Using video conferencing for international teaching: A case study linking the us to Central America

The use of technology in education has increased at an almost unbelievable pace in the last few years (Courville, 2011; Gray, Thomas & Lewis, 2010). In particular, there has been rapid growth in video conferencing for instruction. Face-to-face classes still continue to be the most common practice, however, new advances in video conferencing offer the opportunity to extend the classroom beyond local, state or even national borders (Lawson, Comber, Gage & Cullum-Hanshaw, 2010). This presentation will focus on a course that we offered via video conferencing linking an American university with five countries in Central America. Professor Donald Wise was the instructor. Otto Benavides in the California and Marie André Destarac in Guatemala provided all technical support and management. In this presenation, we will share details and some lessons learned from the course.