Tag Archives: Change

Study Results: Model to Predict Use of Curriculum VC

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

Another major part of my study was to create a model to predict the use of curriculum videoconferencing in schools. I selected a combination of variables that were significant in the correlation analyses or the multiple regression analyses which gave a more complete picture of the implementation of videoconferencing.

This graph shows the multiple regression B weights for each variable. Think of it as how much that variable contributed to the school’s use of videoconferencing while all the other variables are held constant. You can click the graph to see it larger.

Lim Prediction Model for the Use of Videoconferencing

Here are the B weights and their significance for each of these variables.

School Characteristics

  • Significantly Positive: Elementary School (b=15.269, p=.000)
  • Significantly Positive: Ethnicity Other (remember this was mostly First Nations/Native American) (b=26.249, p=.000)

Coordinator Characteristics

  • Female (b=6.422, p=.146)
  • Significantly Positive: Level of education: 2 years of college (b=20.544, p=.002)
  • Significantly Positive: Job Title: Paraprofessional (b=31.413, p=.013)
  • Significantly Positive: Job Title: Teacher (b=11.752, p=.021)
  • Job Title: Technology Specialist: (b-.340, p=.936)
  • Years Experience with VC: (b-.517, p=.389)
  • Type of Training: Mostly Technical: (b-5.331, p=.187)
  • Significantly Negative: Time to Support VC: Other: (b-10.465, p=.050)

Educational Service Agency Support

  • ESA Creates and Facilitates Programming (b=3.165, p=.417)
  • Support from an ESA Tech Person  (b=4.486, p=.261)

Location of Equipment

  • Location: Mobile Cart (b=2.695, p=.515)
  • Location: Multiple Systems (b=-8.015, p=.104)

K12 Curriculum Videoconferencing Implementation Scale

  • Significantly Negative: Videoconferencing Quality (b=-7.612, p=.035)
  • Coordinator’s Ability to Support VC (b=-.690, p=.897)
  • Coordinator’s Ability to Integrate VC in the Curriculum (b=-.690, p=.897)
  • Coordinator’s Ability to Work with Teachers (b=2.112, p=.518)
  • Significantly Positive: Coordinator’s Perception of Teacher Attitudes (b=24.902, p=.000)
  • Coordinator’s Perception of Principal Support (b=3.167, p=.174)

Final Discussion/Recommendations

  • This is the last post about my research. What did you learn?
  • Do you agree with the results? Why or why not?
  • How will you apply these results in your work?
  • Are these results useful to you? How so?
  • What else would you want to know to inform your work?

Please comment! Thank you for taking the time to think about and comment on my research!

Study Results: Theoretical Framework

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

Owston (2007) created a model that suggests components necessary for the sustainability of a technology innovation in schools. I used this model as the theoretical framework for my study. I included all of his essential and contributing conditions except for the student support. You can see how the two connect with this graphic. Click the graphic to see it larger.

Theoetical Framework Lim & Owston

What do you think?

  • Does your current implementation of technology (any technology) include these components? Do you agree that they are critical to sustaining the innovation?
  • Now that you’ve seen this, how might you improve your current technology implementation?

Please comment!

Reference: Owston, R. (2007). Contextual factors that sustain innovative pedagogical practice using technology: an international study. Journal of Educational Change, 8(1), 61-77. doi:10.1007/s10833-006-9006-6

Working with Secondary Teachers

Linda McDonald and I have been having a great discussion on reaching secondary teachers to use VC, which you can read here. In case you’re not

Participating in a small group lesson planning session @ Jazz 2009.
Participating in a small group lesson planning session @ Jazz 2009.

subscribed to comments, I wanted to pull out these great tips so you don’t miss them.

Clearing the path into secondary classes:
1. Invite secondary folks to go to JAZZ
2. Follow up one-on-one with JAZZ participants and help them implement their great ideas.
3. Mention video conferencing potential to all teachers/admin. when you are out & about….and locate other potential champions.
4. Follow up, follow up, follow up with your champions.
5. When developing projects….Listen to their needs and address areas where teachers and/or students are struggling.

I love #5. LISTEN!!!

So, how are you meeting the needs of your secondary teachers?!

Goals for 2009-2010

Lori inspired me with her blog post with goals for 2009-2010. So I thought I’d share mine.

School hasn’t started for us yet. In Michigan, by law, due to economic reasons, we don’t start school till the Tuesday after Labor Day. So I still have a few days of planning left! In addition, my schools are busy prepping for MEAP in October, so the videoconference schedule won’t get really busy til Monster Match the last week of October. That gives me time for planning. I also front load my school year with professional development.

