Monthly Archives: November 2005

In Depth: Autopsy

Today I also have two classes participating in the pilot tests of COSI Columbus’ new program, In Depth: Autopsy. We’ve now done three pilot sesions of this new program. COSI has revamped their Forensic Autopsy Interview into a program with a live presentation of a taped autopsy. Students receive case materials, toxicology test results, and more. As part of the program students have to determine the cause of death.

For classes studying forensics, this program is as real life and detailed (graphic!) as it gets! I know with the previous forensic interviews, my teachers wanted to see more. Well this new program certainly shows more! Perfect for forensics classes. Distance learning coordinators with squeamish stomachs might want to leave the room, though!

ASK: Clever Beatrice

Today I’m bridging a set of ASK programs for TWICE with author Margaret Willey on her book Clever Beatrice, a fairy tale set in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan.

We have two of my local classes participating, Three Oaks Elementary and Hollywood Elementary, as well as several classes across Michigan and one from Texas.

Ms. Willey’s husband is French Canadian from Ottawa Canada, which explains her interest in the lumberjacks in both Michigan and Canada.

As usual, the students’ questions are very fun to hear, as well as the answers to them! Here is a sampling of the questions:

  • Do you think the giant will ever realize that Beatrice tricked him?
  • We noticed at the beginning of the story the giant is rich but he doesn’t seem to work very hard. Do you think it’s important to know how he got rich?
  • It didn’t seem like Mr. Giant had family with him. Why did he live alone?
  • Do you think Beatrice’s mother wanted her to go to the giant?
  • What will Beatrice do when she grows up?
  • How long did it take to get Clever Beatrice published?
  • Where do you sit or where you go to start writing a book?

ASK programs always amaze me. The quality of student’s questions is incredible. Clearly they have thought carefully about their reading. Ms. Willey commented that she appreciated the students’ questions too.

NASA Digital Learning Network

Today I finished up scheduling my first program this year with the NASA Digital Learning Network. I’m really impressed with the new system for scheduling programs with NASA Johnson Space Center and NASA Glenn Research Center. It was quick & easy and very efficient.

So if you haven’t scheduled anything with NASA yet this year, you should!!

Providing Content For Your Schools

If you’re an educational service agency supporting your schools’ use of distance learning, you should be providing content for your schools!

I’m always looking for good ideas for projects for my schools and there are two from Avon, Ohio that I’d like to try sometime with my local schools:

These projects are so simple, but are wonderful for getting teachers’ feet wet with a short curriculum event that takes advantage of multipoint capability.

Invasive Species in the US & UK

This morning Lakeshore High School is connected to Caereinion High School, Wales, United Kingdom. Students are again sharing facts about an invasive species in their area. The Lakeshore High School students are sharing their Zebra Mussels presentation again and the students at Caereinion High School are presenting the American grey squirrel, which is a threat to the survival of the native red squirrel.

The question and answer time was more informal and fun this time. The students very quickly wanted to ask questions about each other. Some of the questions included from the Lakeshore students included:

  • How many pounds are in a dollar?
  • How old are you?
  • Do you know how they make the red squirrel reserves so that the grey squirrel can’t live there?
  • How does the disease spread from squirrel to squirrel?
  • What time is it there?
  • What age can you drive there?
  • Has Harry Potter come out for you yet?

The Welsh kids asked questions as well:

  • Do you have black squirrels?
  • Do you have red squirrels?
  • Do you think you’ll have a resolution to the zebra mussel problem or will it get worse?

The classes enjoyed quite a bit of humor in the conversation back and forth. The teachers are hoping to do another connection again on another topic.

Invasive Species in the U.S.

This morning we have 5 schools around the east coast connecting to a Lakeshore High School advanced freshman biology class, which is hosting an event on Invasive Species.

We have three classes from Michigan, presenting the Zebra Mussels, the Emerald Ash Borer, and Purple Loosestrife; as well as a class from North Carolina presenting the Myocaster Coypus, a class from New Jersey presenting the Asian Longhorn Beetles, and a class from Pennsylvania presenting the Northern Snakehead Fish.

The classes are using a variety of presentation methods including PowerPoint slides, photos on document cameras, charts & graphs, objects and other visuals. One class used the news show format using different areas of the classroom for interviews. Each presentation includes the following information:

  • Where the species came from.
  • How & when it was introduced.
  • What effect it is having on the ecosystem (i.e. the disruption it’s causing).
  • Are there any natural controls on it?
  • How are we dealing with it, or are we letting nature take its course?
  • Ways to prevent new invasive species in your area.

