Monthly Archives: August 2010

Advertising Videoconferences to My Schools

In the last week or so, I’ve been working on switching my email list from a simple forwarding system to an email marketing service called MailChimp. So far, I’ve only been working on my local list so I can start sending my beginning of school-year email announcements. But I also plan to convert over my email lists for MysteryQuests, Lest We Forget, etc. This will make it easier for you to select which information/email ads you receive.

Why the Switch?

I’m switching two main reasons:

  1. Spam: Even in emailing my own teachers, I can get blacklisted for spam because it’s the same email going to multiple teachers in the same district. Mailchimp solves this problem.
  2. Targeting emails more specifically: with Mailchimp, my teachers can select their grade level(s) and subject area(s). This allows me to send 3rd grade information only to 3rd grade teachers, without a lot of extra work maintaining the list. Before Mailchimp, I had a K-5 list, a 6-8 list, and 9-12 list. When I told teachers about this possibility during workshops this summer, they were very happy!

Building the List

I know colleagues (maybe even you?) who can only email to tech directors, principals, and maybe media specialists/librarians. I’ve found people in these positions are often too busy to forward information to teachers. Ideally, you want to be able to get directly to the teachers, while still keeping tech directors, principals, and librarians in the loop if they so choose. My schools mostly have one of these scenarios:

  • A VC coordinator (teacher, media specialist, or media aide) who forwards my email ads to specific teachers or prints the info and takes it down to their classroom.
  • Most if not all of the teachers are on my email list as well as the VC coordinator. The tech director and principal only get involved if there is a problem or if money is needed.
  • A mix of the above.

My best results are from teachers who check their email often. Sometimes “deals” that I send fill up within a few hours of sending it out.

My list currently has 795 teachers! No wonder we’re doing 800-900 VCs a year! I have a lot of interested teachers!

Here’s how teachers get on my email list:

  • Every third year or so I send a paper sign up to principals and they fax it back.
  • I add teachers to my list when they sign up for a VC. (I have never had anyone complain about receiving info about VCs. They only want off the list when they retire.)
  • With Mailchimp, now they can sign up to get my email ads right from my website.

What Do I Send?

  • During September, I send ASK programs for the year, information about our mini-grants, featured content providers, and reminders of our preview calendar with all the projects and collaborations for the year.
  • After that, I send “deals” – i.e first 10 teachers to sign up for this program get it free; or free offers; or upcoming projects like Read Around the Planet. Mostly free things because by October, my mini-grant funding is usually used up.
  • I sent 74 ads last year from September 2009 to May 2010, which is about an average of 2 emails a week.

How Do You Promote VC?

What methods do you use to promote videoconferencing to your schools? Please comment and share! What works best?

Reflections on Desktop Videoconferencing

Last week I taught 3 sessions of Skype for the first time. I found it fascinating and want to share some of the comments and reactions from my teachers.

What I Covered

  • An intro to how Skype is used in the classroom: heavily dependent on pictures and videos from Silvia Tolisano. She seems to be the “queen” of Skype in the classroom as far as I can tell!
  • We installed Skype, added contacts, practiced chatting, calling, and sending video (by muting our speakers to avoid awful audio in the room). We set the privacy settings to school recommended settings: only receiving calls or chats from my contacts.
  • We connected to one or two people, depending on the length of the workshop.
  • We had a lot of discussion on best practices, classroom management, comparing to H323, etc.

Here are some of the areas we discussed and how the teachers reacted.

H.323 Standards Based Videoconferencing

Since almost everyone in my workshops were already familiar with and using their Polycom cart, they really wanted to compare! I thought I should try to teach Skype for Skype, but they asked too many questions!

  • I ended up adding slides to my workshop PPT to compare H323 based on these two comparisons: from March 2010 and July 2010.
  • We couldn’t talk about Skype without bringing in a conversation about H323 desktop videoconferencing. That is the “in between” solution that has the best of Skype and the best of H323.
  • My teachers don’t want to go to just Skype. They want H323 as well, preferably in their classroom.

