A TEACHING TECHNOLOGY THAT’S EXPANDABLE — LITERALLY
— TO THE STARS
BY JERRY ROCHE
Imagine yourself sitting on a train with a mobile
telephone that can project the video portion of a
Web conference eight inches onto the seatback in
front of you. You can even see the small type on a
PowerPoint slide.
That may be what the future of Web conferencing
holds. Just eight years into the 21st century, the
world of computer technology has already far
surpassed what even the best 20th-century
science-fiction writers ever imagined.
Spurred onward and upward by the increasing scope
and utilitarianism of the Internet, Web conferencing
has the potential to downsize our home planet into a
small digital village with virtually limitless
boundaries — that one day may extend even to the
stars.
Frost & Sullivan, a leading industry analyst group,
has estimated that Web conferencing software and
services — including video, voice and data — will be
a $9 bil-lion industry by next year. That estimate
may be on the low side.
Web conferencing is already allowing more employees
to work and learn from home. A CEO of a large U.S.
corporation estimates that Web conferencing already
saves more than $40 million per year on travel and
accommodations alone.
Whether it’s joining an online training session,
initiating an online brainstorming session, or
reviewing a meeting, “distance” learning has never
been easier. As companies become even more dispersed
with outsourced partners, telecommuting employees
and networks of remote branch offices, Internet
conferences will further take the place of in-person
training sessions.
“Web conferencing is much more than ‘plumbing,’”
says A.G. Lambert, Saba’s vice president of product
marketing. “It’s not just the high-speed access,
it’s what’s enabled by the high-speed access.”
THE CURRENT PICTURE
Web conferencing has evolved considerably over the
past couple of years from a specialized application
to support a virtual classroom or online marketing,
to something that’s a “birthright application” and
an organizational way of working.
More than 80 vendors provide Web conferencing
software and many pricing options, including
pay-as-you-go, subscription-based services and even
a few free services. In the near future, as the
vendor marketplace shakes itself out, prices can
only go down.
Web conferencing is effective for sales training or
to make presentations to large, dispersed groups. It
also may offer Web based chat, tools that can
annotate presentations, streaming audio and video,
and other options. Other Web conferencing functions
include desktop sharing, document sharing and
electronic collaboration. The reality is that the
cost of doing business on a global scale requires an
affordable, reliable, innovative communication
technology that works on standard networks, yet has
the ability to reach out to anyone in the world.
One conferencing system, however, is not likely to
serve equally well for all training needs. For
instance, if the primary application is to introduce
new products and systems to the field, perhaps a
one-to many service is more appropriate. If the
important use is to maintain standards of practice
for educated professionals, then a multi-point
conferencing and collaboration environment might be
better.
“Among the issues that ought to be considered are
security and privacy, expandability and open versus
proprietary systems,” says Dr. Frank A. Greenagel,
managing director of Guided Learning Systems. “For
many organizations, those are not pressing issues,
but the use of Web conferencing and collaboration
systems is certain to grow, and some of the pain of
transitioning from an early conferencing system to a
more sophisticated one will be mitigated if these
issues are discussed at an early stage.”
But today, reliability and the affordability remain
problematic. Some feature-rich applications require
high-level processors and a broadband connection. In
the future, there is no doubt that such hardware and
connectivity will be more readily available at lower
prices.
AS A TEACHING TOOL
Brian Friedlander of the College of St. Elizabeth in
Morristown, N.J. is finding new ways to employ
limited Web conferencing in the classroom.
“With it, you can quickly assemble an adhoc video
conference to bring other experts into the
classroom,” notes Friedlander. “It can also enable
instructors to keep in touch and supervise students
in the field. But keeping the technology simple is
key, so instructors won’t need to use
IT staffers to put video conferences together.”
Yet, Web conferencing as a teaching tool is not a
panacea.
“It is a one-sided communication,” says Frank
Gartland, vice president of product and technology
for iLinc. “Virtual classrooms have to be more
collaborative. Somehow, every 10minutes, you need to
reach out through the Internet and engage the
individual student. You have to arm instructors with
multiple high-energy approaches. If a technique
works in a traditional classroom, it will work in a
virtual classroom—you just have to figure out how to
do it.”
Gartland contends that Web conferencing as a
teaching tool is a radically different experience
for the instructor.
“Companies radically underestimate what has to be
done to get a traditional classroom instructor to be
successful. Radio personalities know you can’t have
any dead air. Instructors have to be specifically
trained for the studio environment. They must know
how to use the technology.”
BETTER VIDEO
High-definition (HD) video is taking the television
world by storm. Better video will also increase the
popularity of Web conferencing.
“We’ve dramatically increased the quality of free
video over the Web,” says iLinc’s Gartland. “We’ve
done some mock-ups of increased clarity of image and
with the 16- by-9 image ratio onWeb conferencing
software. More bandwidth is becoming available every
day, and the technology to compress the data is
taking up less bandwidth. I’m eagerly awaiting the
day that high-definition video becomes available.”
Adds Philippe Schwartz, CEO of Oovoo: “Video today
is very good, even with a simple Webcam. But this
whole area is evolving toward more and better
quality. The hardware and Internet lines are getting
better, plus more high-quality video is being
integrated into laptops and personal computers.
There’s a very bright future for e-learning-enabled
communication.”
ADDING WEB 2.0
Combining Web conferencing with the advantages of
Web 2.0 systems is also on the near horizon.
“There’s an exciting convergence in some of the Web
2.0 applications with Web conferencing to enrich
knowledge within organizations,” says Saba’s
Lambert. “It is capable of becoming a way to connect
people — not just for Web conferencing — and to
build networks of knowledge and relationships.”
Not only is hosting Internet conferencing
application becoming less costly, but so also are
the cost of standard PC servers and widely available
high-speed Internet connectivity. Delivering
CPU-intensive applications such as high-quality
desktop sharing, multi-party voice and video
conferencing is already available to most every
organization, and at all levels. There has already
been a notable movement away from managed services
to self-hosted applications.
However, analysts believe that mid-market
organizations will not soon have the financial
wherewithal to purchase expensive boardroom video
conferencing systems. They still seek an affordable,
multipurpose solution that allows individuals
outside of their network to interact on a more
personal level, share PC desktop materials, and
efficiently conduct hands-on training. Another
possibility is archiving a Web conference, which is
not often done today. “You need both the real-time
connection and non-real-time connection,” Lambert
asserts. “By recording a Web conference, you also
have the ability to produce asynchronous
collaboration and to able to mark it up and reuse
parts of it. The future is a platform for building a
knowledge network and a community within an
organization.”
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
As in the example cited in the first paragraph of
this article, Web conferencing holds the promise of
becoming more mobile.
“More mobile platforms are getting stronger Internet
access — beyond phones, ultra-mobile PCs and other
mobile Internet devices,” says Oovoo’s Schwartz. “I
foresee a smaller version of what laptops are today,
which people will travel with. There is clear
indication from vendors even this year you will be
able to receive pretty amazing quality.”
iLinc’s Gartland concurs. “Web conferencing through
mobile devices is a possibility in the future.
Today, even iPhone screens aren’t big enough to make
it much more than a cool gimmick. But why couldn’t a
phone have the capability to project an image eight
inches away onto a wall? That’s exciting to me. So I
think mobile technology will be another explosion in
Web conferencing space. If that ever happens, people
will be able to learn anytime, anywhere.”
