Cardinal Points

Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: News

"The cameras don't bother me. It is just difficult because I have to be a little more stationary then I like to be, where I normally would be more physically active around the class," Fitzpatrick said. "I don't know, sometimes, who to look at. There is one screen up there with the students from Glens Falls, and my students are right in front of me"

The difficulties expressed by Fitzpatrick are not problems within the program itself, but rather they require teachers, themselves, to adjust.

But do students on and off campus learn at the same pace?

"It's a little awkward sometimes because it might be one or two seconds delayed, and the people in the satellite branch, I notice, are not quite as alert as those in front of me," Fitzpatrick said.

She said she is able to focus more on what is taking place within the classroom because of the cameras and microphones, but those who do not have a teacher directly in front of them are clearly not as attentive.

"It takes a very motivated person to stay alert," Fitzpatrick said.

Heller-Ross said she feels video conferencing is "a wave of the future."

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