Polytechnic and design, Vol. 4 No. 4, 2016.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.19279/TVZ.PD.2016-4-4-04
VIDEO CONFERENCE AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING STUDENT COLLABORATION
Petar Osterman
orcid.org/0000-0002-8602-2627
; Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Video conferencing has been present on software markets for decades. Yet, due to various technical and pedagogical restrictions, it has been relatively rarely used in online education. Following the advent of reliable and high-bandwidth internet protocol connectivity, as well as development of new videoconferencing system, potentials of synchronous computer supported collaborative learning through video conferencing have increased [1] [2].
In ancient Greece, those who weren’t interested to participate in public affairs were called “idiot”, so it may be said that there are a lot of idiots in a world today and the only one who can change things are educational institutions. By supporting synchronous collaborative learning, contemporary education has better chance to develop public citizen and not private individual or “idiot”. To facilitate such synchronous communication between students and teachers, not as a tool for teacher domination but as a tool for authentic education [3], this study looks into recent applications of the BigBlueButton (BBB) videoconferencing system integrated in open-source virtual learning environment, Moodle.
In the capacity of learning technologist, author of this paper has been involved in various aspects of this application from software development, through support to teachers and students, to pedagogy. The paper analyse the main motivators for the implementing synchronous computer supported collaborative learning at the University of Applied Sciences. It briefly introduces the main technical issues in the application of Moodle/BigBlueButton, and explores its pedagogical applications in providing a suitable online environment for democratic education and encouragement of students to become “critical agents who actively question and negotiate the relationships between theory and practice, critical analysis and common sense and learning and social change” [4].
Keywords
Videoconference; Moodle; BigBlueButton; Computer suported collaborative learning; Democratic education
Hrčak ID:
174820
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2016.
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