Recently I’ve read reports from Sonic Foundry about schools using glass whiteboards to make their lectures more personable. (See: San Diego State University’s New Learning Glass Studio Uses Mediasite by Sonic Foundry to Make Class Time More Engaging and New ‘Glass Chalkboard’ at University of Florida Creates More Engaging STEM Courses.) Here at Central New Mexico Community College we’re starting to use a similar technology in conjunction with Mediasite called CNM Glass.
CNM Glass is a technology customized by Media Production Services at the college. The glass allows instructors to face the students while writing on it, making it feel more engaging. The lectures, including the presenter and glass whiteboard plus supporting materials like PowerPoint slides, are recorded with Mediasite by Sonic Foundry for students to watch live or on-demand.
I just started using CNM Glass for my online criminal justice classes. CNM Glass lets me demonstrate steps, procedures, diagrams and formulas and provides students with an online library of videos they can go back and review anytime. For example, police investigations require diagrams of crime scenes. With CNM Glass, I’m able to make annotations on these diagrams on my “glass chalkboard.” Students can see my facial expressions and gestures while I’m writing, and the notes are flipped left to right to appear correctly to students watching via Mediasite.
Similarly, in my “Introduction to Corrections” course, students will learn how corrections departments participate in bill analysis for the legislative process. They will use the model to develop strategies for lobbying a mock bill. CNM Glass provides a beautiful venue for students to receive a virtual illustration of this complicated process.
We’re just beginning to use this technology, and I’m already receiving rave reviews from students. They immediately saw CNM Glass as a great way to create videos for online and blended classrooms, and as the school year progresses, my goal is to see greater retention of complicated processes in my classes.
Watch a few of my recent lectures using CNM Glass: Lecture 1 & Lecture 2