Category Archives: Professional Development

Professional Development, Training, Faculty Development, Workshops

Students Advertise VCs

Here’s a great teacher quote from the Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections class I’m teaching right now. This was a comment from Lori Pline, Watervliet North Elementary, one of our buildings participating in the RUS grant.

I totally agree that VC can give students something that sticks with them for years. A fourth grade teacher in our building does a lot of VCs and the students I get from her discuss what they did/learned a lot throughout the year. That is one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to use this technology.

Cool! The students are advertising videoconferencing to the teachers, which makes them want to learn & use VC. Has that happened in your building/district/region? Please comment & share a story!

Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections Starts Monday Oct. 2

Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections is starting next week. This class is offered only once a year, so consider registering!

If you’re interested in free videoconferences, you need to be doing projects or class to class connections, also known as kid2kid connections. If you want to focus in depth on creating and implementing projects, this class is for you!

We’ll spend October learning the background of projects and project based learning. In October you’ll find a partner to do projects with during the year. Then in November, you’ll plan five projects, while learning about five big categories of collaborative projects. Then December through May, you’ll implement those projects with assistance from the instructor (me!) and your classmates!

You can read more about the online class here as well as how to register. We’ll take registrations all through Oct. 6 as the first week in the class is mostly introductions.

I encourage you to participate if you want to focus on collaborative projects. My local media specialists and teachers who took the class last year exponentially increased the use of VC in their buildings due to taking the class and applying what they learned. Worth the time & effort!

Teacher Strategies to Support VC

As many of you know, I have a session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections running right now. In the first week, participants are asked to write about the challenges they see for implementing VC in their building/district/region, and how they might overcome them. Here is a quote from one of the teachers [who gave permission to quote him/her anonymously]. I’ve bolded & highlighted a few of the comments.

I see our district as having three challenges. First, some teachers have had a bad experience with videoconferences. Either they have had technical difficulties with the equipment or have seen other teachers have those difficulties. They use that bad impression to justify not wanting to schedule a videoconference, not paying attention to all of the good experiences people have had. To overcome this, I think we should try as many good videoconferences as possible at each grade level, hoping that teachers will go to their teams and say how positive the experience can be. For example, I scheduled ASK with one fourth grade teacher and The People of Three Fires (Cranbrook) with another. I’m hoping they’ll go to each other afterward and suggest everyone at fourth grade level do these programs.

The second challenge is time. We already feel so crunched with MEAP tests and curriculum, that finding time to look for, schedule, and participate in a videoconference makes some people reluctant. In the short term, I am finding and applying for minigrants on behalf of my school. In baby steps, we’ll get everyone hooked on the VCs, then show them how to find their own, then have them schedule them themselves. Devious!
The final challenge is the rut some people find themselves in. They aren’ t comfortable with using the equipment or the process so they aren’t actively searching for ways to use the equipment. To solve this problem, I’m working on the people that are least likely to say no first, then with other teacher support, we can get to those who don’t want to move out of their comfort zone.

This teacher is the sole videoconference champion in the building and is supporting this and learning about it without any release time. Amazing, isn’t it? There are quite a few teachers in my class this time who are also trying to encourage others in their building to use it. Reminds me of our continued discussion on my Demand is High post. If you haven’t read the comments on that post, you might want to… & also join the conversation!

And just a reminder that Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, our other online class, starts next Monday, October 2. There’s still room for you!

Show, Don't Tell

Last Thursday I offered an ASK training after school.

ASK stands for Author, Specialist, Knowledge, and is a literature based program that ends with a videoconference interview of a specialist or author. The program was designed by Dr. Kettel, University of Michigan-Dearborn, and has been successfully implemented on a large scale in Macomb county. Macomb ISD has mentored us as well as TWICE and others in implementing this program locally.

Usually my ASK training covers what it is, the 13 steps, the various books and programs we offer to our local schools, how to make your ASK program a success, and is generally a lot of talking. This year I wanted to do it a little differently. Partly due to the influence of 123 Jazzing on my teaching, partly due to a sore throat, and partly due to the realization of good teaching: show – don’t tell!

So I brought out a copy of most of the books that we offer and spread them out on tables. After watching the ASK video and reviewing the various books, we did a mini-ASK process. Each person read a couple pages in one of the books. (I really believe in choice with adult training!) Then they journalled a few lines. Wrote their questions on 3×5 cards. Then we split into three groups to pretend we were in an ASK program. We connected in from 3 of our VC systems and simulated the project. Everyone got to ask their question in the recommended format. “Hi, my name is Jane, and this is my friend John. Our question is, In the book, ……”. They got to see how the video switches in a voice activated format. How to mute & unmute. How to have the students stand at the microphone listening until the author or specialist has answered their question.

