Videoconference systems thrive at IU

Using the University's intricate two-way videoconference technology, IU students and faculty in all disciplines are being given opportunities to converse live with virtually anyone in the world. The system, which is still being developed, is currently used to save time and money, implement long-distance learning and explore new cultures. \n"We have built a very large network. There are about 60 conference rooms with two-way videoconference capability at IU and about 250 total at all eight of IU's campuses," said Steve Egyhazi, network operations manager for educational services. \nStudents and staff in various academic departments use the technology in a range of ways. For example, videoconferences provide continuing education to students who have full-time jobs and can't make it to campus but want to earn an IU graduate degree. Faculty teach these students through teleconferences in Bloomington and at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. Through the technology, they can receive their certification without stepping foot in a classroom, Egyhazi said.\nBut continuing education isn't the only way the University is using videoconferencing technology. \n"The import and export of faculty expertise is something we use all the time with this technology," he said. "In addition to continuing education, you will have professors at IU teaching something like Uzbek to people at other colleges (or) universities that don't offer those classes." \nProfessors also employ videoconferencing when conducting meetings with faculty and staff on other IU campuses. Having teleconferences with administrators in other locations cuts the cost and time of traveling immensely, Egyhazi said. \n"As a professor in the School of Informatics, it allowed us to have had joint-faculty meetings with IUPUI because the Bloomington and Indianapolis campus were the same school (of Informatics), just at different locations," said journalism professor Christine Ogan, who holds a joint appointment in the Informatics school. "If you have visual contact, it's better than just audio." \nThe hardware for each videoconferencing station ranges from $3,000 to $13,000. Once the equipment is installed, however, conferences are not expensive to conduct.\n"The cost isn't very great because we are running it using the Internet," said Bryan McCormick, associate professor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, who uses videoconferencing for one of the graduate classes he teaches. "By using the Internet, we can connect to pretty much anyone who has that capability." \nIU students have benefited from the technology by communicating with people from around the globe. Recently, students in journalism professor Steven Raymer's International Newsgathering Systems class conducted a teleconference with journalists in China and were given the opportunity to ask questions they might have otherwise never had the opportunity to ask. The issues discussed ranged from journalism to politics to Chinese pop culture. \n"(Videoconferencing) lets us communicate with almost anyone in the world who has a phone line and a good long-distance carrier," said junior Danny Fontaine-Goldblatt, who participated in the teleconference. "It makes the world a much smaller place"