Ideas for Using Skype

I found it very interesting to hear what teachers wanted to do with Skype:

  1. First and foremost: they want to connect to family. One participant last week added her college age son to her Skype contact list and before the workshop was over she was talking to him at college!
  2. A journalism teacher wants to use Skype for students to interview sources for their articles. The students would do individual Skype calls. We discussed using use science fair poster boards to reduce sound challenges having more than one skype call in the classroom at the same time. She also wants to be able to record the interview for evaluation/grading. There are a lot of tools for recording – but I don’t yet know which is the best. Do you have an opinion? Please comment!
  3. Using the conference call feature (voice only) to do grade level meetings across the district.
  4. Middle school scientific data collection to increase test validity (better quality data).

Teachers Want Support

While I’ve heard edtech types say “Skype is easy; teachers can do it on their own”; that is not the feedback I received last week.

  • Teachers want a “21st century learning facilitator” like Silvia Tolisano is for her school.
  • Teachers don’t feel comfortable with the challenge of finding a partner class on their own or building their personal learning network (like Silvia has 200 people on her Skype contact list). They want help with this!
  • One teacher, with a fairly high level of ed tech skill, confided that he found it very difficult and discouraging trying to find a partner class for a Skype project. He had tried for a full school year with no success.
  • When they thought about registering for CAPspace or Silvia’s Around the World site,  they didn’t want to get a lot of email. This again shows the need for a “coordinator” to build the network and assist.

It seems that just like support is needed for H323 videoconferencing, it is essential for Skype as well.

Access and Capabilities

  • Teachers are super super excited about VC in their classroom. There are issues with vc in the library and noise if another class is there too; issues with scheduling the space (not the equipment – the space!) for VC; etc. Access in the classroom!!
  • Tech directors are worried about the loss of capability with desktop VC compared to VC systems/carts: loss of zoom, pan, tilt, presets, ability to plug in multiple peripherals. Teachers don’t care about that. The access in their classroom is worth that loss.

Logistics, Webcams and Microphones

  • Before last week’s trainings, I thought I wanted to mount the webcam on the interactive whiteboard or somewhere at the front of the room. But I found all week that it was nice to be able to pick up the webcam and move it around: angle it one way or another depending on the need, etc.
  • One participant had noticed that using the built in camera/mic on a laptop there was no echo (in his own use of VC); but more likely to get echo when using a webcam. This is an interesting observation that I would like to verify and test further.

So, what do you think? Are you hearing these same kinds of reactions from your teachers? Did anything in this list surprise you?

Literature Circles Lesson Plan

I’m cleaning my website still, and archiving old things here on my blog. This lesson plan was co-written with our language arts consultant. It was an attempt to scale a literature circle project done between two of our middle schools.

Literature Circle Videoconferences

Preparation

  • Talk to your partner teacher via phone or email and discuss the steps.
  • Decide how often to meet.
  • Discuss and plan for a culminating activity.

Step 1: Getting to Know You
Knowing the students in your partner class will help make the discussion more engaging. Use at least one of these strategies in the first videoconference to help the students get to know each other.

  • Create a grid with the students names and fill in topics such as favorite movie, favorite weekend activities, etc. Idea from Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. p. 40
  • Or try some of ice-breakers for distance learning.

Step 2: Teach Discussion Skills & Set Ground Rules
Both classes should use the same set of skills and ground rules for a smoother discussion environment. Here are some resources for teaching discussion skills and setting ground rules. Discuss with your partner teacher which of these you’ll use in your respective classes.

  • Create a T-chart for friendliness and support in a discussion. What does it sound like and what does it look like?
  • See also Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles page 48 for discussion skills and page 115 for setting ground rules.
  • Teaching Students How to Discuss
  • Making Discussions Work
  • Literature Circle Qualities
  • Literature Circle Levels of Questioning

Step 3: Use Response Logs to Prepare for Discussion

Written responses will focus students on the reading and prepare them for the discussion. You can also take the opportunity to have students focus on comprehension strategies.

