Thu, 01 Oct 2009

Internet Learning

This week, I'm sitting at home taking a long-distance class over the Internet. I'm not in my pajamas, but I could be. The class is taught by an instructor and, like the people at the actual sites, I have to be in my seat for a specified period of time. But, when you stop to think about it, the technology is pretty amazing.

First, I'm on a laptop in my home which isn't connected to anything at least not with wires -- WiFi is providing the networking in the house. My home is connected to the Internet via fiber optics which provide a decent bandwidth for this effort. I suspect if your connection isn't all that fast, your experience could vary.

I'm connected into my office to work some on breaks and things. I can access all the functions on my work PC through Citrix technology. This keeps me connected to work in case they just can't get along without me. It also gives me access to all the tools on my work PC without taking up the memory of my home PC, which is running the class. (Don't worry, I'm not working while in class. I'm really concentrating on the class as it's important to what I do for a living.)

I'm listening to the class over my work cell phone. It's a long phone call, but the class does not provide voice over the computer. The instructor has a conference phone on the desk at the front. Having the earphones in my ears for 7 or so hours each day is a bit tiring, but the sound quality is great this way. I know I could use the speaker phone on my cell, but my family is here during the day and they really don't want to learn this stuff! I believe that the phone quality is definitely better than that over the computer. Although, over the weekend, we had a Skype session with Spain and the sound quality was great. As with anything, your mileage will vary. But, in general, the phone is probably more consistent than the computer sound.

Jumping in to ask questions is a bit less convenient than being in the room with the instructor. There are both people in the room with the instructor, people at remote sites and me at home. The people in the room are naturally, interacting with the instructor more freely than those of us at remote sites. They need to work on the interaction some, but, generally, it's acceptable and a definite advantage to be here at home and not have to travel, stay at hotels, eat at restaurants, etc. Also cheaper for the company that I work for, even though the cost of the class itself isn't discounted for remote students. The most costly part of my participation is probably the call and that's primarily because the training company uses a local phone number rather than a toll-free number.

The instructor's PowerPoint -- yes, it's a Microsoft class, so PowerPoint is appropriate -- is displayed via Microsoft Net Meeting. This gives very good quality to the remote user as long as the presenter uses the PC's mouse to indicate what they're talking about rather than pointing at the screen in the classroom or uses a laser pointer. We had some problems when he first started out because of the size of his screen, but, after adjusting that, it's actually easier than trying to see the presentation on a screen. I have also been successful getting screen prints and annotating them in One Note for future reference.

The Labs are done via MyPC connection to a workstation sitting in the classroom. The remote user's PC's are turned toward the instructor so he can assist with Labs. Pretty fancy and works well, except it's a bit small on my PC. The remote PC also has a webcam image of the instructor and the front of the room so you can see his smiling face. I like to put the Net Meeting page up and the myPC page in the little "preview box" in Vista. It actually shows the instructor running around the room and makes things more intimate.

I'm running Microsoft One Note on my PC to take notes about the class. This allows me to capture screens and put notes on the page with arrows and circles and a paragraph on the back . . . oops! wrong song. But, you get the idea.

But, it's amazing. Here I am, almost in my pajamas, taking a class with people in several other sites and just taking the technology for granted. (I won't even mention the amazement of Skype to relatives overseas!)

posted 16:32 [/Technology] permanent link