to create a blended environment for discussion and presentation. The layers of conversation were much greater because we connected students from all over the state of Alaska with completely difference backgrounds. They wouldn’t have had this multi-regional collaboration opportunity without Elluminate."
"I also worked with a face-to-face instructor who had never done distance learning and had only used Blackboard to post resources for students," he continued. "The teacher had 1 student out of 45 who would be out for 6 weeks. The instructor learned how to use Elluminate to teach and record sessions for the student who was away. She liked it so much she continued to use Elluminate Live! for the rest of the semester to record the sessions for those who missed a class."
Highly Interactive Environment
"An education foundations course for aspiring teachers initially used Elluminate Live! for students to present autobiographies and for discussion," Sturm continued. "As the instuctor’s comfort with and knowledge of Elluminate grew, she began posting for the session on the whiteboard and solicited verbal responses. This eventually evolved to where she would also have students type their names on the whiteboard in different colors and comment on the topics with text. The whiteboard would fill before your eyes with student responses and the class would review and debrief on the responses afterward."
"The teacher also put the students into breakout rooms to drill down and look at specific case studies in relation to their own classroom work experiences," he concluded. "Back in the main room individual groups debriefed to the entire group and responded to questions and comments from their classmates. Over the course of the semester, this evolved into the students developing strategies of best practices on keeping children engaged. Educationally, Elluminate provides a highly interactive environment that goes beyond the lecture of covering material and in addition helps get student feedback and determine how deeply the material is understood."
>>back to main story