After the presentations, Lakeshore High School students facilitated a discussion, rotating through the six schools and giving them a chance to ask questions.

This is the first multipoint project that I’ve been involved in planning that we taught the students to facilitate the multipoint. I’m pleased with the results and I hope to use this format for other high school level projects in the future.

10 Years for SBC Videoconferencing for Learning

I was on the SBC Videoconferencing for Learning website this morning, and noticed the date at the bottom of the page. “First posted in 1995.” Wow!! Did you realize this great resource is 10 years old? After all these years, I think it still is the best VC site for beginners! And if you’re not on the “ed1vidconf” or Collaboration Collage listserv – you’re missing out on great opportunities for videoconferencing!

Can Teachers Do This Alone?

This morning I gave a 5 minute overview of our distance learning programming to the curriculum directors from the 16 school districts in Berrien County. Then I stayed and listened to the rest of the meeting. It was a vivid reminder on the curriculum and assessment pressures on schools. Teachers have so many things to worry about these days! New 8th grade assessment, 300+ benchmarks for math teachers to cover, updates on professional development opportunities we offer to our districts, etc. etc.

There’s so much to think about… so much pressing in… so many things to do.

Yesterday I started reading Doug Johnson’s blog, a presenter I enjoy hearing at the annual MACUL conference. This question has simmered in my brain since. What drives your technology initiatives? He asks:

How much is it the technology department’s job to promote technology use? How much is the technology department’s job to support the technology initiatives of the pedagogical experts?

You can apply this question to videoconferencing as well. I talked to another colleague yesterday who expressed concern that someone always has to coordinate and drive the use of videoconferencing. “When will the teachers be able to do it on their own,” he wondered.

However, after hearing what our curriculum directors are dealing with, and in turn passing on to their teachers, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect teachers to do this on their own. I’m doing verification tests for Read Across America today too. Think of the work it takes to make a connection work.

  • You have to be trained on the equipment and able to troubleshoot.
  • You have to be able to navigate all the different ways to schedule and test with content providers. I did a test call yesterday that would have been quite confusing even for my building level distance learning coordinators, let alone a teacher on their own.
  • You have to understand the technology well enough to imagine the curriculum possibilities.
  • You also need a firm grounding in curriculum and pedagogy so you can imagine the curriculum possibilities!
  • If you want to use it a lot and creatively, you have to be able to keep up on all the creative ways other people are using VC. Reading and finding articles, paying attention to the listservs, etc. This activity informs your ability to imagine the curriculum possibilities.

I think that takes a coordinator at some level! Even if media specialists are responsible for all this, they seriously need support as well!

When you know the possibilities, you can dream up some really great VCs that tightly match the curriculum. Like the Invasive Species project I’m running next week for a biology class at Lakeshore High School [Feel free to copy this idea!]. Or the wild ideas I’m dreamed up with our fine arts consultant this morning for drama, theater, and dance classes.

It’s not just that the technology is still not as simple as a phone call. It’s also that teachers need assistance imagining how videoconferencing could enhance their curriculum and knowing who they could connect to!

So for now at least, distance learning coordinators at all levels are essential people!

Distance Learning Mixers

Linda McConville, E. P. Clarke Elementary, St. Joseph, emailed me this morning with a great question for her Voices of the Twin Cities project. “Do you know of any good distance learning or videoconference mixers?” Which reminded me of the training we did in early 2000 at the beginning of our distance learning training. Shirley Freed, Andrews University, did some of the training for us and I remember doing some creative things across a multipoint connection. Here’s what I found in my investigation.

Quick Introductions
Some of these would be really fun to do jumping between the two sites, each having two students share at a time.

  1. Participants give their name and a word to describe themselves, making an alliteration. e.g. Super Sally.
  2. Participants introduce someone else giving their name and something unique about that person.
  3. Participants give one-two word descriptions of what they expect from the class.
  4. Participants give one word explaining how they feel about the content or process or how they want to be remembered.
  5. You can increase the level of engagement for #4 and #5 by asking the participants to give the word in alphabetical order – fast! e.g. ambivalent, bogged-down, confused, dangerous, etc. And sometimes start at different places in the alphabet.

