TRinE Story: Gallery Walk with Teachers
The telepresence robot was used in the context of a face-to-face event for teachers in an educational center in Steinheim an der Mur (Germany), organized by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The event was part of an 8-month training course to qualify for a new school subject. The training is implemented using the blended learning approach; the participants work through the contents in self-study via a learning platform and are supervised in terms of content and didactics. Among other things, tasks are assigned to teams (5 pers.) for the development of teaching sequences, which ensure the transfer to practice. The teams present their results during the course in the form of a gallery walk, receive feedback and then release the results for further use.
One of the participating teacher could not be present and was included via telepresence robot. She was able to follow the other teams, ask questions and present her team’s results. Other colleagues from her team had prepared a moderation wall with information about the process and the material used.
She reported her experience with the telepresence robot as follows:
“I found participation through the robot overall really rewarding. I felt like I was part of my group and was able to participate in all the activities. I was helped very quickly with small obstacles, such as stairs. The communication with my group worked wonderfully, I could understand everything (even if it was a bit more difficult to understand everything in individual moments with several people in the room, as all voices were almost equally loud) and I was also well understood. You almost get the impression of being there live and in color. Thank you very much for this great opportunity, without which I would not have been able to participate in this part of the training.”
“At the beginning it took some time getting used to having the telepresence robot in the group, but we quickly got used to it.”
“Since our colleague was able to look at the material independently by zooming in and participate by asking questions or making comments, she quickly became part of the group.”
“While she was making her presentation, eye contact with the participants was somewhat lacking, as she referred to the material on the moderation wall and aligned the telepresence robot accordingly.”
“The possibility to involve participants from other location, who can independently navigate and be involved in class, represents a new quality of integration.”
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