  • Written responses for literature circles.
  • Literature Circle Pre-Meeting
  • Super Six Comprehension Strategies by Lori Oczkus, 2004, for ideas to support predicting, inferring, questioning, monitoring, summarizing, and synthesizing.
  • Create a Comprehension Strategies Bookmark
  • Directions to Create a Strip Poem (suggestion: make it across the two classrooms)
  • Questions in Preparation for Literature Circle
  • Student Response Sheet
  • Synthesis Prompts
  • Writing Questions After You Read

Tips for the Videoconferences

  • Divide up the literature circle tasks/jobs across the two sites to ensure interaction.
  • Use a strategy to make sure all students contribute to the conversation. For example, you may give each student 5 slips of paper. Each time they talk, they put a slip on the table. This helps even out the conversation between the talkative students and the quieter students.
  • Have a culminating event to celebrate success. For example, students may create projects and share them with the partner class. Or the two classes may create a strip poem with lines created by both classes.

Evaluation

  • Literature Circle Portfolio

Great Idea from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

Today I am teaching workshops all day on videoconferencing in one of my districts. In the morning, we are connecting to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, as well as The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Anne Herndon at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History sent a box of materials for the teacher demo. As I was looking through it last week, I found this great little handout that is such an awesome idea! I want to suggest this to my teachers to use when they do any videoconference!

Guess What I Did Today?

This little sheet is a reflection sheet for students to write down what they learned in the videoconference. Then students take it home to share with parents! I love the idea of educating the families about what’s going on with videoconferencing! Here are the questions listed:

What surprised me most was….

I loved learning about….

I will always remember…

And then at the bottom is a little note to the parent that they took a virtual videoconference field trip and how it worked.

Sweet! Great work, Anne! Another best practice by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History!

The New Kid on the Block

Did you know there’s a new kid on the videconferencing block?

Have you learned about Whirlidurb yet?

Whirlidurb is a solution that provides engaging learning opportunities for students. The Whirlidurb team loves video conferencing and collaborating. We create learning opportunities for teachers and students. Read more…

Whirlidurb services include:

  • Content for the classroom
  • Professional Learning Network
  • Video bridging management and operations
  • Video conference scheduling
  • Consultation and new site registration
  • Help desk and technical support

Shane Howard and Roxanne Glaser are the dynamic duo behind Whirlidurb.

Do you remember my research from last year?

One of the results was that schools who are using curriculum videoconferencing more have two essential external supports:

  • An organization offering and targeting programming to the school’s curriculum
  • Outside technical support for videoconferencing

In my research, this type of support was offered by an educational service agency, or by organizations like CILC, TWICE, etc. You can see the full list here.

Well now, you have another choice for bringing this type of support to your school. Guaranteed to generate increased use of curriculum videoconferencing in your school, and increase the best practices of VC in your school. I say this because I’ve partnered with Shane and Roxanne for 5 years, and I’ve seen the results in their schools.

So, if you’re in need of a boost to your VC program, or need help dusting off a unit in the closet that could be used to bring the world to your classroom, think about Whirlidurb.

Full Disclosure: Berrien RESA has a partnership with Whirlidurb and I am clearly a fan of Shane and Roxanne’s work.

Upgrade to our Distance Learning Room

Yesterday and today I’ve been teaching several sessions on videoconferencing & Skype to our annual Berrien RESA Tech Camp. I’ve been super excited because I got to teach with our new upgraded room!

It’s actually not as upgraded as some of you can afford, but I’m still excited!

Before

So first, here’s what it looked like before.

This 60 inch monitor was part of a Goals 2000 Grant installation in 1999. Look at how the colors were bleeding apart in the top right. Very annoying!

