Monthly Archives: August 2006

Communications Research Centre

The last session I’m attending here at the Broadband Summer Institute in Canmore is by John Spence from the Communications Research Centre.

“Relationships are everything.” This technology is about “connecting brains to brains”. It’s not about the technology, it’s about the people you can connect to.

CRC’s role is research the future uses of this technology, forming communities, “connecting brains to brains.” To work with end users at all levels to determine requirements and the R&D agenda.

They do virtual classrooms with long units connecting 3-6 classrooms. Connecting groups across the sites, doing jigsaws across the sites.

It’s interesting that John said specifically that they aren’t a content provider. But they do arrange high level high quality experiences for students each year – international and within Canada.

John was behind the MusicGrid project. There’s a great article online on this project. They keep an online archive of their video music lessons as well. John imagines a digital music portfolio. In this example, teachers defined the research agenda. John works with the researchers and software developers to develop what the teachers need.

Next, John invited a teacher to come up and share about an environmental project. The students connected to experts via phone and videoconferencing. One of the culminating projects was a dramatic presentation of listening to what the beavers are saying about the environment, presented via videoconference.

John showed a video clip of programming from the Canadian Space Agency. High school students mentored middle school students in the videoconference with CSA. Then the students worked in small break out sessions facilitated by the high school sessions and connected back up with CSA to share what they learned. The facilitators “challenge the students to use their collective knowledge to equal the intelligence of the astronauts.”

In another video clip, students from various high schools from around Canada researched and presented what various faiths (Islam, Jewish, etc.) believe about stem cell research. As part of the connection the students were also connected to experts in the field.

Another video clip showed students learning how to play the violin – a small school 500 miles north of Montreal – mostly Inuit students who didn’t speak English or French. As the kids learned, 400 students in the auditorium in Montreal clapped for the students. How powerfully affirming and exciting for the students.

In another clip, the famous Canadian violinist Zukerman teaches a Russian student at the Manhattan School of Music.

Cool stuff. John had more video clips than time. What a treat!

Written Aug. 15. Just couldn’t get it to post online til now.

Royal Tyrrell Museum: Up Close & Palaeo

Still at the Broadband Summer Institute here in Canmore. Now I’m attending a session by Colin Regamey, their new Distance Learning Coordinator. 

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta is starting to offer videoconference programming this fall. They have just built a new Atco Tyrrell Learning Centre to support their education outreach programs.

All their programs are correlated to the Alberta Education curriculum. 

Some of their face to face programs include making molds, fossil casting, and digging to find fossils.

They started with pilot programming in 2002-2003. They presented from the ATCO office for this initial programming. Also they’ve piloted some programs this past spring since the new Learning Centre was built. The pilot sessions were the Up Close & Palaeo program. 

The programs include lots of interesting visuals: animations showing the process of fossilization, objects on the document camera, and other visuals.

They work really hard to make the program suit the teachers’ needs. Students submit questions in advance and teachers can request certain topics. 

The first program they are designing is for grade 4, Rockin’ Alberta Resources. The program covers geography, geology, and paleontology. The program will include pre and post materials, lessons, and resources. Included are also fun animated games, similar to those that Mote Marine Laboratory is doing.

New programs they will be adding soon are: 

PIQ: Test Your Palaeo Intelligence, a program to begin or end a classroom study on Palaeontology. The program will be K-12, with specific questions and topics included for each grade level. They are very committed to having their programming tailored to the teachers.

Dinosaurs in the Movies, a program focusing on the evolution of dinosaur science and movies for grades 3 through 12. 

The museum also sells resource books, videos, and other resources to assist teachers in their instruction. Some of the videos are the same ones that are played in the museum. Supplementary material is always good!

The programs are $125 each, and the Up Close and Palaeo program is $200 because it uses an expert from the museum. 

Programs will be available Tuesday to Friday at specific times, and the Up Close and Palaeo program will be available only on Wednesdays at 11:00. (They are on Mountain Time.)

It’s nice to see another content provider getting organized to offer programming for schools!

Global Leap with Mike Griffiths

This morning Mike Griffiths is presenting to the Broadband Summer Institute here in Canmore, Alberta.

