Monthly Archives: April 2006

A VC Blogger from Australia

I am delighted to introduce to you another blog about videoconferencing! This one is from Carol Daunt, executive officer of the Australian based Learning Technologies User Group. Her videoconference blog is titled Videoconference Tips & Techniques. She also has another blog, Dial M for Learning, also worth a peek.

I'm sure we'll learn some new VC techniques from Carol. I look forward to learning about videoconferencing in Australia, and maybe even learning a few tricks for overcoming our 14 hour time difference (Australia EST and U.S. EST) for collaborative connections.

If you're coming to my workshop at NECC, you'll get to hear Carol talk about collaborative projects in Australia.

Welcome Carol, to the videoconference blog community!

NECC Early Bird Rates End April 28

Are you registered for NECC in San Diego this year? If not, hurry & register! Early bird rates end April 28!

I'll be presenting a few sessions & workshops and hope to see you there!

Workshop: Designing Quality Interactive Classroom Projects for Videoconferencing
Design your own IVC projects. Use formats for popular national projects or templates such as sharing a science experiment, solving a mystery, or exchanging information.
Tuesday, 7/4/2006 8:30am– 3:30pm
We'll be videoconferencing with Canada and Australia.

Showcase Session: Authors, Guest Speakers, and International Connections: Videoconferencing for Learning
(With Jim Wenzloff, Macomb ISD and Elaine Shuck, Polycom)
Imagine your students interviewing authors or guest speakers! Learn to plan your own special events. Discover the possibilities for international connections to classrooms and museums.
Wednesday, 7/5/2006 3:00pm– 3:30pm
We'll be videoconferencing with author Jim Stovall.

Concurrent Session: Designing Quality Interactive Classroom Projects for Videoconferencing
Design your own IVC projects. Use formats for popular national projects or templates such as sharing a science experiment, solving a mystery, or exchanging information.
Thursday, 7/6/2006 11:00am– 12:00pm
We'll be videoconferencing with the United Kingdom. (This is a much-shortened version of the workshop.)

Plants & Puppets

Can you identify a plant’s habitat? Students from North Elementary, Watervliet, are connected to the Center for Puppetry Arts for the Plants program.

Students are learning about plants and their various habitats. They learned about the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia arnoldii. It’s smell, that of rotten meat, can be detected a mile away. One student exclaimed, “Cool!”

After an introduction to the habitats, the students begin making a puppet. The presenter, Patty Petrey Dees, is very encouraging to the students and gives them clear instructions for making the puppet during the program.

Students learn about the different parts of the plant, identifying, labeling, and discussing the details of each plant part. The program also includes kinesthetic movement as students learn how the plants work. These activities help students stay focused for the length of the program.

Students also look at various foods and identify which part of the plant they are eating.

We really enjoy the programs from the Center for Puppetry Arts and this one was top notch like the others!

Lest We Forget: The Korean War

Today several of our local Korean War veterans took time out of their schedules to talk to our history students about their experiences. We also had a couple of classes participating from Pennsylvania and Texas. The veterans answered students questions, shared pictures, and showed various artifacts.

Mr. Gobert, one of the veterans, showed the standard sleeping bag to the students to help them understand the extreme cold conditions.

Here is a sampling of the questions the students asked:

  • What things would you like the American public to know about the Korean war that hasn’t been told or was misunderstood?
  • Why is it called the Forgotten War?
  • It is said that the US administration was unprepared for the Korean War. Do you agree and why or why not?
  • The Korean War was called a Police Action. How does that make you feel?
  • Had we lost the war, do you think communism would have spread through Asia?
  • Describe what military job you were trained for and whether or not you felt that your training was adequate for what you experienced in Korea?
  • How did your families react when they knew that you might not be coming back?
  • Were you able to communicate with your family?
  • What was the most difficult situation you were in and what was the outcome?
  • How has the service affected your life?

The veterans really appreciated the expressions of gratitude and respect from the students. They also appreciated the opportunity to share their stories. In the words of one veteran, "Thanks for letting us blow off steam." The students gained a deeper understanding of the sacrifices made for their freedom.

ASK: Night of the Twisters

Today I'm bridging three sessions of ASK: Night of the Twisters. Students are interviewing Mr. Ostuno, a NOAA meteorologist. This program is coordinated and funded by TWICE. Students read the book and followed the ASK process to prepare questions for the specialist. Here is a sampling of their questions:

  • What are some signs of a tornado starting?
  • How come certain kinds of weather happen in certain states?
  • What is the diameter of a regular tornado?
  • How can scientists know that there were 7 tornados in one day?
  • How do you decide if you should evacuate when a tornado is coming?
  • What is the best way to be safe during a tornado?
  • Would you want to get close to a tornado?
  • What is the difference between a tornado and a twister?

This specialist had nice concise answers, which allowed for many students to ask their questions during the program. We'll definitely be doing this program again!