After

Of course, now, this is Michigan, and we’re out of money! So the upgrade was actually driven by the Smart award presentation given to MACUL Educator of the Year winners. The award included a Smart Board, projector, clickers, slate, document camera, as well as all the software. I’ve been so excited because I wanted to figure out how to get desktop videoconferencing working on an interactive whiteboard.

Last Friday, just in time for tech camp, the last piece was finished in the DL room – mounting the Smart Board, building a cabinet for the Polycom VSX 7000. Here’s what it looks like in a “standards based” videoconference with the Polycom just dialed out to my office unit.

(Apologies for the cell phone quality picture.)

Here’s what it looks like in a Skype call with Roxanne Glaser for my workshop today. I circled the Logitech webcam so you could see where that is.

Next I want to figure out how to use a long USB extension cable to mount the webcam somewhere close to the monitor for whole class connections. Although, the more I play with Skype / desktop VC, I think it’s nicer to be able to pick the webcam up and move it around as needed (sort of like manual presets! ha!).

So that’s my new distance learning room. The monitor hanging in the ceiling came out. The pole in the middle of the room came out. It’s a lot cleaner-looking and much more flexible now. Yay! And, now we can do Smart Board training in this room too!

I know, I know. A “real” upgrade would mean upgrading to HD videoconferencing. Well that’s on the list, but for now I’m happy with this!

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

Bill Colwell shared this Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy video in a worship/inspiration today in our Leadership and Learning Group meeting. I thought you might find it interesting as well!

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he’s doing is so simple, it’s almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!

Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow.

Three Wishes: Students Share Their Writing

8/20/2010 note: I’m moving this article from my website to my blog for archiving. This lesson/collaboration was written by a high school special education / remedial reading teacher. These videoconferences were an early example of powerful sharing of writing via videoconference. Student feedback to each other was excellent.

Three Wishes Videoconference Series: Students Share Their Writing

Background
Niles, Michigan will be the host of the NBC Three Wishes TV Show in March 2006. Leading up to this event, teachers are incorporating the three wishes idea into their lesson plans.

Coordinating Teacher: Lynn Rouse

Online Registration: Please fill out the online form.

Event #1.

November 16. 11:30-12:30, EST. Three Wishes. Participating Schools:

  • Host: Niles High School
  • Olean, Western NY

Teacher Preparation

Students read Monkey’s Paw. They write at least one (up to three) wishes in the format for the show Three Wishes.

Each class should read the wishes to each other and vote on your top three wishes. Those students should then practice reading their wishes aloud so they can do so clearly over the videoconference.

Videoconference Format
During the videoconference Nov. 16, we’ll start with greetings from each school. Each class should introduce themselves with a bit of information about the school and a map of your location. Then we’ll rotate through each class sharing their 3 wishes. If there is time, we may hear more than those three wishes from
each school. At the end we’ll have time to allow the students to ask each other questions and give feedback on which wish moved them most.

Event #2

. December 15. 11:30-12:30, EST. It’s Your Birthday! Book Talk.
Background. Mpanga from Zambia, a student in Niles, hasn’t had her birthday celebrated and her wish was to celebrate her birthday.

Close your Eyes; Make a Wish by Mpange

One wish that I would want in my life right now would be just to have a birthday party. I have never had a birthday in my life. I would like to have one. I think why I have never had one is no one wanted to make me a cake or had the money to plan one. If my mom were not dead, she could have created a birthday party for me. This is the most important wish in my life right now. I would also wish to go back to Africa (Zambia) to see how things are going and tell the people whom I miss that I love them. I also want to buy souvenirs for people I love in America.

The host class is making birthday cake posters with their favorite book.Students will share their favorite book & why. The other classes will sing happy birthday to Mpange. The other classes are encouraged to have cake & punch.

Teacher Preparation: Have each student write about a favorite book and be prepared to convince others to read it. Students should be creative in making presentations, a la Reading Rainbow.

Videoconference Format: We’ll start off singing “Happy Birthday” and then we’ll take turns saying, “It’s your birthday” (slang for “it’s your turn”) as students come up and convince others to enjoy their favorite book.