MIke started by showing us where he lives using Google Earth. He does this often in his video links to help students understand the geography of the connection. Paul Hieronymous has been doing this too with Google Earth with his I Spy Geography program. It’s a really good model and important to help students gain geographical knowledge along with the content for the program.

Mike talked a lot about the teacher support necessary for successful and effective videoconferences. These are some of the needs he mentioned:

  • Someone to connect to for the first time
  • An automated test site
  • Someone to practice your lesson with
  • Someone to help find partners
  • Someone to help take an idea through to a successful project

Mike had some great stories and examples to share too. Lots of great international videoconference examples, and ideas on how to work around time zone issues etc. My favorite example was of two 1st grade classes, I think it was one in the UK and one in Switzerland. They had Santa Claus come in at one site and show a monkey. And then Santa was leaving to go visit the other school. In a few minutes Santa appeared at the other site with the same monkey. (Well actually they’d mailed it ahead of time.) The Santa in Switzerland looked a bit different and the kids commented on it. But the teacher explained how Santa must appear in the costume of each culture. What a fun experience that would be!

And finally…. Mike emphasized that “VC is not the purpose, but the means to achieve our outcomes.” It’s nice to try out a few, but to really make an impact, how does VC support your outcomes/curriculum.

“Bringing the world into the classroom changes the world.”  Videoconferencing gives us an “opportunity to change the world.” When kids talk to kids in other locations, they begin to understand and appreciate other cultures & points of view.

Thanks Mike for another great presentation!

 

VC in Alberta

I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at Alberta’s Broadband Summer Institute this summer. So after the first half day, here’s a report on videoconferencing in Alberta!

BBSI & VC in Alberta
The Broadband Summer Institute has been running for at least 5 years. In the past it has included Ontario teachers, but is now just for Alberta teachers. It’s a three day long conference on videoconferencing. This year 170 teachers are here to learn and share best practices in videoconferencing. The conference is partially funded by Alberta Education. You can visit the VCAlberta website to learn more about the amazing things happening in this province. By tomorrow, all the presentations from the today will be up online so you can watch them via web streaming, thanks to the University of Lethbridge. The whole conference will be archived online! What a treasure of resources that will be!

In the packet was included a thick booklet, Videoconferencing Research Community of Practice. This research is definitely a huge contribution to the videoconferencing community, and you should look at it if you haven’t already! Also see the other research publications they’ve posted online.

I’m really impressed with the level of support for VC at the provincial level. It reminds me of some of the states that have a statewide network. Not only do they have an MCU & VC support specialist, they also have a person focusing on research, another on PD, and they’ve just created a new position for VC projects. In addition, they’ve just recently given each jurisdiction $60,000 to put at least two units in their schools. So each jurisdiction in Alberta has at least 2 endpoints. Think of all the classes we could connect with!!

Some New VC Phrases
I picked up two fun new phrases from Dr. Bette Gray, Director, Stakeholder Technology Branch, Alberta Education.

“Experiencing packet loss”. Last night at dinner with the planning committee I couldn’t remember the name of a place I had done a videoconference with. Bette said that I was experiencing packet loss. Has that ever happened to you? Maybe time to reset the connection?! :>

“Windshield time.” You know this already, but maybe haven’t said it quite this way! Did you know that videoconferencing allows you to reduce windshield time when trying to attend meetings & PD? I wonder if windshield time means more in the winter when you are trying to keep the snow off your car so you can see where you’re going!

New Content Provider
Royal Tyrrell Museum is starting to offer videoconferencing programming this fall, with a program called “Up Close and Paleo.” I’m going to that breakout session tomorrow and will be able to report more. Always nice to learn about a new content provider!

August 2008 International Videoconference Conference
Alberta is hosting an international conference on videoconferencing in 2008. No official name yet, and I don’t know the dates yet, but will post them here when I find out. We’ll all want to mark our calendars for sure! In Banff, no less!! Can’t miss that!!

Alberta at the Smithsonian
We learned today about how Alberta was featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. As part of their booth, they videoconferenced back to Alberta for 10 sessions with Alberta kids. Very cool. Check out pictures and video clips on the Alberta at the Smithsonian blog.

