March seems to be a testing period!… Not only for Canadian public servants, but also for me… although we are not going through the same kind of testing.
For them, it is SLE testing… So many people are tested this month! I think it is directly linked to the government’s end of fiscal year. I looks like they are trying to test as many people as possible before April the 1st, 2009. For me, it means many students to prepare: Luna in Montreal, Lauren in Edmonton, Cyndie and Susan in Ottawa… Dave finally took (for the second time) his written expression exam last week, after seven months of waiting (kind of unacceptable in my book!)… we are now waiting for his results. Alice will also be going back for her oral interview on March 25… Starting this week, I will start training with Nelson here in Ottawa: although he has quite some time before he will be required to pass his tests, he decided to start training early so that, whenever I will feel he is ready, he will ask for dates.
Besides PSC SLE tests, there are tests I have been doing on the two platforms I am using for my online training. On WiZiQ, I have the opportunity to log in at any time and play with all the functions to make sure everything works fine. I practiced twice with Phil in Australia and, although we still experienced an audio latency of 3.05 seconds the last time we met, our sessions went very well. Of course, we both have a top notch set up: highspeed Internet, reliable browsers and, most important, headsets!
The use of a headset in virtual conference rooms/classrooms is highly recommended to prevent feedback and/or an echo. Yet it seems most people still do no get it!… And I do not really see why. Personally I do not feel any discomfort wearing a headset… on the contrary, I think it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. Of course I bought a high quality product knowing I would have to wear this piece of equipment several hours daily. Therefore I see this expense as an investment… I can understand that some people do not want to spend money on a headset they will probably use only a few hours. Because of that, I do not insist… but the day I will have students having online training for a sustained period of time, I will certainly make the headset mandatory. Actually they have no clue of what is going on: I am the one with the problem… I can hear my own voice in an echo on their speakers! Louder the volume is, more annoying it is!…
Yesterday morning, I had a session with Luna in Montreal… it was the very first time we met in my virtual classroom, we used to meet on Skype. She had done everything that was needed to be done prior to our meeting… but I could hear myself speak as well as other noises around her. Lucy always wears a headset… then I asked her if her speakers were on, indeed they were! When she turned them off, she could not hear me any longer. Since we had only one hour together, we decided to live with it and fix the problem later… it appeared her headset had never been selected as the sound default device on her computer. She did what I told her to do and, tomorrow, everything should soar when we will meet again. New technology provides us with incredibly efficient tools, yet it is not exempted of sporadic bugs… and some of them are caused by us, not necessarily by the system.
Earlier today I had an assessment class on Adobe Connect Pro meeting, which is much more sophisticated than the platform I use on WiZiQ… It certainly looks better: black background, different layouts, many pods, etc. Yet I do prefer the other one because I have access to a larger whiteboard, I can show Word and PDF documents on it (not only PPT files), I can share my screen with my students (a must in my case), I have a library where all my files are saved (I do not have to upload them each time I get in the classroom, all I have to do is to select and retrieve them), session recordings are available for viewing one hour later and my students can download them on their PC if they wish to… Also, I can give full audio/video and writing control to my attendees. Bottom line, I can run a real interactive class on that platform.
This afternoon, I had four participants… I had made them “presenters” because I needed to have them speak in order to assess their level. Even on this sophisticated platform, audio was a real problem… a 2 minute latency with Romania… one minute latency with England… but everything was perfect on my end and there was no delay with either Toronto or the States. On March 29, I will start a series of weekly classes with these people and to make sure we will not get stuck one day, we added each other as Skype contacts. Just in case we would need to switch audio on Skype one of these days!… I am 99% sure that everyone had a headset except for one: each time he would turn his mic on I could hear my voice in an echo… speakers? Probably…
I have to admit it is a whole new world for me… full of potential for sure, but not perfect yet. It certainly needs my undivided attention… so many things are going on at the same time in a virtual classroom! I speak, I chat, I write on the board, I upload files, I transfer controls… I have to look at the chat room every 10 seconds or so to see if someone asked a question, I jolt notes on the session notes board, I upload documents so that the attendees can download them on their computers and print them… I am a teacher, but also a technician playing with lots of buttons and pods! Oh well… I am a fast learner and usually I am good at juggling with several things at the same time. It is only a matter of getting used to playing two roles… Honestly? I think I did pretty well today! I can only improve, right?
Tomorrow, back to reality… I have to prepare Luna, Cyndie and Lauren for their upcoming tests. I am confident that they will manage to get their required levels… I am 100% sure that both Luna and Cyndie will get their B in written expression. Lauren might not get her B because she had too little time to get prepared for her oral interview, yet all she needs to get further part-time training is an A… and she might surprise everyone by pulling out a B on the 18th! Then Susan will be next, on the very last day of March… this time she will get her B easily! Hopefully Dave’s results will be positive and Alice will get her C when she will go back for her oral interview. Both Luna and Cyndie, when finished with their reading comprehension and written expression tests, will still have to take the oral exam… If any of you ever wondered about Canadian public servants’ life, well… being tested in their second language is something that comes back every five years in the course of their careers… Unless they get an E (exemption) at some point, they are doomed to take tests after tests after tests after tests after tests…
“Je refuse de saboter les autres ou de me laisser saboter. Je soutiens les gens et je suis soutenu.”
Michèle Lemieux
Testing… dans tous les sens du mot!!!