Curriculum Connections: English, Reading

Event #3

. January 24 11:30-12:30 EST “Celebrate the Arts”

Participating Schools

  • Host: Niles High School, MI
  • United Communities’ Assistance Network, South Carolina
  • Mineola High School, TX
  • Holland Christian, MI

Teacher Preparation: Prepare a presentation about a local landmark that needs saved. Preferably the students should make wishes as to which places in their community should be refurbished and used to celebrate the arts (i.e. a warehouse made into an art gallery or an old school house used as a dance studio, etc.)

Presentations should include name & location with a map; background information on the town; history of the town; background information on the landmark and why it should be saved. Have students work in groups to do various parts of the presentation to get as many students involved as possible. Be creative with the presentation.

Videoconference Format: Students will introduce their communities to each other, and then they will present their landmark to be saved to the other schools, pretending as if the other schools are selection committees on the show Three Wishes. As Amy Grant’s crew always does something for the arts community, these researched projects can be submitted on the NBC website. Contact coordinating teacher Lynn Rouse, lrouse@remc11.k12.mi.us if you have questions.

Curriculum Connection: social studies, language arts (researching, writing, presenting)

Event #4

. February 14 11:30-12:30 EST “May Your Wish Come True” Teacher Preparation: Students will have to write essays about who their dream valentines would be. Teachers must remind students to choose people most people would know.

Videoconference Format: We’ll play some mood music and have a romantic theme. Students should have a way of showing a picture of their love interests. I’ll do a lead in about “love” being a theme of literature throughout the ages. Then the students will read their love letters to their unrequited loves. After each essay, students will respond to the writing, commenting on what they liked about the love letter.

Curriculum Connection: literature, speech, current events

Event #5

. March 17 (tentative) 9:00-10:00 EST “Luck of the Irish” Participating Schools

  • Host: Niles High School, MI
  • Brocton Central School, NY
  • Karachi High School, Pakistan
  • Andover High School, MI

Teacher Preparation: Students should research some part of St. Patrick’s Day to present to the rest of the classes. My class is doing Notre Dame lore. Each class should tell me what part of the day they are researching before the big day. By then, I hope to have a way to get Amy Grant with us. Cross your fingers.

Videoconference Format: I hope to have each school take a turn presenting and questioning.

Curriculum Connection: researching, presenting, history, folklore (Language Arts and Social Studies)

Voices of Twin Cities Past

8/19/2010 note: I’m moving this article from my website to my blog for archiving. This project has continued each year since its inception in various forms as teachers and schools changed. In addition, this project marked the first installation of videoconferencing carts in elementary schools in our service area.

Voices of the Twin Cities Past

A Videoconference Project By Linda McConville and Diane Nye, E. P. Clarke Elementary, St. Joseph Public Schools

This project is shared online with the authors’ permission and with the purpose of encouraging other communities to create a similar project.

Background
Since the publication of the book Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz, the two documentaries “Twin Cities: Understanding the Issues” by WNIT and the “Tale of Two Cities” produced by Michigan Public Broadcasting, and the Jimmy Carter Habitat Build in Benton Harbor during the summer of 2005, there has been a community focus on the need for understanding between St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. In addition, the civil unrest in Benton Harbor in June 2003 that received national attention escalated the need for programs and opportunities to bring a sense of unity to the two cities.

Project
As classroom teacher and media specialist, we designed a research project, Voices of Twin Cities Past, using distance learning to unite two diverse fourth classes and impact their learning about the history of the two neighboring communities. The specific program was to teach and use the Big6 research model to learn about important individuals from the past who made a difference in our Twin City history. We focused on schools and parks that the students attend or frequent. After designing the project we applied for and won a local Rotary Grant to pay for the distance learning equipment for both schools. Our working group consisted of fourth grade teachers from both districts, a media specialist, a social studies consultant, technology coordinators from both districts, and the Distance Learning consultant from our RESA.

