To be honest – it took us a while to figure that one out! The obstacles: 

• Breakout rooms are only accessible when presentation tools are available only to instructors.
  This needs to be specified in the classroom settings before you enter the classroom.
• It does make a difference which browser you use
  Only a specific Firefox version (3.010) allowed me to see the breakot-room tab
• Not all Wimba classroom tools are available in a Breakout room
  Presentation tools are only available to the instructor, but participants can use the whiteborad, chat and web.
• Breakout rooms can be quite confusing, especially when you are new to the tool. I would recommend this as a feature for more advanced users.

So how could Breakout rooms be helpful?

I can see them quite useful for small-group work and practice just like in a traditional classroom – for brainstorming, discussion or practice.

• Brainstorm
  Students can use the whiteboard for brainstorming and save the results as an image to share with the main room.
• Individual work
  Students or groups can be assigned individual tasks
• Sharing confidential experiences or private talk
• Scaffolding
  Group students to support each other or to provide tasks for different levels of learning
• Prepare for role-plays
  Role-plays are a great way to rehearse situations and gather experience. In a breakout room participants can prepare for the session.

 The facilitator can “visit” the virtual breakout rooms to check in on progress and can make announcements to all rooms, provide time checks and additional instructions.  At the end of a breakout, small groups return to the “main room” for a debrief.

Interesting links:

1. Best Practices for Delivering Virtual Classroom Training byRandah McKinnie, Sr. Product Manager, eLearning Solutions
   Comment: Although using a different classroom tool – this is very useful advice for delivery
2.  The use of virtual classroom software for flexible learning by Maneesh Mathur, Ian Reid
   Comment: A case study linking graduate attributes to Teaching and Learning arrangements in a virtual classroom.
3. Tips For Making Virtual Classroom Sessions More Interactive by Sue Waters, editor of the Edublogger

   Comment: Hands-on activities

We tried podcasting in wimba via blakcboard. That was surprisingly easy, and the quick tute from the T4L site was a great support.

What I learned:

1. Always always check your browser with wimba – at the moment it has to be a lower version than the one I routinely use (firefox 3.0.10).

2. Always run the wimba br0wser set up wizard.

3. Creating a podcast is not complicated  – most staff should be ble to do this.

4. Once you have created a podcast, wimba will make a voice board available so that students or course participants can respond to the initial podcast.

5. You can subscribe to the podcast and it will play in eg iTunes.

6. You can export the wimba podcast and it is sharable and portable – as an mp3 file you can add it to your  ipod or portable mp3 player.

So here are this session’s brainwaves:

Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts – e-learning too!

Content on its own is just a wobbly jelly (and we all know that those fish can be pretty deadly too).
Engaging e-learning needs more:

• a clear structure to help participants (and facilitators for that matter) find their way and please don’t forget the visual structure  (http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media21215.pdf)
• motivation and feedback to keep everyone going. Enthusiasm is one side to motivation, knowing the need or reason for doing something is the other side of motivation. A student’s goals need to be self-governed otherwise the motivation to take the steps to achieve those goals may be lacking. Constructive and timely feedback is important to encourage, enthuse and correct and helps to define goals.
• Interaction (communication)
  Communication and collaboration are keys to learning and tools and opportunities are plenty: asynchronous activities such as blogs, wikis, voice and discussion boards or synchronous activities with an online chat session or a virtual classroom or meeting. Take a look at our play with the voice board later on.
• Involvement (activities):
  E- teaching and learning is not as different from face-to-face teaching and learning as you might think. In his blog Engaging Interactions For eLearning B.J. Schone is discussing and demonstrating Ways to Keep Learners Awake and Intrigued  (http://www.engaginginteractions.com/)

Voice board and voice messages

Wimba Voice boards is similar to a discussion board allowing participants to record a message and listen to others’ messages. Excellent for small group work where the nuances of the human voice are critical elements like teaching pronunciation, rhythm, stress, and emphasis in a spoken language.

Voice boards are a great tool for disadvantaged learners with low levels of literacy or poor typing skills or learners who simply prefer an oral mode of communication. Course facilitators can post listening exercises and/or voice messages, explanations of complex ideas, highlighting of important ideas, or discuss upcoming assignments and assessments.

Robyn and I found the voice board pretty straightforward and easy to use. The intuitive interface and functionality resembling a simple e-mail program made first time use easy. No issues other than finding an audio file in suitable size on the fly .

Resources
A great resource you want to check out is Beyond Text: using your voice online (http://btresource.flexiblelearning.net.au/beyond_text_resources/bt/guides/voice_boards.htm)
Plenty of case studies in VET and Higher Education, guides for online voice tools situated in the context of new practices in Flexible Learning make this a great resource.

For more examples and to see how GippsTAFE uses the Wimba Voice Tools to enhance their text-based learning environment and address the range of staff, student and business issues presented see Case Study – Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE and the Wimba Voice Tools  (http://www.netspot.com.au/gtcasestudy/gippstage_01.htm)

Esther, as instructor,  talked to her PowerPoint slides (rehearsal for an upcoming conference). I was the student. My observations below.

You need to multi-task as the presenter over 3 different areas:

• concentrate on the content of your slides or shared desktop applications;
• concentrate on how the class is going – anyone with a hand up wanting to ask a question? What is being said in the chat? Are my students still there? Are they asleep, watching TV or surfing the Net for the tennis score?
• Concentrate on the technology – have  I shared my desktop so students can see it in a new resizable window so they don’t have to scroll up and down, over and back in a constrained frame inside of Wimba.

It is so easy to default to the transmission model using videoconferencing. Esther didn’t, but our session reminded me that with all that going on in the background, the least stress will come with only  concentrating on getting content across to students – but of course there is a tradeoff for this strategy.

Tips for keeping the class interactive:

• Really work out what you are aiming to do in the session;
• Plan for interaction – don’t leave it to chance;
• Spend some time at the start of the session familiarising students with the main functions of the tool;
• Just because you are doing synchronous video conferencing does not mean that your classroom is an interactive one (same as a lecture-based classroom – it can be a passive learning session for students, or more interactive).
• If you share video – check out the background – how does your messy office look? Is it okay?

And there’s more. . .

5 Wimba teaching tips

Very quick overview for students of some of the features