Tips for Success
- Use t-shirts to promote the event. During the first event, we hung banners in the teleconferencing room and outside. These banners proved to be very distracting to the audience. A better idea was to have t-shirts for everyone who was presenting at the event. We gave them the t-shirts when they arrived and the speakers put them on over their clothes. We mailed t-shirts to each teleconferencing site, including Brazil, for the students and teacher to wear. To facilitate communication, large-print nametags were worn by everyone involved at the event.
- Have a host or moderator at each teleconferencing site who is esponsible for guiding the event. In GIS Live, the outside environment was included as a location and had its own host. All hosts had a loosely organized script which they followed throughout the day. Hosts were instructed on ways to best interact with the videoconferencing sites and the web audience. It was important that the hosts use wait-time and direct questions to different teleconferencing sites. For example, “NC A&T, do you have any questions for the speaker?”
- Use other volunteers to help with specific duties. In addition to the hosts, we used volunteers divided up into teams responsible for different groups during the day. The volunteer teams included those responsible for working with teachers and students, welcoming and registration, refreshments, photography, and answering technical questions. The GIS Live partners provided volunteers for the events.
- Be sure to include a technical volunteer team, in addition to the technician at the videoconferencing sites. Our technical volunteer team helped the speakers troubleshoot during the day and assisted them with computer-related problems. They made the speakers feel welcome and reviewed important reminders when communicating in a studio setting.
- Encourage groups to practice in advance. Teacher and student groups practiced their projects and presentations before the GIS Live event. Some of the groups came to the teleconferencing sites to practice and others practiced at their schools. Students usually created a general script and order of presentation. This improved the comfort level of the students when sharing their presentations during the live events.
- Let the host provide an orientation to the room for those participating in videoconferencing. In our events, instructions were given regarding how and where to speak depending on the placement of the microphones. The furniture in the rooms was arranged in discussion format with tables and chairs in a half circle facing the speaker and the camera. This avoided anyone looking at the back of someone else’s head or faces being blocked from the camera.
- Add tips for speakers to the website. The general guidelines were reviewed with each speaker before s/he presented by e-mail or phone. If the speaker was using a PowerPoint presentation, these were e-mailed ahead of time and loaded onto one computer at the teleconferencing site. PowerPoint presentations were checked and changed if necessary to ensure that they were in the correct format for webcasting.
- Use PowerPoint presentations sparingly. It is recommended that the use of PowerPoint presentations be discouraged because it was found that it did not facilitate interaction. When PowerPoint was used, it was usually only a part of the presentation. The better presentation style when using teleconferencing was a skit, play, or outside activity. Maps and pictures worked better under a document camera rather than on a PowerPoint slide. Placing focus questions or other information under the document camera proved to be an effective way, in general, for the host to communicate with the web audience. Make sure that the host has some blank paper and a marker for such communications.
- Have an audience at the teleconferencing site and encourage speakers to picture hundreds of people in an auditorium when looking at the camera. Seeing the speaker was very important when using telecommunications. Camera close-ups and eye contact helped focus the attention of the viewers. The speakers did not like seeing themselves on TV while they were presenting. However, the audience at the teleconferencing sites did enjoy seeing themselves on TV. Place the TVs so the audience can see themselves but the speaker cannot see him or herself.
- Remind the host to be inclusive of the participants and to think of both audiences at the same time. The host should try to referr to them by name. For example, “Susan from Oklahoma would like to know……..” or “We have questions from four states; let’s see what Kansas would like to know.” If a speaker was unable to answer all of the questions, he or she agreed to answer the questions later through e-mail and/or via the website. An effective way to communicate with the web audience was to use a website throughout the live event. It helped show the web audience where to find the schedule, how to access the site, and how to link to the live webcast.
References
American Forests. (2007). School Environmental Education Program. Retrieved on August 3, 2007 from www.americanforests.org
Hagevik, R. (1999). Mapping Our School Site (MOSS). Retrieved August 3, 2007 from www.ncsu.edu/scilink/studysite
Ilieva, J., Baron, S., & Healey, N. M. (2002, July 1). Online surveys in marketing research: pros and cons. International Journal of Market Research.
Spence, L., Stubbs, H. S., & Huber, R. A. (2000). TELEE. THE Journal, 28 (2), 25-30.
Stubbs, H., Devine, H., & Hagevik, R. (2002, July). Thinking Spatially: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Curricula K-16 and Professional Development for Educators. Paper presented at the 10th International Symposium, Sustainable Development in a Changing and Diverse World, IOSTE Conference, Iguasu Falls, Brazil.
Stubbs, H. S., DuBay, D. T., Anderson, N. D., Devine, H. A., & Hagevik, R. A. (1999, June 26 - July 2). Environmental science utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Paper presented at the Ninth International Symposium, Sustainable Development in a Changing and Diverse World, Duban, South Africa.
Swartz, R. (1996). Teaching science literacy and critical thinking skills through problem-based learning. In A. Costa & R. Liebermann (Eds.), Supporting the spirit of learning: When process is content (pp. 117-140). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
About the Authors
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Rita A. Hagevik is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Department of Theory & Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She received her Ph.D. in Science Education and Forestry from North Carolina State University. Her teaching and research focuses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related technologies, spatial cognition, visualization, and environmental science. Rita is the author of the GIS Live web site.
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Diana Hales is in charge of client services for the NC Center for Geographic Information Analysis and Julia Harrell is the GIS coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Information Technology Services and co-author of the GIS Live web site.
Please send correspondence to rhagevik@utk.edu.