March seems to be a testing period!… Not only for Canadian public servants, but also for me… although we are not going through the same kind of testing.
For them, it is SLE testing… So many people are tested this month! I think it is directly linked to the government’s end of fiscal year. I looks like they are trying to test as many people as possible before April the 1st, 2009. For me, it means many students to prepare: Luna in Montreal, Lauren in Edmonton, Cyndie and Susan in Ottawa… Dave finally took (for the second time) his written expression exam last week, after seven months of waiting (kind of unacceptable in my book!)… we are now waiting for his results. Alice will also be going back for her oral interview on March 25… Starting this week, I will start training with Nelson here in Ottawa: although he has quite some time before he will be required to pass his tests, he decided to start training early so that, whenever I will feel he is ready, he will ask for dates.
Besides PSC SLE tests, there are tests I have been doing on the two platforms I am using for my online training. On WiZiQ, I have the opportunity to log in at any time and play with all the functions to make sure everything works fine. I practiced twice with Phil in Australia and, although we still experienced an audio latency of 3.05 seconds the last time we met, our sessions went very well. Of course, we both have a top notch set up: highspeed Internet, reliable browsers and, most important, headsets!
The use of a headset in virtual conference rooms/classrooms is highly recommended to prevent feedback and/or an echo. Yet it seems most people still do no get it!… And I do not really see why. Personally I do not feel any discomfort wearing a headset… on the contrary, I think it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. Of course I bought a high quality product knowing I would have to wear this piece of equipment several hours daily. Therefore I see this expense as an investment… I can understand that some people do not want to spend money on a headset they will probably use only a few hours. Because of that, I do not insist… but the day I will have students having online training for a sustained period of time, I will certainly make the headset mandatory. Actually they have no clue of what is going on: I am the one with the problem… I can hear my own voice in an echo on their speakers! Louder the volume is, more annoying it is!…
Yesterday morning, I had a session with Luna in Montreal… it was the very first time we met in my virtual classroom, we used to meet on Skype. She had done everything that was needed to be done prior to our meeting… but I could hear myself speak as well as other noises around her. Lucy always wears a headset… then I asked her if her speakers were on, indeed they were! When she turned them off, she could not hear me any longer. Since we had only one hour together, we decided to live with it and fix the problem later… it appeared her headset had never been selected as the sound default device on her computer. She did what I told her to do and, tomorrow, everything should soar when we will meet again. New technology provides us with incredibly efficient tools, yet it is not exempted of sporadic bugs… and some of them are caused by us, not necessarily by the system.
Earlier today I had an assessment class on Adobe Connect Pro meeting, which is much more sophisticated than the platform I use on WiZiQ… It certainly looks better: black background, different layouts, many pods, etc. Yet I do prefer the other one because I have access to a larger whiteboard, I can show Word and PDF documents on it (not only PPT files), I can share my screen with my students (a must in my case), I have a library where all my files are saved (I do not have to upload them each time I get in the classroom, all I have to do is to select and retrieve them), session recordings are available for viewing one hour later and my students can download them on their PC if they wish to… Also, I can give full audio/video and writing control to my attendees. Bottom line, I can run a real interactive class on that platform.
This afternoon, I had four participants… I had made them “presenters” because I needed to have them speak in order to assess their level. Even on this sophisticated platform, audio was a real problem… a 2 minute latency with Romania… one minute latency with England… but everything was perfect on my end and there was no delay with either Toronto or the States. On March 29, I will start a series of weekly classes with these people and to make sure we will not get stuck one day, we added each other as Skype contacts. Just in case we would need to switch audio on Skype one of these days!… I am 99% sure that everyone had a headset except for one: each time he would turn his mic on I could hear my voice in an echo… speakers? Probably…
I have to admit it is a whole new world for me… full of potential for sure, but not perfect yet. It certainly needs my undivided attention… so many things are going on at the same time in a virtual classroom! I speak, I chat, I write on the board, I upload files, I transfer controls… I have to look at the chat room every 10 seconds or so to see if someone asked a question, I jolt notes on the session notes board, I upload documents so that the attendees can download them on their computers and print them… I am a teacher, but also a technician playing with lots of buttons and pods! Oh well… I am a fast learner and usually I am good at juggling with several things at the same time. It is only a matter of getting used to playing two roles… Honestly? I think I did pretty well today! I can only improve, right?
Tomorrow, back to reality… I have to prepare Luna, Cyndie and Lauren for their upcoming tests. I am confident that they will manage to get their required levels… I am 100% sure that both Luna and Cyndie will get their B in written expression. Lauren might not get her B because she had too little time to get prepared for her oral interview, yet all she needs to get further part-time training is an A… and she might surprise everyone by pulling out a B on the 18th! Then Susan will be next, on the very last day of March… this time she will get her B easily! Hopefully Dave’s results will be positive and Alice will get her C when she will go back for her oral interview. Both Luna and Cyndie, when finished with their reading comprehension and written expression tests, will still have to take the oral exam… If any of you ever wondered about Canadian public servants’ life, well… being tested in their second language is something that comes back every five years in the course of their careers… Unless they get an E (exemption) at some point, they are doomed to take tests after tests after tests after tests after tests…
“Je refuse de saboter les autres ou de me laisser saboter. Je soutiens les gens et je suis soutenu.”
Michèle Lemieux