Protection of our students is our number one concern when it comes to being visible on webcam in a virtual classroom. When students are visible in this way they are projecting to all the other home learning environments in which their classmates reside. This can be unsettling as we are concerned about who can view our students. If we had used simply a background this would have left it open for others in the home to be sitting near the student and view all the students in the classroom. If you think about it like a brick and mortar classroom, all visitors check in at the main office and announce themselves as to who they are and why they are there. It’s similar with the space. An adult who chooses to enter the space with their child is checked in as their learning coach and the classmates in the room know they are there to help their student.
Distraction in the home environment is a big driving force to want the student to be INSIDE a learning space and not simply have a background behind them. The SMART Space will eliminate as many distractions as possible, such as televisions that may be on, other siblings attending their classes, dogs running around, and any number of other thing naturally happening in home environments.
Without the protection of the sides it is still open to have people that are not enrolled in the class to walk into view of the webcam. These people not involved in UTVA or not in this particular class are not held to the same standards (ie: appropriate dress code) as the students and pose risk to the learning environment. It also is easily accessible for pets to enter the field of view and become a distraction. The four-sides keep what we want in the view of the webcam and what we don’t want (distractions and things that could possibly be inappropriate) out of it.