Television broadcasting. Телевизионное вещание. Учебное пособие

SPEAKING

1.Make the outline of the text "TELE AND WEB CONFERENCING " and retell it.

2.Prepare for the group discussion. Discuss the following statement: “To a large extent, teleconferencing etiquette is simply politeness – waiting your turn and treating everyone respectfully with patience and tact. But the technology and format of teleconferencing create the need for etiquette rules that go beyond what’s expected in a conversation between two or three people in the same room.”

1.What do you need to do to keep a teleconference on track?

2.How can some of the etiquette problems be headed off before the conference starts?

3.And what can you do during the conference, as a leader or a participant, to keep it civil and running smoothly?

Divide into two groups. Imagine that you have a business meeting through online teleconferencing. Discuss the agenda and do not forget about the teleconferencing etiquette. Use the following phrases:

Hello, this is...

The reason I’m calling is...

Is it convenient to you to...?

What’s your view?

Exactly.

I think so, too.

I see what you mean but I think there’s a problem.

I’m not so sure.

Perhaps we could offer incentives.

How about a special promotion?

That’s fine.

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ence. Telepresence succeeded in inviting businesses to take a fresh look at video conferencing. The immersive nature of the experience instantly placed Telepresence at the top end of the video conferencing pyramid. The video conferencing industry ever short on marketing innovation latched on to Telepresence as the word that saved them. Thus most video conferencing offering was rebadged as Telepresence. In fact, Cisco, which deserves credit for video conferencing comeback, is the worst abuser. Every video product it ships is Telepresence of some sort. As a result, not only there is lack of interoperability but have un-interoperable terminology.

Well, it is Half-time – for the video conferencing industry to borrow a phrase from a recent commercial from Clint Eastwood. Advent of new technologies, web cams and new players with fresh insights are changing the landscape.

Video conferencing allows you to do more from saying “I do” over video to ‘being there’ from anywhere. Video conferencing is no longer a dirty word. It is time to burnish the image. The industry has much to gain. It is time to democratize Telepresence by re-badging it as video conferencing. The term should be all encompassing – after all this is 2015. The technology of video conferencing has come a long way from its debut in 1964. Let us toast to video conferencing: Let the term be in vogue for the next 50 years – when the first video call from Mars makes it way to earth made possible by cloud services like Blue Jeans.

1.How does the term video conferencing differ from telepresence?

2.Why is the term video conferencing considered to be encompassing?

3.Who coined the term telepresence?

4.Who used video conferencing as a last resort?

5.Why was video conferencing perceived in a negative way?

PROBLEMS OF USING TELE-BRIDGES

IN THE MODERN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

The employment of new technologies is not an aim as it is but a means for achieving the goals. An institute of today, which is oriented not only on its niche in the domestic market but also on attracting new students from abroad, confronts the need of exporting education, which implies the need of employing distance education. This policy is being actively implemented in the Institute of Transport and Telecommunication (TTI). It is worth not-

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ing that academic mobility of students and teachers is one of the numerous purposes of the Bologna Process.

All this may serve evidence that one of the most promising instruments of distance education and interaction with branches should become lectures – telebridges offering real mode video-transmissions from the specialized rooms of the head department. This method is being successfully used in TTI by the teachers from Riga for the students from the Latgale Branch in Daugavpils. Such approach allows both minimization of expenses on business trips of the academic staffs and saving their time which might be efficiently used for their scientific and pedagogic qualification improvement.

But the author’s research has shown that in the process of holding telebridges, teachers and students encounter some significant problems. These problems can be conventionally classified as technical problems and problems connected with the human factor. To reveal the factors influencing the quality of telebridges most, the author has performed questioning of 18 students of the Latgale Branch (all full-time second year students of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Transport); there has also been performed questioning of the teachers experienced in the delivery of lectures – telebridges. It has been revealed that during such lectures there occur sometimes technical problems (failure of video-connection, worsening of the audio and video quality) but the main problem lies in the fact that some teachers are not prepared for delivering lectures of this kind. Obviously, such pedagogic practice requires high professional mastership and such skills as: pretty loud speech, distinct pronunciation, and good command of videocamera and map-computer display instead of a class board for presenting formula and schemes, good technique of presenting the lecture material, etc. As the teachers’ survey has shown, some of them experience psychological difficulties in working with the virtual audience. Thus, it seems vital to arrange special seminars for the teachers delivering video-lectures and to ask for the assistance of a professional psychologist.

Though, according to the author, the main cause of the telebridges low quality is the combination of the above methodics with the methodics of regular lectures for the students in Riga. What happens here is that the teacher is fully concentrated on the students sitting in front of him/ her and the students of the distant branch lack the lecturer’s feedback. The given

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problem can be solved only under the condition of delivering video-lectures to the students of the Branch only.

1.Why are new technologies so vital in education?

2.How have you understood the term “academic mobility”? Explain in your own words.

3.What do telebridges offer teachers and students?

4.According to the author of this article, what kind of problems do teachers and students encounter?

5.How can these problems be dealt with? Give your options.

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