It sounds like a teacher's wistful daydream, but Dick Vogt made the dream come true, at least in one biology class he taught last fall. Vogt edited simple video lectures for his comparative physiology course and mounted them on the Web. The video streaming segments weren't Hollywood-scale productions, but they were a big hit with students.

"The students loved it; they could watch the lectures anytime they wanted and even watch them again if they didn't quite understand a concept," Vogt said.

Video streaming allows video segments to be downloaded from a Web site, a technology that was impractical only a few years ago because it requires substantial bandwidth. Now video streaming takes only the desire to get it done, Vogt said.

"I had been goading myself to at least start putting lesson plans on the Web and, in general, to use more technology in my instruction," he said. "There always are excuses and reasons why you can't do it. At a certain point, though, you just have to make up your mind that you're going to do it."

His mind made up, Vogt set up a digital video camera at his home, wrote out the script for each lecture, then taped himself writing the notes and sketching diagrams. He made two versions-one for students with slower dial-up modems and a higher resolution format for those with high-speed Internet connections.

"Obviously, this is taking a three-credit-hour course and, for practical purposes, turning it into the equivalent of a five-hour course in terms of student contact time. And there is more preparation time involved for the instructor," Vogt said. "but the payoff is worth it. The Web is not to be ignored."

Video streaming isn't the only way Vogt is using the Web for instruction. He encourages his students to do hypothesis testing online by conducting keyword searches on various scientific topics to see what has been electronically published.

"In thinking about some scientific issue, a student can develop a hypothesis that might very well be under investigation in a lab somewhere," Vogt said. "Quite often, a Web search can turn up pertinent research information. That's a simple thing, but it shows students how dynamic scientific research really is."

Vogt's video streaming lectures can be viewed at http://www.biol.sc.edu/~vogt/comp-phys.html.

New Media Group forms on Columbia campus

If you're interested in video streaming and other forms of "new media," you might want to join an informal gathering of Columbia campus faculty called the New Media Group.

The New Media Group includes faculty members from across campus.

"We're looking to get people from every college involved," said Stephen Bajjaly, an associate professor of library and information science.

The group has discussed instructional use of everything from DVD and CD-ROM to video streaming and synchronous multimedia interface language (SMILE).

"What excites me the most is that a group exists that's bringing together people from across campus," said Steve Adams, manager of visual media in Distance Education Instructional Support. "The most important thing we can do is communicate and share strategies."

For more information about the New Media Group, contact Bajjaly at 7-0446 or by e-mail: bajjaly@sc.edu.