The Technology Source Archives - Using OfficeHoursLive to Enhance Collaboration and Interaction Opportunities for Technology Source Readers

November/December 2001 // Letters to the Editor

Using OfficeHoursLive to Enhance Collaboration and Interaction Opportunities for Technology Source Readers

Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/) as: John Walber and Jonathan Finkelstein "Using OfficeHoursLive to Enhance Collaboration and Interaction Opportunities for Technology Source Readers" The Technology Source, November/December 2001. Available online at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034. The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with Technology Source authors and readers to enhance dialogue on the challenges, issues, and solutions to using information technology tools in education. Our organization, LearningWeek Live (LWL), through its sponsor, HorizonLive, is the first live interactive Webcast to cover the people, technology and business of education. HorizonLive has been conducting interactive live Webcasts since 1998 and introduced OfficeHoursLive (OHL) in the fall of 2000.

OHL is a powerful, easy-to-use, Web-based virtual classroom that we developed with the help of professors and teaching assistants. OHL features enable instructors to speak and interact with students live online, using two-way Internet audio and text chat. Users can also show Web pages on-the-fly, import images, annotate graphics with a virtual whiteboard, and poll each other with yes/no voting. OHL works on any platform, and has very few technical requirements.

Beginning with the November/December issue of The Technology Source, each author has the use of an OHL "virtual office" where, during the eight weeks following publication, visitors will be able to meet and discuss the content of the article in real time. Please run the Wizard program prior to contacting the authors in their virtual offices. After you've run this program, review the author's scheduled hours in the "Current Webchat" box at the end of your selected article (for a list of office hours for all authors, see the schedule page). If the author is available at that moment, enter your name and then click on the "Chat" link, which will take you to the author's welcome page. After you click "Enter," you will go to the author's "Lobby"; from there you can enter the live office where you may interact and collaborate directly with the author and colleagues. The lobby also lists recordings of previous sessions. Once inside, you'll find that the archives are completely indexed and easily navigable.

We look forward to working with the authors and readers of The Technology Source to enhance online professional communication and collaboration.