So, here are my goals for 2009-2010:

  • More meetings via videoconferencing. This is being encouraged by the organization, so I need to be ready to help make this happen.
  • Systematize and streamline my projects. The discussion on work flow helped me a lot; and I’m very pleased with how my project wikis are turning out so far.
  • Work with low-use schools. For the last three years I’ve been focused on my RUS grant schools. Now I want to work with those who haven’t been using their systems as much and weren’t part of the grant.
  • More people in CAPspace. This is the year I want to get all my VC coordinators and active VC teachers in CAPspace. They can arrange their own VC projects and holler when they get stuck!
  • High School English. I have 4 high school English teachers from 3 districts who really want to VC. I plan to do two projects for them this year in Feb & April.
  • Blog my research. I still have a few more series on videoconferencing research to share with you!

Now it’s your turn! What are your goals? Post them on your blog, or if you want, post as comments here. What do you hope to accomplish with videoconferencing in your area this school year?

3 Questions to Ask Teachers

If you are not subscribed to comments on this blog, you missed an awesome comment from Linda McDonald, queen of VC in Katy, TX; creator of Math Marvels and other cool collaborative projects. Her comment was in response to a question about how to start your VC program.

Be a listener!

  • Ask what about the critical target objectives based on testing data.
  • Ask about areas of curriculum that teacher think are important but don’t seem to have time to teach.
  • Ask which content students struggle understanding.

Help teachers build VC projects based on the answers above and you will have a “product you can sell.”

Do you ask teachers these questions? How do you follow-up? How do you help teachers see the connection between curriculum and potential content/projects/experiences?

Starting Your VC Program

Still cleaning out draft posts!

The end of May a team from The Talking Directory in the UK came to visit Berrien RESA to learn about our distance learning program. After watching me facilitate a MysteryQuest USA and HistoryQuest5, we videoconferenced with Arnie Comer, Macomb ISD and Roxanne Glaser and Shane Howard from Region 12, TX. Arnie and Roxanne and Shane shared some great tips for starting a VC program and I took notes. We all shared our signature programs too: ASK for Macomb; Singing with Shane, Monster Match, Weather with Rusty for Region 12.

Arnie’s Top Tips

  1. Hold teachers’ hands tightly at the beginning.
  2. Take the tech burdens on yourself so the teachers can focus on the students

Roxanne and Shane’s Core Philosophy

  • Teachers spend time teaching
  • Coordinators in the school or at least the district as our liaison with the teacher

Tips from the conversation
I didn’t record who said what, but here are more ideas:

  • Not everyone’s going to be as passionate about VC as you are – give them time!
  • Have meaningful programming for your teachers and share that with colleagues across the country so your schools can benefit from each others programs
  • Call coordinators in schools that aren’t using it much to see what’s going on – maybe they have a family emergency or some challenge

What is a “quick win”?

  • Start out by providing an ASK program or a project – something with a date & time and all the materials – and step by step what to do.
  • Create programs that are videoconferencing with training wheels – a way to hand hold teachers as they get started.
  • Get teachers involved in one project with success then they try out something else.

Your Turn: What are your tips for schools just getting started with videoconferencing?

How Principals Support Videoconferencing

This is my first year participating in Leadership Day. The idea is to share “whatever you like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, etc.”

So I thought it might be helpful to share what principals in my service area do to support curriculum videoconferencing. I don’t think any of them actually do ALL of these, but it provides a nice menu of ways to support videoconferencing in the school.

Learning About VC

  • Kamloops, BC Superintendent visits the Jazz workshop
    Kamloops, BC Superintendent visits the Jazz workshop

    Watch a videoconference or two each year to see how students and teachers are using this tool

  • Subscribe to my email list with the “ads” of what curriculum opportunities are available
  • Attend Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with VC

Promoting Professional Development About VC

  • Scheduling every year or so a staff meeting overview of videoconferencing in the curriculum, how to sign up, mini-grants, etc. They schedule this with me.
  • Send the VC coordinator to initial full day training and to follow-up training as needed.
  • When the VC coordinator leaves or retires or isn’t working well, send another person to get the coordinator training. This full day training I offer in the fall every year.

Promoting VC

  • Find funding to assist in paying for programs
  • A few elementary principals each year encourage EVERY teacher to participate in a VC that year
  • One principal encourages teachers who aren’t using VC to include VC in their personal professional development plan
  • Have teachers share success stories during staff meetings.

Your Turn

How does your principal support videoconferencing in your school? Please comment!

Ideal Support Structure for VC

This morning, Jerry made some great comments/reflections on the support of VC related to mentoring. I’ve been thinking about this support structure issue for quite a while, and pretty soon I’ll be able to share some research that backs this up too!

