Internet power and Such

I had the opportunity to participate in a live video conference with the Royal Tyrell Museum today along with my tech class. The museum is physically located in Drumheller, Alberta, which is a few hours from where we were. While the distance may have not been extreme, the technology can theoretically be used from anywhere in the world, and that's what makes it neat.

To show us the idea of their video-conference program, a lady showed us various dino-images and bones, even walking in front of what I presume was a green screen as pictures of the actual museum came up behind her, on a sort of virtual tour. She seemed to be able to see our class surprisingly well, and the audio was better than expected. We even partook in some interactive games which required her to put up animations on the screen, which was of course possible since our conference was possible through the use of a computer.

All in all it was a very cool technology and I hope I can have a chance to use this kind of a lesson at some point with my class. I think it's really cool that the kids get the perspective of an "expert" in their field, which keeps their attention much better than the regular old teacher rambling about it. The way she brought the museum to us was also way cool. with close up cams showing dino-bones in detail. It was a great experien