Recently, at the CIC TechForum 2011 conference that took place Oct 11th and 12th at the University of Illinois, a group from Northwestern presented on the current state of Videoconferencing at Northwestern.
The CIC is the Committee on Institutional Cooperation which consists of the Big10 schools and the University of Chicago. The presentation from Northwestern consisted of myself (Manager of Video and Collaboration Services, NUIT A&RT), Mike Hannen (Director of IT, WCAS School of Education and Social Policy) and Frank Schleicher (Director of IT, Medicine and Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine). Each of our presentations demonstrated a wide array of collaboration going on at Northwestern.
Frank, using desktop videoconference technology to deliver his content remotely, presented from his office. He demonstrated how NUIT desktop videoconferencing enables them to bring technology into the operating rooms (at Northwestern Memorial Hospital) and provide real-time collaboration for teaching and learning and their plans to push this technology out to support tele-medecine; where doctor and patient interactions occur while the patients are at home.
I presented Northwestern’s past, present and future for collaboration surrounding the NUIT dekstop videoconference service while highlighting the Oncofertility Consortium’s iExperiment project which includes three universities (Oregon Health and Sciences University, University of California at San Diego and University of Pennsylvania) and other research institutions around the world in Brazil, Australia and Germany.
Mike Hannen presented his plans to support faculty in whichever technology solution fits their needs. By not committing to any specific technology he can create custom solutions for his faculty to enhance teaching and learning in SESP.
On Oct 19th and 20th, I delivered a slightly revised presentation (similar to the CIC TechForum) to a groups of peers at other universities visiting the Vidyo booth at the EDUCAUSE 2011 conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My presentation focused on how Northwestern University is Extending Educational Collaboration using Videoconferencing, specifically the impact of NUIT desktop videoconferencing across campus since the service was launched in April 2010. I didn’t win the raffle they had afterwards, but I don’t think I was eligible.