So here’s my dream scenario for supporting VC in schools. There are ways to adapt this structure if your scenario is missing a piece or two. See if this matches what you find as successful in your area.

Jazz Workshop: Teachers and Coordinators Learn to Use VC
Jazz Workshop: Teachers and Coordinators Learn to Use VC

Educational Service Agency Level

  • A curriculum integration person, who helps teachers integrate VC in the curriculum, trains the school VC coordinators, creates resources to support VC in the curriculum, and facilitates original programs for the schools.
  • A technical support person, who runs the MCU (if applicable) and assists the districts in getting VC to work through their firewalls, explains how VC works to the district techs, troubleshoots videoconferences, finds alternative ways to connect a VC if the school can’t do it on their own, upgrades software on the endpoints, provides just-in-time training to the district technical personnel, etc.

Examples:

School District Level

  • Technology Coordinator. At the very least, the technology coordinator needs to be aware of videoconferencing, the benefits to student learning, it’s impact on the network,  how to make VC work through the firewall, how the cables are hooked up to the projector/monitor etc to assist when problems arise, how to dial, and basic videoconference troubleshooting.
  • This person needs support from the ESA level tech person as they often are so swamped with every day technical support that they don’t have time to learn the intricacies of making VC work on their network.

Ashton Graham Mentors During the Jazz Workshop
Ashton Graham Mentors During the Jazz Workshop

School Level

  • VC Coordinator who is supported by the people listed above.
  • The VC Coordinator has many names: site facilitator, cart manager, etc. and could be the librarian, media specialist, a couple of lead teachers, the school technology facilitator, a media paraprofessional, or even a secretary. I have two coordinators who are secretaries – they are in small schools with limited staff.
  • The VC coordinator supports the teachers as I described yesterday.

Notes:

  • I don’t think any of these positions need to be full time for videoconferencing, except if possible at least one person at the educational service agency level or district level if the district is large.
  • In very large districts, the educational service agency level support is provided at the district level.
  • In some cases, schools receive some of the educational service agency support from organizations such as CILC and TWICE.

Your Turn:
What do you think? Do you agree? How does this match up to your area? Are you missing any of the pieces? How could you work to fill the gap?

Or another question might be: Is this support structure unique to VC? or is it helpful in all educational technology implementations?

Or another question: What other great examples do you know of where these structures are in place?

Please comment and share!

USDLA 2009 Winners in K-12 Videoconferencing

The United States Distance Learning Association 2009 Winners received their awards last week. Some of our friends were featured!

Best Practices Awards for Distance Learning Programming
Platinum
COSI Columbus Electronic Education Program
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 12

Bronze
The CenterNET2 Project-Center for Rural Development, Somerset, Kentucky
Videoconferencing ~ Prek-12/Higher Education

Best Practices Awards for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching
Platinum
Floyd Gary Walton, “Mr. G”, BECON Distance Learning Teacher
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 1 (Florida)

Bronze
Frances vandenHeuvel – Ode Instructor, AR(Google helped me find those links.)
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 12

Congratulations to each of you!!

Benefits of VC: In the Words of a Teacher

I have another session of the Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections class starting this week. We have 9 participants and two are from Guatemala! (We could squeeze you in if you register today or tomorrow.)

In the first week, the participants read some articles and share the benefits of videoconferencing. One of the participants, Kelly Hawn, is a teacher at F. C. Reed Middle School in Bridgman, MI, here in my service area. This year, Kelly has done Eco-Conversations and been an audience for a KC3 contestant class in Alberta. Here is her list of benefits of videoconferencing:

  1. Students are more engaged in learning from others than from textbooks.
  2. Students like presenting to other schools and they practiced their presentations ahead of time, therefore reinforcing their content.  They took their presentation much more seriously because they were presenting to someone they didn’t know. It’s so much better than presenting to their own classmates.  They put in more time and did a much better job than they would have if they just presented to their classmates.
  3. Students were allowed time to ask questions about the other school (weather, class schedules, favorite things to do, what music they like, class size, school uniforms, and so much more).
  4. The students became pen pals with students from other countries and states and we also exchanged gifts and pictures.
  5. The students want to reunite and show and learn more.  Currently my Social Studies class is studying Europe and they want to do another VC with England to ask them about some things we are learning in our textbook.
  6. The students love the fact that they can see and interact with another school with immediate feedback.  The Alberta school was amazed at how big our school was compared to theirs (and our school is small).  Students in England wore uniforms and was an all girls schools.

How about you? What do you see as the benefit to videoconferencing in schools?