"At OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, we are just beginning to utilize our Internet access, recently completing a series of trainings to bring our staff up to speed. At each training, we demonstrated CU-SeeMe to give the trainees the "starry eyed" look of awe. Like the Exploratorium in San Francisco, we will be incorporating CU-SeeMe into Information Science exhibitry, allowing visitors to explore the forefront of Mac Internet-based videoconferencing.
We are exploring curriculum development at a local testbed elementary school to incorporate CU-SeeMe into a K-2 blended classroom to help teach technology, geography, socialization skills, and communication. We have already done modest test runs and have been very successful, enticing both students and parents to pursue the connectivity further. By using CU-SeeMe in the museum floor environment, as a staff training tool, and as an educational outreach device, we are (and I am) excited by its promise. So there ya go! Thanks for a very cool Internet tool!"
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"In August and September 1994, a Virtual Summer School (VSS) for Open University undergraduate course D309 Cognitive Psychology enabled students to attend an experimental version of summer school 'electronically', i.e. from their own homes using a computer and a modem. VSS students were able to participate in group discussions, run experiments, obtain one-to-one tuition, listen to lectures, ask questions, participate as subjects in experiments, conduct literature searches, browse original journal publications, work in project teams, undertake statistical analyses, prepare and submit nicely formatted individual or joint written work, prepare plenary session presentations, and even socialize and chit-chat, all without ever leaving their homes.
The term 'Virtual Summer School' was used to mean that the software packages supplied to students emulate many aspects of a residential summer school, but without requiring physical attendance. As with many other Open University activities, we feel that face-to-face tuition and peer group interaction would still be preferable if it could be achieved. However, there are sometimes circumstances which preclude physical attendance, so we want to provide the best possible alternative. Virtual Summer School was a first step in this direction. This year, it was only an experimental option for a dozen already-excused students, which gave us a low-risk entry in order to assess the viability of the approach.
Using an exciting technology from Cornell University called CU-SeeMe, students with ordinary Macs or Windows PCs (even over dial-up lines from home) were able to watch multiple participants around the world. Video transmission from slightly higher-spec Macs & PCs was used for several Virtual Summer School events, including a Virtual Guest Lecture by Donald A. Norman, formerly Professor of Psychology at the University of California at San Diego (founder of its Cognitive Science Programme), and now an Apple Fellow.
More information and screen snaps from our Virtual Summer School can be found on the Web at: http://hcrl.open.ac.uk/virtualsummer.html. In that article, we describe the technology involved, give illustrative examples, discuss our timetable, present results of an in-depth evaluation, and provide thoughts about the future."
"Although we are not 100% in operation yet (just received my QuickCam), we are working toward using CU-SeeMe in our telecommunicated space shuttle simulations. Basically, we involve schools in exchanging data during a simulated space shuttle mission. Some schools are shuttles, others mission control, the Mir space station, space station Alpha, ground tracking stations, ground science stations, etc.
In the process of these simulations, a great deal of information is exchanged and, more importantly, a great deal of learning takes place. Simulations make educational activities real, "hands-on," and exciting activities. Sharing them via telecommunications opens up the simulation to the thoughts and ideas of students worldwide and increases the realism of the simulation.
Another component of simulations via telecommunications is the simultaneous simulation in the classroom. Not only is the remote landing site sending information about weather conditions to the space shuttle mission control via telecommunications, but it is ACTUALLY monitoring the weather in the classroom. Perhaps the classroom has even been converted to a landing site headquarters complete with all the required equipment, assigned professional tasks, printouts of information, and all the trappings of a real alternate landing site. In another school a solar flare observatory has been established--complete with the required shortwave receivers and the knowledge to interpret data.
We've been exchanging photos by using unencoded GIFS via email, but we're gearing up to use CU-SeeMe to add a video component in our simulations. Most of the schools are elementary or middle schools, but we do get a few high schools and colleges. We're in the fifth year of running this program.
We envision "live" video from the space shuttle to mission control and video exchanges among participating schools. Most of the schools will be using SLIP connections and low end Macs, so we aren't looking for much speed and sound. Still, we expect CU-SeeMe to add additional realism to our educational simulations."
"I have been working collaboratively with Ed Bennett on telepresence installations since 1989. For our most recent piece, ORNITORRINCO IN EDEN, we used CU-SeeMe the first time in our telepresence installations, and it was absolutely great! I love CU-SeeMe and plan to continue to develop new art installations with it. A description follows:
In this telepresence installation, the mobile and wireless telerobot Ornitorrinco (Platypus, in Portuguese) in Chicago is controlled in real time by participants in Lexington and Seattle. The remote participants share the body of Ornitorrinco simultaneously. Via the Internet, they see the remote installation through Ornitorrinco's eye.
The participants control the telerobot simultaneously via a regular telephone link (three-way conference call) in real-time. Communication takes place not through verbal or oral exchange but through the rhythms that result from their engagement in a shared mediated experience.
Viewers and participants are invited to experience an invented remote space from a perspective other than their own. As the piece is experienced through the Internet, anybody in the world with Internet access can see it, dissolving gallery boundaries and making the work accessible to larger audiences.
"Ornitorrinco in Eden" was experienced on October 23, 1994, for approximately five hours. Viewers from several American cities and many countries (including Finland, Canada, Germany, and Ireland) came on-line and were able to see the remote installation in Chicago from the point of view of Ornitorrinco (as controlled by anonymous participants in Lexington and Seattle).'
Congratulations on this incredible software! "
Eduardo Kac Ed Bennett Assistant Professor of New Media Facilities Manager Department of Art Electonics and Kinetics 207 Fine Arts Bldg. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago College of Fine Arts 112 S. Michigan Ave. University of Kentucky Chicago, IL 60603 Lexington, KY 40506-0022 USA Phone: (606) 257-6055 Phone: (312) 345-3580 Email: ekac1@pop.uky.eduReturn to Beginning of this Document