Here’s another list of introductions.
These might be longer and some are better for adults than fourth graders. But with a long partnership between classes such as this project requires, it might be worth having a few students share their answer to one of these questions for each connection.

  1. What is your favorite place in the whole world? Why?
  2. Where do you go to “re-energize” yourself? What makes it revitalizing?
  3. Think back to kindergarten. In what ways are you still the same? How have you changed?
  4. What is the story behind your name? How did you get your name? Have you ever had a nickname? What was it? Did you like it? What name would you have chosen?
  5. Have you ever been in danger? Did you know it at the time? How did you survive the situation?
  6. Think back to special celebrations in your early childhood. Which celebration is particularly memorable? What made it so special?
  7. Who is your all-time favorite teacher? Why?
  8. What was your favorite toy or activity as a kid?
  9. What is the most difficult thing you’ve ever done?
  10. What has been the proudest moment in your life? What lead up to that moment?
  11. Who is someone you trust? What did that person do to win your trust?
  12. What is your favorite holiday? Why?
  13. What are three of your all-time favorite songs? What makes those songs personally significant?
  14. What is the most frustrating experience that you have had with a computer? What is the best discovery you’ve made with a computer?
  15. Who is your favorite hero or heroine? What qualities do you admire in that person (or character)?
  16. What leader do you most admire? Why?
  17. What would you look for in a “best friend?”
  18. Who in history would you most like to meet? Why? What would you like to ask that person?
  19. If you could visit or live anywhere (besides here), where would it be? Why?
  20. If you could witness (or take part in) any event in history, what would it be? Why?
  21. If you could change one event in history, what would it be?
  22. Do you believe in “love at first sight?” What makes you believe or disbelieve?
  23. Can money buy success (or happiness)? Explain your rationale.
  24. What would you do with one hundred dollars?
  25. If you could go “back to the future,” where would you go? What time period would you choose? What social changes would you make?

Icebreakers for Teachers
Then I did a Google search for ideas. Icebreakers for Teachers has some great ideas. Here’s how a few could be adapted for videoconferencing between two classes.

  • The Venn Diagram idea could be done as a Venn diagram between the two classes. Only one of the classes would need a document camera to do this activity. Students from both sides could brainstorm what could go in the Venn diagram.
  • The Data Processing idea would be fun with most groups made up of local students, but one group has 5 students from each site & then the students work together over VC. I think it could be loud and noisy but would be fun to try and see if it worked. If you did it several times, the groups could be rotated so that each student got a chance to work with a group via VC.
  • The Who Am I would be fun with the other site helping the student figure out the name on their back. You’d need a really big sticky note. The challenge with this one is that some students would be watching. If you rotated students fast enough and only did it for 5 min. or less, they might find it interesting enough to watch. This one would need an experiment to see if it worked.

Post-It Note Answers
Another great idea comes from Carol Fleck and Kim Perry, two teachers team-teaching via videoconference in Ohio. Students can write answers to a question on Post-It notes and then everyone brings the answer up quickly to a paper with a grid under the document camera. Then both classes can see everyone’s answers very quickly and easily.

More Icebreakers
These ideas are from a training document [PDF] the University of Tasmania, Australia.

  • Knowing each other’’s names is the most common way of introducing a group of last. The first student says their own name, the next student repeats that name and adds their own and so on. While it may seem silly the benefits are that students do get to know a few names, they laugh, this breaks the ice and they are enabled to talk to each other when it matters later on. This would be good to do alternating between the two classes as well.
  • A more structured activity is to ask students to pair up and to interview each other for about 3 to 4 minutes and then swap. Suggest that they take notes. Each student introduces their partner to the group. Students can find this less intimidating than introducing themselves. Students would introduce their partner to the class at the other site.

As I’m writing this up, these would be great to use for Read Across America connections and other short term videoconference projects as well.

Teaching with Documents

This afternoon we have several teachers learning about using primary source documents in the classroom. Leann Potter, an archivist at NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration. She’s a great story teller and knows what items will pique our interest. She showed us the patent documents for the light bulb and telephone, the check that paid for the purchase of Alaska, rough drafts of presidential documents, and many other cool things that can really enhance historical studies.

This is a great PD session for all levels of social studies teachers. I highly recommend it!