Tag Archives: Funding

Study Results: Time and Funds for VC

This post is part of a series inviting discussion, comments and reflection on the results of my dissertation.

Remember as you review the results of my study that every variable was examined to see its relationship with how often the school was using curriculum videoconferencing and whether that variable could be used to predict the use of videoconferencing.

In this post, we’ll look at the relationship between the school’s use of curriculum videoconferencing and some administrative support variables.

Hours Spent Supporting VC at Work

  • The hours the coordinator spent supporting VC at work was not significantly related to the schools’ use of videoconferencing. However, when using all the administrative reports in a multiple regression analysis to determine which variables predict use of videoconferencing, this variable contributed negatively to the regression model (b=-3.400, p=.050). This could be because full time VC coordinators are spread too thin supporting multiple units.

Hours Spent Supporting VC at Home

  • The hours the coordinator spent supporting VC at home was not significantly related to the schools’ use of videoconferencing.

Amount School Spent on Programming

  • The amount of funds that the school spent on programming was not significantly related to the schools’ use of videoconferencing.

Grant Funds for Programming (yes/no)

  • Whether or not the school had grant funds for programming was not significantly related to the schools’ use of videoconferencing.

Grant Amount Spent on Programming

  • The amount of grant funds that the school spent on programming was not significantly related to the schools’ use of videoconferencing.

Recommendations / Discussion

  • Aren’t these results interesting? I think they are one of the more interesting results of my study. Why is the amount spent on videoconferencing not significant? Is it because some schools receive so much free programming (either from their ESA or from collaborative projects or both)? What does this say about the future and sustainability of content providers? What do you think?!
  • As much as videoconference coordinators want more time to support videoconferencing, this isn’t significantly correlated to the school’s use of VC. Why do you think that is? What else do you think is more important in predicting the use of VC in schools?

Please comment!!

The Joy in Their Eyes

Last year, a teacher from one of my poorer and more urban districts took the Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections class and got really excited about videoconferencing! They weren’t included in our recent RUS grant due to their high population, and so last spring she took the kids over to the high school to access videoconferencing several times. One time they walked through the snow, and each time they took a bus over they were struggling to find funding to get to the high school.

One of the programs was the ASK program with the book Ice Bear and Little Fox, and the students talked to Rebecca at the Buffalo Zoo. The kids loved it and afterwards the teachers found out two of the students had never been to the zoo!

Then, another teacher from this same school took the Jazz class this summer. With such enthusiasm and dedication from the school, what could I do but figure out how to get a unit to them!

Thankfully, due to closing a building in another district, I was able to reclaim an old Polycom Viewstation purchased by grant funds that we applied for. (Those things are like the energizer bunny – they just keep going!!)

Last Friday, my supervisor and I went out to deliver the Viewstation and discuss the details. We did a contract similar to the RUS grant contracts. They laughed when I said you need to do at least 5 VCs a year. I KNOW they won’t have a problem at all meeting that goal! And they have more than half of the required professional development done already.

So that was pretty exciting. It was fun to see the joy in their eyes over the opportunities they can now bring to their students!

Polycom Grant Assistance Program Blog

Here’s an interesting new tool. Polycom has a blog for their Grant Assistance Program. It includes links to webinars for various videoconferencing sectors and finding funding in that area; upcoming grant deadlines; and links to grant sites. There are only a couple of posts since they just started, but already they have two podcasts posted! Check it out & subscribe!