Tag Archives: CAPspace

RAP / CAPspace Tips for Bridge Operators

Note: This post is written from my role as a member of the TWICE CAPspace and Read Around the Planet Committee.

Did you know Read Around the Planet registration opens tomorrow?

With that in mind, here are two hidden or new features of CAPspace that are very helpful if you run a videoconferencing bridge and have lots of endpoints.

Super Fast Self-Certification

  • Already have a verified MCU and endpoints from last year?
  • Haven’t self-certified them yet for this year?

Here’s the easy way to self-certify:

  • Login to CAPspace
  • Go to My Equipment
  • Find your MCU in the list and click on it
  • Self-certify it
  • Automatically, ALL your endpoints will self-certify also! New as of August!

Then, of course, be sure to update any IPs or tech contacts that have changed for the endpoints.

Indicate the Test Call Contact

Ever connected to a RAP partner that has 3 or 4 or 5 tech contacts listed? Annoyed that you don’t know who to contact?

Start fixing this by marking the test call contact for your own units. This feature is new this week!

These instructions assume:

  • That you have multiple tech contacts listed on your equipment profile(s)
  • That those tech contacts have CAPspace accounts
  • That you created the equipment profile
  • That one of the other tech contacts on the equipment profile is the person who really does the test calls & connections

Ok, here’s what to do:

  • Login to CAPspace
  • Go to My Equipment
  • Click the name of an endpoint where you know the test call contact isn’t the person who created the equipment profile
  • On the left under Administration Tasks, choose Assign Primary Test Call Contact
  • Select the right person and update!

By default, the person who created the equipment profile is the Primary Test Call Contact. Use this new feature only if you need to change it.

For example, in my area, some of my coordinators do their own RAP registration, test calls and connections. In these cases, I want to mark that they are the main test call contact, not me.

Now, are you ready for Read Around the Planet registration to open tomorrow?!

Blended Learning for the 21st-Century Classroom

SIG IVC Showcase: Elaine Shuck, Polycom, Inc.

Elaine started with a cute video clip about a student waking up in the morning to get engaged.

Polycom Special Events

She described the Polycom Special Event with blind author Jim Stovall, as well as other events: Dr. Ben Carson, Evelyn Coleman, Laurie Keller, Sarah Miller, Elizabeth Raum, Sue Stauffacher, Susan Thoms, Margaret Willey, Amy Young, Janie Panagopoulos; and other events for Black History Month, Women’s History Month.

Registration opens on September 1st inside CAPspace: Collaborations Around the Planet, where also registration happens for Read Around the Planet and teachers can post their own collaborations as well.

The programs are popular and fill up in a few hours, so get ready to register!

They also described a partnership with Global Nomads Group and showed how the lesson plans etc. are posted on the Polycom Special Events wiki.

The Polycom Special Events are free for Polycom customers, and there are only 5 slots for each session. They ask that only one school per district register for each event to make room for everyone.

The ASK Process

Sue Porter explained the ASK process: Ask, Specialist, Knowledge, where the students read a book, journal, write good questions, and then interview an author or a specialist. The video shown during the session is linked here at the top of the page.

Sessions in the Polycom Booth

Also FYI, there are a whole bunch of 30 min sessions throughout the conference at the Polycom booth – on CAPspace, with Global Nomads, with Andy Campbell at LearnNCO, and CMA Desktop, the new desktop videoconferencing tool; among other things.

Attendance: This session was JAM PACKED – it was great to see the large number of people interested in videoconferencing!

Day 12: Where Do Projects Come From?

So now that you’ve decided to take the plunge and run a project for a few of your teachers, where should you start?

First, you need a good idea that you can develop into a project for your teachers. So where do these ideas come from?

The Curriculum

First and foremost, they should come from the curriculum. Sometimes a careful or even cursory review of the required curriculum will inspire some great ideas.

  • How will students understand this content better by talking to students in another area?
  • How might students share their created work nationally or internationally as a motivation and inspiration (and to meet ISTE Student Collaboration and Communication Standards)?
  • Is there content already in the required curriculum that would be perfect to discuss, share, collaborate, challenge another class with?

Teacher Needs

Another great source of ideas for projects is the needs of your teachers.

  • What are they struggling to teach?
  • What units are frustrating or in need of “jazzing up?”
  • What amazing unit might they want to share with another class?
  • What student created work is worthy of a national audience?

Viral CAPspace Collaborations

Have you noticed this year that some collaboration ideas in CAPspace have been multiplying like rabbits?

  • First it was penpals.
  • Then it was Monster Match copycats and Halloween spin-offs.
  • Then Turkey Talk…
  • Then Weather Buddies…

These collaborations go viral for a reason. They are good ideas and simple to do! Educators create and share great ideas.

Bottom Line

  • A great project idea is simple.
  • It fits tightly to the curriculum.
  • It makes sense to teachers.
  • More than one of your teachers want to do it!

Tomorrow, we’ll start talking about how to manage a project with 3-4 or more of your teachers participating. For now, consider what project several of your teachers might want to do.

Your Turn

  • What do you think makes a great project idea?
  • Where do you get your inspiration for VC projects?
  • What is holding you back from creating and running a project for your teachers?

Please comment!

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.

Day 7: I Posted a Collaboration and Got 500 Responses

One of the fun challenges of collaborations on CAPspace is the large number of interested people. There are 5000+ active videoconferencing educators (ever noticed the count on the front page when you login?).

This past fall, I heard that while some people found the perfect match and only one person responded, many collaborations quickly gathered much more interest. These fall into two types:

  1. You post your project and you need 1 partner; 20 people respond.
  2. You find a cool collaboration; 3 teachers want to do it; the person who posted it has found a partner already.

Now what? Let’s talk about how to handle these situations!

Too Many Responses
So what do you do when you post a project that’s clearly a popular idea; 20 people respond. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Wait. I prefer to wait a bit and see what responses I get in the first day. Sometimes the people who respond have very little to contribute; other times they have additional ideas to make the project better. Read them over and choose from among them.
  2. Save all potential partner information. Save the contact information for everyone who responded as you may be able to use them as a partner for future projects.
  3. Check with your other teachers. If you think other teachers might want to do it as well, you might want to add another session or two, but don’t feel obligated to connect with all twenty partners.
  4. Email each potential partner. Thank them for their interest. Let them know you’re keeping their contact information for the future. Don’t just ignore their email. Make a nice little “no” template and then copy & paste it to respond to each one. This will save you time, but will also courteously let the others know that you no longer need a partner.
  5. Close the collaboration. Once you’ve selected a partner, log back into CAPspace, and mark it filled. See: My Projects, Collaborations, My Current. This way others will know that you are no longer looking for partners. When you are finished with the project, login and mark it Past. Don’t delete it, as this builds your reputation in the site. Others can click the stars on your profile to see the collaborations you’ve created.
  6. Don’t forget to Say No Nicely!

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what to do when a collaboration is already filled.

Your Turn:

  1. How do you handle collaborations that get out of hand?
  2. What tips do you have these situations?

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.