We covered just about everything in the Making Your ASK Program A Success handout without me hardly *telling* any of it! They experienced it. Cool. Everyone was really excited and signed up for programs right away.

It’s funny how you KNOW in your head what good training should be like, but when you have just an hour and a half you think there isn’t time. Well, there is!

By the way, there may be a few spots left in the TWICE ASK programs. And if I have any in mine (I don’t right now), I’ll let you know here.

And also, if you’re a regional coordinator for distance learning, you ought to be offering these kinds of programs for your schools! Want to learn how?! My online class, Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, starts next week and includes how to run ASK programs as well as MysteryQuests and other projects. We’d love to have you join our learning community!

8th grade students plan VCs

Here’s a little tidbit you might find interesting. I received an email from someone looking for videoconferences. She said,

I am now starting an options class where my students in grade 8 are planning Video conferencing sessions for other classes in the school.

This was for a K-8 school. What a unique idea! We all know that good VC programs require someone in the building to assist the teachers. Having students research and find programs for the other classes/grades is such an interesting idea.Reminds me of a computer support club. Have any of you tried something like this? Seems like we should try whatever ways we can think of to support teachers!

Polycom Remote Practice Causes Laughing

Last week I conducted the first two days of training for my new building distance learning contacts as part of our USDA RUS DLT grant.

I scheduled four days of all day trainings over the fall, and each of the 35 buildings with new Polycoms has to send at least one person to the training. Many of my buildings are sending two people. Since many of the buildings are small and rural (the population targeted by the USDA RUS grant), we have a wide variety of positions that were assigned support of the new system. In some buildings there is a media specialist or library aide, in others, a secretary who has a knack for technology, in others, one or two teachers are the new distance learning contacts.

The agenda for the day was:

My favorite part was the Polycom practice. I gave them an overview and an “assignment” sheet with different kinds of calls to make (IP, ISDN, multipoint) and things to practice (muting, moving the camera, setting presets, etc.). Then I divided them into groups and sent them off to our VC rooms around the ISD to practice. And I left them alone! But I could hear lots of giggling and laughing going on as they played with the remote. In about 30 minutes they came back to the main room excited and ready to go. They said the remote was easy to use and they felt very comfortable with it.

This was the first time I’d used this strategy and I was very pleased with the results. One of the participants said in the evaluation,

This was a great conference!!!! I’ve learned so much and I can’t wait to “play” with the equipment. I’m so looking forward to the first videoconference. I know it’ll be worth it.

So this is another reason demand is high! Many new building contacts who were concerned about their new role of supporting VC caught the big picture of possibilities, are comfortable with the tech, know they can call me if they are stuck, and are ready with tools & resources to support VC in their building. Yeah!

Demand is High

This morning I read Andrea Israeli’s blog entry, Hit the Ground Running, with interest. She says,

This year our schools are videoconferencing in September. I think this is a first. It used to be don’t even mention the “V” word until October and even then it wasn’t until late October that things got going. Now I find schools have dusted off the monitors, hooked up the Polycoms and started making test calls and school just started on Tuesday! What’s going on?

I agree! Something is happening! Last year at this time I had 25 requests for VCs for the year; this year I have 91 already and they are pouring in! I talked to another colleague in Texas who is also having increased demand. Gone are the days of a quiet September prepping for VCs for the rest of the year.

It’s a great problem to have, really! Training and advertising has paid off. Increasing access to the equipment clearly has made a difference already. Now the new problem is how to manage the increase and begin transferring more responsibilities to media specialists and building level coordinators. Already I’ve sent some media specialists off to do everything for some upcoming programs. So here we go for another exciting school year with wonderful learning opportunities brought to our kids via videoconferencing!

123 VC: Jazzing Up… Summary

Finally, if you’ve been reading my blog and wanting a better description of the workshop 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing, please visit Andrea Israeli’s blog. Her write-up/summary/reflection from the week is right on. Thanks Andrea!

Student Reflections on a VC

Here’s another great tidbit from the workshop last week, 123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing.

This is from one of the group’s project presentation. As part of their project, they included how they would have students evaluate the videoconference and debrief afterwards. Here are the questions they’d ask their students:

  • What did you learn from the VC?
  • What did you learn from the VC that you couldn’t have done otherwise?
  • What did you like about the VC?

Three simple questions! Think how much you’d learn from their answers!