Welcome to a new challenge! After participating in Steve Dembo’s 30 Days to a Better Blogger Challenge in November ‘08, I thought it would be fun to create a challenge for VC coordinators. I invited Roxanne Glaser to join me, so we will be collaborating and cross-posting each day’s challenge on our respective blogs. Since I believe in balance to our lives, we’ll only be posting on weekdays – hence the 20 days. Join us for the new year to improve your skills in coordinating videoconferencing in your area!

We’re targeting school level coordinators as our primary audience, but we know district and regional level VC coordinators will benefit from this exercise too. To get the updates, you can subscribe to either of our blogs in your favorite reader (Roxanne or Janine ), or via email.

We thought also that the accompanying logo was appropriate to represent the challenges of being a videoconference coordinator! Sometimes you need the hardhat when things don’t work; somethings you need the magician’s hat to fix it; sometimes you use the safari hat to take students on a field trip; sometimes you participate in Read Around the Planet; and sometimes you need the jester hat to do a tap dance when things don’t go quite right! We applaud your efforts and persistence in bringing these great opportunities to your students!

So, here’s the archive of the 20 Days Challenge from 2009.

• Day 1: 20 Days to Being a Better VC Coordinator – Settings
• Day 2: Email Tune-up
• Day 3: Working With Content Providers
• Day 4: Can You See Me Now?
• Day 5: Time Management
• Day 6: Promoting Videoconferencing in Your School
• Day 7: Managing Your Online Accounts
• Day 8: Collaboration Sites and Listservs
• Day 9: Cancellations
• Day 10: Assisting Teachers with Preparation
• Day 11: Lights, Cameras, Interactions!
• Day 12:  Sounds, Silence, and Such
• Day 13: Who Are You? and Where Are You?
• Day 14: Questions, Questions? Questions!
• Day 15: Kid Producers
• Day 16: Quality Connections
• Day 17: Your Lifelines
• Day 18: Uh Oh, It Doesn’t Work!
• Day 19: Now, Participate in Megaconference Jr.
• Day 20: Just Do It!