Facilitating a Teacher-Generated Project

Lately I've been facilitating a few project connections between teachers. Here are some tips based on what I've learned.

It starts by one of my teachers generating an idea for a videoconference project. Then I submit the idea to various places: the Collaboration Collage listserv, the K12IVC listserv, and the CILC Collaboration Center. Lately I've been getting the fastest response from the K12IVC listserv.

After we get a response (or sort through a whole bunch of responses), I send an email to all the people involved: teachers, techs, media specialists, etc. on both ends of the project. Here's what I include:

Introductions
I give both teachers all the information I can find on each other. Sometimes I google to fill in the details. School name, city, state/province/country, phone number, email. This way they can talk to each other directly.

Dates
Then, since most of the connections currently go through me, I suggest some dates & times based on my knowledge of our teacher's request, their distance learning schedule, and my distance learning schedule. I try to include the information in both time zones (checking TimeandDate.com to make sure I'm right). That way we are all on the same page for the time.

Format
For my teachers new to videoconferencing, if they don't already have a suggested schedule or format, I suggest one for them. Here's an example of my wording. Feel free to copy & paste. 🙂

Here are some suggestions for format. Hopefully, teachers, this will give you an idea to work from and you can tweak it however you want.

Use the Read Across America Format:
5 min. Introductions (be sure to prepare a map for each other)
15 min. One class presents
15 min. The other class presents.
10 min. Ask each other questions.

Or some classes like to rotate:
5 min. Introductions (be sure to prepare a map for each other)
30 min. Classes rotate sharing something (poems, stories, choral reading, song).
One class shares one thing, then the next class shares, back & forth for the time.
10 min. Q&A.

Here's a lesson plan on preparing questions:
http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl/QsLessonPlan.htm
It's a good idea to plan questions for your partner class ahead of time. Or at least have the students think of categories – recess, school subjects, favorite activities, info about the local community, home countries, etc.

Action Items
Finally I end with a reminder of what to do next. Test calls, nailing the dates, teachers working out the details. These are all things that need to be done to get the connection scheduled.

After this, I make sure the test call happens, the teachers get in touch with each other, and the dates are set. After that I leave it to the teachers and enjoy watching the connection when it happens! 

Upcoming Registration Openings

There are three wildly popular content providers who are opening registration before August on a specific date. If you want to connect to one of these providers, plan to schedule soon!

  • The Columbus Zoo is my all time favorite zoo. This last year their programs were booked solid for the 2006-2007 school year by early September. Their registration for the 2006-2007 school year opens on June 1.
  • The Museum of Science and Industry offers the highly popular Live from the Heart program. Registration for the 2006-2007 school year opens on May 1.
  • COSI Columbus offers live open heart surgery and live knee surgery. Their registration opens on July 1, and last year they were booked solid for open heart surgery an hour after registration opened.

So plan ahead! (But don’t register before me! :>)

Cephalopods: The Jet Set

Did you know that squid have three hearts? This afternoon a class from Brandywine Middle School is connecting to the Alaska Sea Life Center for their Cephalopods program.

The lesson started with an overview of Alaska and the Sea Life Center. Then after some background information on squids & cephalopods, the students worked in groups to dissect squid (mailed to the teacher ahead of time). The presenter asks the students many questions to help them guess & understand what they were seeing on the squid as they dissected them. Some of the squid had ink in them and the students had a chance to use the ink to write. Pretty cool.

This is a great hands-on program. Our class thoroughly enjoyed the program and it brought resources & activities to our students that would have been difficult or impossible otherwise.

Note added later in the day: Here’s the evaluation comments from my teacher.

My sixth graders thought it was great.  It had the right balance of instruction and dissection time.  The students were allowed to ask questions as they went along, and they had the expert right there to answer their questions!  The material was presented in language right on their level, it was not above their understanding. It fit right into our curriculum, and was well worth the money spent to bring it here. (The squid were shipped in ice, and were not the smelly ones in preservative–that  was a plus for me-the teacher.)

Worldwide Folktalkes

This morning we’re starting a series of 6 connections with the University of Texas Institute for their Worldwide Forktales program.

The presenter is a professional storyteller and she tells the students stories. The teacher can request ahead of time certain stories or areas of the world to be featured during the program.

The students and distance learning coordinators alike were enthralled with the stories. This was a great program to listen to. Not so much interaction, but very interesting stories told by a great storyteller! She is very willing to tailor and adapt the program as requested by the teacher, even negotiating during the program.

More Notes on Posters

Posters in MysteryQuest continue to be a challenge. Here are some more examples that worked today for MysteryQuest USA. Notice how the most important information is the largest on the poster (as opposed to the title or subject of the poster).

Even though the camera isn't zoomed completely in on the poster, you can still read it.

Here's a poster that clearly didn't work. But notice how the poster is on an easel. This helps keep the poster still so the camera can focus and so a camera preset can be set for the posters.