What kind of gathering is held in 23 locations, but everyone is at the same meeting?
The answer: A video conference.
About 214 people from across Alberta and one from Hawaii joined via the internet and a series of video conference sites, to learn and talk about the future of video conferencing recently.
The opportunities for video conferences, especially in rural areas, are huge, said Doug Griffith, a rural Alberta MLA who introduced the conference.
“It’s an opportunity to make rural Alberta grow and build,” Griffith told the groups watching the conference from schools, halls, government offices and their own computers.
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For rural Albertans who’ve traditionally had to travel hundreds of kilometres to larger centres for meetings and education, the video conferences offer an opportunity to join in without leaving home.
Dave Hinger with VC Alberta, a video conferencing website, said one of its goals is to provide educational opportunities for rural Albertans.
Through the site a social studies teacher from Hanna can talk and share resources with a social studies teacher in Brooks, or a student from a small school in Ryley can take classes from a school in Edson.
“We’re really about making connections,” said Hinger.
Gord Booth with the Grande Yellowhead Regional School Division in eastern Alberta said it has been using video conferencing at the division’s schools for about five years.
Originally the conference centres were set up for meetings, but slowly they evolved as teaching tools. This year the division hopes to deliver 40 courses from Grades 3 to 12 using video conference.
“It provides a levelling of opportunities between smaller schools and larger schools,” said Booth.
Most of the video conference courses tend to be optional, like music or a second language.
“We’re looking at enhancing opportunities, not competing with core courses,” said Booth.
Early indicators show students in a video conference environment tend to perform as well as students in more traditional settings, he said.
The school division has also been experimenting with using video conferences as a virtual field trip to botanical gardens in the United States, the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Alaska Sea Life Centre.
Video conferences have also been used to improve health-care services in rural areas. The links between hospitals and regional health boards have helped to link staff so administration can better co-ordinate services, while nurses can upgrade their qualifications without leaving town, said Anita Puddicombe of Westlock.
The biggest hurdle to increased video conferencing is poor internet connections. While most urban centres have high speed internet, many rural communities struggle to get connected and can’t take advantage of video conferencing opportunities.
“A lot of these sites still need to be able to have access to high speed,” she told the group.
Joe Moreau, president of AltaPacs, a Calgary-based company providing internet services for radiologists across the province, said its team of radiologists uses the internet to do diagnostic work for physicians in rural areas.
Their company collaborates with mobile MRI clinics to read reports and return an analysis in less than two hours.
“Diagnostic imaging has become more and more important to treat patients,” said Moreau. “We can provide better patient care for rural communities,” he said.
Jo-Anne Cooper, director of library services with the Camrose Public Library, said she came to the all-day workshop to learn more about video conferencing and how libraries can get involved in setting up video conference centres to help rural communities stay connected.
“The library is trying to be responsive to public demands and needs,” said Cooper.
It became clear during the day-long workshop that video conferencing technology and presentations are still in their infancy and need time before they are widely adopted.
On the television at the front of the coffee room was a talking head in the middle of the screen. Around the edges were camera shots of different video conference centres around the province of people watching the event, all too small to see people or events clearly.
Many of the producers planned their presentations complete with power point. The technology often didn’t co-operate and the people in the other locations couldn’t see the presentations.
David Samm, an agriculture consultant who watched the conference from Camrose, said more hurdles need to be overcome before it’s widely adopted.
“From what I see today, it’s all one-way,” said Samm, who is frustrated by the lack of interaction between sites and people.
Donna Phillips, who helped organize the Camrose conference, said large groups with plenty of video sites and little interaction between each site may not be the best way to showcase video conferences.
“As a demonstration of the wonders of the technology, I’m not sure about it,” said Phillips as she watched what was supposed to be a virtual carving of a pumpkin, but was a blank screen because the technology didn’t co-operate.
Samm said one of the benefits of the conference was connecting other people in the same room who have similar interests in the technology’s potential.
Warren Phillips, former superintendent with the Battle River School Division, is developing a trades training centre. He said video conferencing shines in teaching subjects like welding, where a camera can get close-up pictures and show details better than watching the event in person.
“Like most technology, it will take quite a while before it reaches its potential.”
