Social and Economic Technology - 3.2. Description for the parent.
A Child in School using Secotek
The teacher will actually take "live" a class of up to say, 32 (or more) pupils, just like at present. As "Secotek" mimics the present class situation, it will be possible for some of those pupils to be attending the class at a distance using Secotek, and the rest to be physically with the teacher. As well as the straight forward classroom scenarios described below other more "conventional" distance learning techniques will be used as well, but this page concentrates on the direct lessons. The teacher is able to set up the various modes at will.
1. Formal teaching Mode.
In this mode, the teacher will be in direct control of what all pupils see and hear. This may be his/her own picture and voice, the desk space in front of him/her, a drawing tablet, pre-prepared material, or the "output channel" from any one pupil. The teacher may switch between these options as he/she speaks without interrupting the flow of the lesson. At all times the teacher can view a small live picture of each pupil, probably on a couple of dedicated screens at say, 16 images per screen. Any pupil may electronically "put their hand up" by pressing a key. The teacher may negatively acknowledge this, without interrupting the lesson at all, or positively acknowledge, probably by switching the whole class to the output channel of that pupil.
The "output channel" from each pupil may, normally, at the pupils discretion, be an image of him/her self, the desk space in front of him/her, a drawing tablet, or other material. However, in formal lessons, the teacher has full control over which pupil's output channel he/she can see him/her self, and if and which output channel is put through to the rest of the class.
Therefore the teacher will probably have at least four displays. One to view the output channel from any one pupil, one to monitor what the rest of the class can see, and a couple more continuously giving a small live image of each pupil.
2. Group mode.
In this mode the teacher has divided the class into a number of work groups. The teacher may appoint a temporary "leader" for each group, who has essentially "teachers powers" over that group. (With control over, if that may be further moved around). Alternatively, the work group may be leaderless and informal. In that case the electronics decides which pupil's output is given to the rest of the group, ("given the floor") based on analyzing speech etc. from each pupil. The teacher may join and leave any group at will, and the "hand up" request facility for teacher's attention will still be active.
3. Informal mode.
In this mode the children are free to "chatter" amongst themselves, setting up and ending individual or group discussions in an ad hoc way. Most of the groups will not be "private" so other pupils may just listen in and contribute at will. Two or more pupils may click to make their communication "private", but the fact they have done this will not be hidden from the teacher, who may, at his/her discretion, not allow this. At any time the teacher may "force his way in" on any group or individual, but pupils may need to request entry if the individual has a private flag up. During the periods where individual work is being performed, it would be normal for pupils to leave themselves public, so any pupil who feels like it may just speak to them, and if two or more pupils click on the same pupil they just form a group. The essence is that informal contact is kept up even during individual work periods.
4. Group Communications.
Several mentions have been made in this section of more than two pupils being in contact with each other at once. When this happens, in a physically adjacent conversation, normally one person is talking, the rest are listening, or interrupting. The person talking is said to have the "floor". The subtle protocol by which the "floor" is handed around is detectable by electronics, without the electronics needing to understand the language. This information is used to put the correct pupil's output (sound and vision) to the group in question, without any overhead on the part of the individuals. The group will just be able to "chatter".
5. General.
The whole system will be designed to make the transformation away from physical proximity as unobtrusive as possible, and the control of the electronics will be ergonomically designed not to interfere with the flow of the lesson.