Today was the day. Today the RTI Community of Practice hosted a conference call--a presentation by Ed Shapiro, a professor from Lehigh University, who spoke about the evaluation of RTI. This worked out well for me as I received information in the presentation that will assist in directing my M.Ed. paper on RTI. At first I was rather dismayed that I had joined a Community of Practice that utilized such old technology to host distance presentations. I remember conference call-in methods in the 70's and 80's--before the internet. I decided to stick with this online community as I wanted to get the RTI information that this group might offer me--and I am so glad that I did.
Instructions and handouts. I joined the RTI Community of Practice through the TACommunities.org and promptly received an email thanking me for joining and an invitation to today's conference call presentation with instructions, phone number, and identification code. I visited the site today before the conference and found the PowerPoint presentation was available for download as well as a flier about the conference. I downloaded the presentation, printed off slide handouts, and familiarized myself with the topic prior to the conference. It was great! I loved the opportunity to prepare questions from the handouts before the conference started and to look over the content, too.
The method. I was a little nervous about calling into the conference--I don't trust technology to work flawlessly--but the fact that this was over the telephone and that previous conference information had been posted made me feel more secure that even with a phone failure I could still get the presentation information. Well, fortunately, everything worked perfectly. At 1:58pm, I dialed the number given in the email, dialed in the code and WaaLaaah! at 2:00pm (3:00pm EST) I was connected to the presentation. The Conference was interactive over the phone allowing participants to ask questions a various intervals. In fact, Dr. Shapiro said that he would respond to questions throughout the presentation as well as at the end. Several times Dr. Sharpiro stopped and asked if there were any questions--but there were none--until the presentation was finished and it was the Q&A time. Then, participants asked many questions and received answers--even some of the questions I was going to ask were addressed.
The moderator. The moderator, Sarah provided "housekeeping rules" and made requests for emails from the partiicpants for attendance purposes. In addition, the moderator advertised future conference calls in the same topic area to the participants--thus marketing additional conferencing opportunities. The moderator was very skilled in using the technology for this conference call method and helped to solve technical issues that did arise for some participants; asking the presenter to repeat the last slide notes, mute and unmute, press certain keys to reset the microphone, etc. There were a few unexpected interruptions, such as the ringing of phone of various participants in offices or background noise, voices from participant locations. This situation seemed to cause the presenter some discomfort--as he commented, "I sure hope that phone gets answered soon." The moderator took care of technical problems for the presenter as they arose, calmly, and clearly providing instruction to keep things moving.
Paying attention. Having preprinted my handouts from the RTI online community document area I was able to pay attention to the audio conference and easily take notes. Participants were easy to hear, and the moderator and the presenter were very clear. The only thing that was difficult was that the presenter referred to the slides by number--and the slides were not numbered.
Body language, no problem. There has been a great deal of talk in CI 5323 about the lack of body language in online learning and how that can adversely affect understanding. I didn't find that I missed seeing the presenter or the other participants at all. In fact, it seemed natural to listen to the presenter and participants on the phone without seeing anything additional to the handouts. I think in this case, having the handouts and a picture of the presenter as well as having information about the credentials of Dr. Shapiro was all that I really needed. My intent was to get the topic content--and the conference call method accomplished that for me.
Audience intent. It occurred to me that the reasons for participation dictate the expectations for the presented content and that the method of presentation doesn't really matter as much as the clarity of content and the acceptance of the context. I was a newbie to this type of conference--but most of the participants had attended many of the previous conference calls. I was surprised that I was so comfortable with this method of attending a conference; it was a little like listening to a radio program. In someways, there was less interaction during the conference as very few questions were asked--with most participants waiting until the presentation was finished to ask questions. I didn't interact except to make my presence know when asked.
Final thoughts. All in all, this was a very pleasant experience for me and I got very specific information that can be useful in guiding my M.Ed. paper on RTI. I fully intend to participate in the Webinar that was advertised during the conference. In addition, now that I have looked around the site and the RTI Community of Practice pages, I have found previous documents and presentations as well as conference discussion notes that are made available for each community event. There are links to many resources that provide a wealth of information and leads for research projects and papers that are specific to literature search topic.
I might use this conference call method for delivery of specific inservice type content--it provided an easy, low tech context for busy people (educators, principles) to connect with needed content pertinent to their field of practice using any type of phone from any location. I am not sure what type of software or service was used to serve the conference, but I will find out from the moderator so that I can check it out for my own future use.
One drawback to this method, and a significant one, is that although the handouts and discussion notes were available as online, downloadable documents, the actual conference presentation using the LIVE conference call method would not be accessible to all participants. For example, participants with sensory, auditory, or information processing disabilities might find the technology used would exclude them from receiving the conference content. I don't remember seeing anything in the advertising that addressed providing needed accommodations to participants with disabilities. If this conference were provided as live online video and audio with closed captioning, it would be much more accessible during and after the presentation. It seemed rather strange to me that a conference presentation that deals with a special education topic would be delivered by a method that overlooks access to all.
