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Light Bridge employs videoconferencing to support pre-service teachers at distant sites. Student teachers and their mentors collaborate with university faculty via videoconferencing that includes video samples of teaching. We examined a range of equipment and software solutions and chose the Tandberg 880 system and codec for ease of set-up and use. The Tandberg system is H.323 compliant (videoconferencing over the Internet) and we have used it to conference with Polycom and other H.323 compliant systems. We have established a videoconferencing office for university faculty to confer with pre-service teachers and their mentors. We have also created a mobile videoconferencing unit for university faculty to use in their offices or classrooms. Finally, we have two portable units for deployment to remote sites where H.323 compliant equipment is not available. To date, Light Bridge has used videoconferencing with pre-service teachers with school placements in Mendocino, Marin, Lake, Napa, and Sonoma counties. Sonoma State University faculty and mentor teachers have supervised over 175 pre-service teachers via videoconferencing. In addition, Light Bridge collaborates with other California State University campuses to bring pre-service teachers together in technology rich environments. In 2004, pre-service teachers and faculty from SSU and CSU Chico participated with Sonoma County public school administrators in a two-hour videoconference focusing on job interview skills.
Light Bridge has developed a "user friendly" guide that will help students, mentors, and supervisors in their set up and conducting of videoconferences using the Tandberg 880 portable unit available at Sonoma State University.
For a more general overview of video conferencing, the most useful, comprehensive and concise resource for videoconferencing over the Internet is the ViDe Videoconferencing Cookbook (Version 3.0) offered by the Video Development Initiative.
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