Laura (our company President) caught me while I was passing in the hallway not long ago and I have no idea how we got on this subject, but we started talking about theater and performance. I mentioned that I had done several musicals as a high school student and one thing led to another and the conversation ended by jokingly suggesting that we put on a company musical. No, we haven't discussed it since, but now that it's on the Internet we'll see if there are any YouTube videos in our near future.
Seriously though, in theater there's this notion of a fourth wall that is the front of the stage. The audience is stationed in their area where they observe and enjoy the performers stationed in their area. But during this time, there's no anticipated acknowledgement of the audience by the performers. There are times, however, that a performer will "break the fourth wall" and address the audience -sometimes even coming out into the audience to do so. The effect is a transformation in the audience's experience of the play going from passive observation to active participation.
Much has been written all over the Internet against the "sage on a stage" model of teaching (and if you haven't heard there are tons of opportunities for creating an engaged classroom with DyKnow Vision), but the wall I find interesting is the one created by Monitor. DyKnow's classroom management product has the word "Big Brother" thrown around to help describe its function. You as the teacher can impose limitations on websites and applications not to mention the thumbnail image of every student's computer in the class. You can even view the screen of any of your students in real time without the student knowing they're being monitored.
To me this is another fourth wall. For Monitor 5.3, the main push is for features that bust through that wall to take Monitor from a passive observation tool to a classroom participation tool. And I'm quite happy. It's my belief that classrooms need technology to be used to create connections more efficiently and abundantly, so why should classroom management tech not fit that as well. As I've mentioned before, we've been moving in that direction slowly with Remote Control and File Transfer. I've already mentioned that Screen Broadcaster is being added to Monitor as well for 5.3. But an interesting addition to the growing list of interactive features is Monitor Chat.
For me this is the big one. Chat's use has consistently surprised me on the Vision side, so I can only imagine the uses Monitor chat will get. But excited anticipation aside, I think this is important as it helps provide for the first time a feedback mechanism for educators using Monitor. Your students will be able to discretely ask questions or for assistance. They'll be able to strike up discussions with you or with their classmates (as in Vision, you'll have the ability to set chat to off, to you only, or to everyone). This is a different beast indeed, and I'm excited we're headed in that direction. So let me know your thoughts on including chat in Monitor. Is anyone planning on using it once 5.3 is released next year? How will this change the way you use Monitor?
Seriously though, in theater there's this notion of a fourth wall that is the front of the stage. The audience is stationed in their area where they observe and enjoy the performers stationed in their area. But during this time, there's no anticipated acknowledgement of the audience by the performers. There are times, however, that a performer will "break the fourth wall" and address the audience -sometimes even coming out into the audience to do so. The effect is a transformation in the audience's experience of the play going from passive observation to active participation.
Much has been written all over the Internet against the "sage on a stage" model of teaching (and if you haven't heard there are tons of opportunities for creating an engaged classroom with DyKnow Vision), but the wall I find interesting is the one created by Monitor. DyKnow's classroom management product has the word "Big Brother" thrown around to help describe its function. You as the teacher can impose limitations on websites and applications not to mention the thumbnail image of every student's computer in the class. You can even view the screen of any of your students in real time without the student knowing they're being monitored.
To me this is another fourth wall. For Monitor 5.3, the main push is for features that bust through that wall to take Monitor from a passive observation tool to a classroom participation tool. And I'm quite happy. It's my belief that classrooms need technology to be used to create connections more efficiently and abundantly, so why should classroom management tech not fit that as well. As I've mentioned before, we've been moving in that direction slowly with Remote Control and File Transfer. I've already mentioned that Screen Broadcaster is being added to Monitor as well for 5.3. But an interesting addition to the growing list of interactive features is Monitor Chat.
For me this is the big one. Chat's use has consistently surprised me on the Vision side, so I can only imagine the uses Monitor chat will get. But excited anticipation aside, I think this is important as it helps provide for the first time a feedback mechanism for educators using Monitor. Your students will be able to discretely ask questions or for assistance. They'll be able to strike up discussions with you or with their classmates (as in Vision, you'll have the ability to set chat to off, to you only, or to everyone). This is a different beast indeed, and I'm excited we're headed in that direction. So let me know your thoughts on including chat in Monitor. Is anyone planning on using it once 5.3 is released next year? How will this change the way you use Monitor?
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