Developing ITV Best Teaching Practices and Effective Professional Development Programs

Introduction

In 2002, Governor John Hoeven of North Dakota delegated the E-Rate federal funds to provide free T1 lines to all K-12 schools in order to operate the new H323 software system to improve the Interactive Video (ITV) System. In 2002, the Information Technology Department of North Dakota (ITD) provided video connections to 140 classrooms, with an additional 80 classrooms projected by mid-2003. From August 2009 to May 2010 school year, ITD provided video connections to 490 K-12 classrooms and connected 17316 video sessions. In less than 10 years, North Dakota has formed a daily integration and reliance on ITV for K-12 education. From August of 2009 to May 2010, there were over 17,000 K-12 ITV conferences scheduled in North Dakota.

Videoconferencing is not new to education and has been used since the early 1970s in various manners usually based on the current technology available. Through the years of use, a number of best practices have consistently arisen. “This can create a paradigm effect which may prevent people from seeing what is happening around them and from realizing the potential in a new application of technology. Jim Wetherbe, Bobby G. Stevenson Chair of Information Technology at Texas Tech noted, “The biggest obstacle to innovation is thinking it can be done with old way.” In Wetherbe’s words, “technique lags behind technology” (as cited in Twigg, 2001, p. 3)