On the ODU campus stands a building where most students participate in class although they have never physically been there or even seen the buliding. This is possible because of classes via the internet and satellite. These are called distance learning courses which are located in the Gornto Teletechnet Center. They allow students from all over the United States to participate in class through the internet stream or sattelite. Old Dominion University serves 4,000 students at 50 sites in Virginia, Arizona, Washington and Georgia, as well as Internet students and videostreamers from a variety of locations, and Navy personnel taking classes while deployed around the world (http://dl.odu.edu/locations/index.shtml).
ODU students who sign up for the course are in a room with numerous televisions surrounding them, available for all other students to see and the professor teaches in the same mannor. The innovative portion of the class is when students from all over the United States can actively participate and communicate with those in class by verbally voicing their comments and concerns through a microhone that sends the comments to the classroom. I have taken a great communications class called Persuasion with Dr. Joy Francis in the teletchnet building. I was very uneasy and the experience was weird at first, but later I began to realize how privileged and awsome the experience was. Communication and technologies are everchanging and ODU uses its knowledge and resources to stay in the forefront of the technological movement, and Gornto Teletechnet Building is an example of that. ODU is applauded for their dedication and motivation to stay moving forward with technology.
(Picture cited and taken from Google Images)
No comments:
Post a Comment