Dakota State adds use of web cam to student teaching

Dakota State University once again is moving forward with technology concepts. This time the use of a web cam is helping professors and student teachers. Dakota State University assistant professor of education, Dr. Don Wiken, has received assistance from Vickie Venhuizen, elementary principal, and Martin Sieverding, technology coordinator for Menno Public Schools, in efforts to use a web cam for observations of a student teacher.

“The high speed Internet access provided to the schools by the state’s “Connecting the Schools Project” makes things like this possible,” said Sieverding. “The classroom no longer is limited to four walls.”

From his office at Dakota State, Wiken can supervise his student teacher, Mark Gemar in Menno, South Dakota. “This new technology allows for extra attention if needed,” said Gemar. “If I have a question over a lesion or a certain strategy that I want to use during a lesson, the web cam allows Dr. Wiken to view the lesson from his office. It also allows for instant visual, audio, or written feedback.”

“With the web cam I can see two-thirds of the students in the video triangle,” said Wiken. “There really isn’t any intrusion in the class, except a computer in the back of the room which everyone forgets about anyway.”

“This technology allows the university faculty member to observe the classroom without being physically present,” said Dr. Tom Hawley, Dean of the College of Education.

The idea to use the web cam came about because of the severe weather in the area this winter. Wiken must make five observations during the semester the student teacher teaches. Because of the snowfall, Wiken missed two scheduled observations. “We came about the idea by accident,” said Wiken. “Dr. Vicki Sterling and I were experimenting with the web cam and noticed we could see fairly clearly what was on the other side of the room.”

“The use of web cams has exciting potential for the supervision and mentoring of student teachers and first year teachers,” said Dr. Hawley. “This technology could save on travel time and expense while increasing the level of supervision.”

Just like any other new use of technology, there are a few minor setbacks. The audio of the web cam at times will break up. “We are experiencing some problems with the audio,” said Wiken. “We think it might be the speed of the computer we tried it on, so we are going to utilize a faster laptop.”

A faster computer was used recently and Wiken says it helped with some of the problems. “We were still having some difficulty with the sound breaking up, but the faster computer seems to have helped,” he said. “This seems to merit further testing and attempts to get faster computers that we can place in the classrooms. All in all the results were encouraging.”

Another problem Wiken says is the bandwidth, which determines how much data can be sent or received. “Only so much data will fit,” he said.

Despite the problems with the audio, Wiken and his colleagues believe that using the web cam for supervision of student teachers is a great benefit for all involved. “It’s not like watching T.V.,” said Wiken. “But it’s good enough to know what’s going on in the classroom.”

In the future, Wiken sees more uses for the web cam. He says a class session can be recorded and reused to show a class of education students what it is like to teach in a classroom or to be the student teacher. “A class of students can be watching a class of other students,” he said. “They can observe what’s happening and talk about it. That’s a real benefit.”

The use of the web cam for student teaching has drawn positive comments from all faculty involved. Dr. Hawley says to his knowledge no one else is in the country is doing this. “I believe that DSU is the first teacher education program in the country which is experimenting with this type of technology supervising student teachers,” he said.