Project Development
My session went very well too. Teachers here know enough about videoconferencing to get really excited when presented with some basic project templates. I gave them time to “pair-share” their ideas for projects and they had so many ideas it was hard to go to the next thing! That’s the excitement I love! The conference has a “project partners wall” where people are posting their ideas to find partners among conference attendees. Cool idea!

U2 Can VC
Finally, as a speaker thank you gift, I received a t-shirt that says “U2 Can VC”, which was even funnier because everyone was joking about VCing with U2 all afternoon.

These Albertans have it together! It was a very engaging interesting afternoon. Looking forward to more learning tomorrow!

Student Reflections on a VC

Here’s another great tidbit from the workshop last week, 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing.

This is from one of the group’s project presentation. As part of their project, they included how they would have students evaluate the videoconference and debrief afterwards. Here are the questions they’d ask their students:

  • What did you learn from the VC?
  • What did you learn from the VC that you couldn’t have done otherwise?
  • What did you like about the VC?

Three simple questions! Think how much you’d learn from their answers!

When Things Go Wrong

In the 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing workshop last week, my participants asked me to tell my stories of all the things that can go wrong with a videoconference.

I shared several stories, most of which I’ve written about before in Top Ten Reasons a VC Gets Cancelled.

Then we talked about what to do about it.

  • Have a backup plan. It’s always a good idea with any technology lesson plan to have a backup plan in case the technology (or electricity) fails! Have another lesson plan or simple activity students can do while they are waiting. Make a list of everything you know about where you are connecting. Brainstorm questions for the place you’re connecting to. Content activities. Puzzles. Etc.
  • Dressing up. If you’ve been partnered with me for Read Across America, you may have seen me in my Cat in the Hat outfit. I dress up every year so just in case the connection doesn’t work, the students have something interesting to see and they can share their presentation with me. Sure helps with some of the frustration.
  • Rescheduling. Sometimes rescheduling is all you can do. That in itself can be challenging. But this is a good reason to have the equipment in the building. Makes it easier to go back to class and continue on if things don’t work!

As we ended the discussion in the workshop, one of the participants reminded everyone of one of the optional articles for reading. It includes a checklist for videoconferencing that deals with this issue.

Turrell, G. “Good Practice in the Use of Video Conferencing.” ATHENA. May 7, 2004.

Do you have any creative ideas for what to do when things go wrong? Share them in comments!

MysteryQuest as VC PD

Today I had an “aha” moment in our 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing week long workshop. We did MysteryQuest Beaches this morning. And here I will quote reflection comments from two principals in my group.

Mystery Quest is a lot of fun. This would be a good ‘ice breaker’ event to use with staff new to vc. It could be done between buildings in a district or between RUS grant buildings in Berrien ISD. It teaches so many things to staff and is so interactive (plus a lot of fun!). There are so many ideas that you could jump off of this from to anywhere!

This was a fun day. There was not a lot that I could have my classrooms use because we are a k-2 building. I did think that I could use aspects of mystery quest as a professional development activity. This was also a day where a lot of planning took place between myself, another principal, and Janine for the next year. That is a great start for me.

It never occurred to me to use MysteryQuest Beaches as a PD for anything more than as PD to learn about MysteryQuests for teachers who plan to participate in a MQ. But both of these principals see this as a good intro to VC for teachers, even the K-2 principal who doesn’t see the MQ format working for K-2 (and I basically agree). This is really a new idea to me. I told them I was worried about the teachers being overwhelmed by it, but they thought it would really get them excited about videoconferencing and highly engaged in the process. Then in debebriefing you really can use this format with just about anything.

It’s likely that we’ll actually do this sometime during the school year. I’ll definitely write about how it goes…

The Polycoms are coming! The Polycoms are coming!

Installation of the 35 Polycom VSX 7000s for our USDA RUS DLT grant began yesterday.

This week I’m participating in an 8 site week-long workshop on videoconferencing: 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing. One of the teachers in the workshop I’m doing this week called her principal to see if she could sign up for a videoconference.

She came back from the phone call just thrilled beyond thrilled! Describing the “sleek” new equipment that arrived a few hours before and how great it looks! The excitement in my workshop is palpable as just about everyone participating is part of the grant and getting equipment in their building within the next two weeks, thanks to the efficiency of AVI Systems.

We are all jazzed!