Michigan Curriculum Framework
The specific measurable outcomes that apply to Voices of Twin Cities Past were derived from the Michigan Social Studies Curriculum Benchmarks (from the Michigan Department of Education -assessed by MEAP)

  • Strand 1. Historical Perspective – Students use knowledge of the past to construct meaningful understanding of our diverse cultural heritage and to inform their civic judgments.
  • Standard 1.2 Comprehending the Past.
  • Standard 1.3 Analyzing and Interpreting the Past. All students will reconstruct the past by comparing interpretations written by others from a variety of perspectives and creating narratives from evidence.
  • Standard 2.1 Diversity of People, Places and Cultures.
  • Strand V. Inquiry -Students will use methods of social science investigations to answer questions about society.
  • Standard 5.1 Information Processing
  • Standard 5.2 Conducting Investigations

Time Frame
To complete our project, we established the following timetable:

  • Fall / Winter 2004 — Order equipment and determine project participants.
  • Spring / Summer 2004 — Classroom teachers and media specialists from partner schools meet, consult with tech coordinator of each district, receive training, further develop and refine collaborative activities, survey current available resources and develop rubrics.
  • Fall 2004 — Begin video conference activities with partner schools, give pretest, help students narrow research choices, teach Big 6 Interviewing and Research techniques, and plan timeline for completion of project.
  • Winter 2005 — Continue videoconferences to monitor progress and share resources. Teach skills necessary for completing choice of project.
  • Spring 2005 — Assemble and produce projects. Give post-test. Share and distribute final projects.

Evaluation
The methods of evaluation we used to measure the outcomes of Voices of Twin Cities Past were:
A pre and post test were given to the fourth grade students to determine their knowledge of local namesakes of schools and parks. The pretest results showed that more than three-fourths of the students were unaware of the historical connections of names they see daily. However the results of the posttest showed the impact on students’ learning as over 90% of the two classes scored in the satisfactory range. Both classes also showed an increased interest and excitement when discussing the names of schools and parks with their peers and parents. In addition, both classes used the distance learning equipment at other times to connect the two classes. Because of this project, the students were able to develop friendships that were fostered when they met in real time through field trips and other activities. As the project progressed, we quickly discovered there was virtually no material written at a fourth grade level on the names chosen from our local history. Parent volunteers worked closely with student groups on the notetaking portion of the research to help decipher the difficult syntax and content of the primary documents.

The Inquiry outcome was measured using a rubric from The Big 6 Research Skills Model. All students successfully used all steps in the research process to produce the final written project. They also showed increased understanding of the importance of the rich history and stories of our communities.

The students’ final project was to create a “historical postcard” which included digital pictures and corresponding information on each historical figure. A full set was produced for each classroom and each media center. In the future we plan to include other final projects such as booklets, tri-folds, CDs, videos, and web logs.

Community and School Support
We received strong support on this project because administrators recognized that the potential impact of Voices of Twin Cities Past could have on students’ learning of local history, Furthermore, the community was eager to endorse a project that would facilitate collaboration between the school communities. Our superintendent wrote a cover letter of recommendation to the Rotary and our school board president signed our application. Upon receiving the Rotary grant award, our principal attended the awards luncheon with us. The technology directors and the RESA consultant worked closely with us in selecting the distance learning equipment. In addition many community members and our local Historical Society shared with us stories and primary documents of local history to use in our project.

Continuing the Project
After completing the first year successfully, we plan to continue this project with the original teachers and media specialist and the new incoming fourth graders in both districts. Involving other fourth grade classrooms in the two buildings is this year’s goal. This will require adding additional local names to use in the Big6 research process to expand the printed final project. To encourage others outside our local community to replicate this project, we have shared the information that will appear as a vignette in the new updated State of Michigan Technology Plan. We have also been invited to present Voices of Twin Cities Past in March 2006 at the MACUL conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and plan to present at MAME in the fall of 2007. In addition, we are working on a multimedia presentation to share with the community at a local Rotary lunch.