Category Archives: Professional Development

Professional Development, Training, Faculty Development, Workshops

Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections Start Jan. 26

Just a quick plug for some upcoming classes you might want to join!

Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections is a six week in depth experience in making collaborations happen. Appropriate for all grade levels. Read more online here. It starts January 26 and runs through March 6.

Also, I still teach one class not related to videoconferencing – Technology in the Early Elementary Classroom. It runs January 26 through March 20 and is an in depth look at various technology tools appropriate for young students. There is a track for TuxPaint, Pixie, KidPix, and digital cameras. Some participants follow one track, some try out each track.

For both of these classes, we’ll take registrations through January 27. Join us for an interactive learning community!

Day 6: Promoting Videoconferencing in Your School

Last week we focused on settings and such. This week in the 20 Day challenge we are looking at tips for before the videoconference – focusing especially on the nitty gritty of working with teachers.

Today’s topic is how to hook teachers on videoconferencing and promote the possibilities of this technology within your school.

TeacherIt’s the Curriculum!
Owston (2007), in his study of schools implementing technology initiatives, found that teachers need to see the benefit to students before they will adopt a new technology tool. So, how do you help teachers see the benefit?

  • Use the correlations to national and state standards found in the popular database (Berrien RESA and CILC).
  • Use the Grade Level Guides to VC. Yes, they were done for Michigan and are now outdated even for Michigan curriculum, but they give a starting point for teachers.
  • Pick a couple willing teachers, find out what they are teaching for the next few months, and find a VC for them. Print the flyer or the program description for them. Put it in their mailbox. Start small like this, and then later teach them to find their own programs.
  • Help the teachers see how the programs fit their curriculum and help them teach that content better. Don’t push doing VCs just for the fun of it. Find the curriculum connection.
  • If you need help doing this, take Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections, a popular four week course for coordinators and teachers integrating VC in the curriculum.
  • Help teachers see how videoconferences meet their curriculum and can be used in place of some lessons to teach the same content.

Of course, all of this takes time. So set yourself a reasonable goal of a few of the teachers/grade levels and target those. Then as they get comfortable, work on the others. Some teachers will probably never be enthusiastic about videoconferencing. Sweeney (2007) found that constructivist teachers were more likely to use videoconferencing in the curriculum. So, realize that and work with those who are interested.

Experience is the Best Teacher
Teachers need to see a videoconference to understand what will happen and to get over the fear of the unknown. In the words of one of our coordinators:

“It seems a little daunting until you actually go through it and then you realize this was not too bad and in fact it was really awesome!”
  • Don’t just TALK about videoconference opportunities in a staff meeting or workshop. CONNECT somewhere. Don’t let the content provider just TALK either. Have them demo the most interactive part of one of their programs. Try this list to get started.
  • Wherever possible, allow two teachers to do a videoconference together. Not all of the providers will allow 50-60 kids in a videoconference. However, going to the program “with someone” is much less threatening for first time VCers.
  • When one teacher is doing a videoconference, have the principal help you arrange for someone (maybe even yourself?) to cover for another teacher for a few minutes so they can see the videoconference.
  • For that matter, make sure your principal and superintendent experience a good videoconference too! Some principals in my area actually require each teacher to do one per year because they have seen the value to the students.

Tell the Good News
Make sure the staff hear about the great experiences by the participating teachers.

  • Get a write-up in the school newsletter.
  • Encourage your principal to let the teachers share their experiences at staff meeting. Let them hear from other teachers besides you!
  • When participating in Read Around the Planet, put up a bulletin board with a map with all of your RAP partner classes marked. Share the success!
  • Have the students present at a board meeting and share their experiences and what they learned.

Advertising
Figure out ways to stop being the middle man whenever possible.

  • If your educational service agency or district office provides scheduling services and sends info on an email list, get the teachers on the email list directly. This reduces time forwarding emails and soon teachers can do their own registrations (in some cases).
  • Use grade level or subject team lead teachers to help you promote VC. It helps a lot when the lead teacher for a grade level or subject area encourages everyone on their team to sign up for a videoconference. Train and support these teachers so they can help you.

Be Sensitive
In all your promotion, be sensitive to how teachers are doing with work in general. Several of my schools are doing less VCs this year because the science and social studies curriculum changed and everyone is just trying to stay above water dealing with the change. In another district, so much new technology is being installed so fast that teachers are quite resistant to do anything extra. Factors like these can affect the use of videoconferencing, and are beyond your control. If this is the case in your school, give yourself and your teachers a break and try again the next year!

Wordle
Finally, I’ve been sharing research results of a survey of my top teachers using videoconferencing from the 2007-2008 school year. One of my questions was – how did you come to know about videoconferencing? Invariably, their school coordinator helped them get excited about videoconferencing. What words stand out for you? (Click the picture to make it larger.)

Wordle

So, Your Challenge Is:

  • Find one program that meets the curriculum for a teacher who hasn’t used VC yet.
  • OR Invite your principal to a videoconference (if you haven’t already).
  • OR Pick another of the suggestions above and make it happen!

Please comment and tell us how it went!

References
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
Sweeney, M. A. (2007). The use of videoconferencing techniques which support constructivism in K–12 education. Retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations. (AAT 3257352)

Videoconferencing Adjectives

I’m continuing this little mini-series with some of the results from a recent survey of my top VC-using teachers. Read more about it in the first post of this series. Remember, they are using videoconferencing to support curriculum instruction (not full length courses).

The question featured in this post is the following:

If your principal or superintendent walked into your classroom during a videoconference, give five adjectives to describe what they would see happening.

Videoconferencing Adjectives

Now isn’t this a nice set of words!

Notice the motivation adjectives: excited, smiles, amazed, happy, laughter, interesting, interested.

Notice the learning adjectives: learning, engaged reflective, involvement/involved, attentive, cooperative, active, interactive/interacting, communication, higher-level, knowledge, perform, reinforcement.

I did take out the word students – as many teachers wrote “students” after each adjective – and so it was huge again like the first wordle I did in this series. But I wanted you to see the adjectives larger and clearer.

See if you can find the one word that isn’t so positive. 🙂 Yes, I’ve seen a few kids do this in a VC. Have you?

Are these good reasons to use videoconferencing in your curriculum? Why or why not? Please comment.

Web 2.0 as the Vehicle of Community for Jazz

This afternoon, for homework, I was reading an article by Peter Senge:

Senge, P. (1995). Robert Greenleaf’s legacy: A new foundation for twenty-first century institutions. In L. C. Spears (Ed.), Reflections on leadership (pp. 217-241). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Senge argues that leadership includes answering “how do you build the capacity of a group of people to move toward their visions?” In this section, he suggests that people should be in dialogue, not discussion, and to be thinking together. To illustrate thinking together, he references the movie, Dances with Wolves, in particular, the section where the tribal council meets. There is deep listening, multiple strong perspectives, and no action or decision made. Yet later in the movie, there is a scene where the tribe acts fluidly together on a buffalo hunt. Senge suggests that “the capacity for the counil to sit and think together is inseparable from their capacity to act together” (p. 233).

Twitter as “Thinking Together”
All of a sudden it struck me! Web 2.0 is how the Jazz facilitators “think together”. Some of the Jazz facilitators stay connected throughout the year in multiple ways:

  • Blogs: Janine, Roxanne, Lori, Rebecca, Ashton, Andrea… did I miss anyone? Some of those who don’t blog still comment fairly regularly on these blogs.
  • Skype: we all have each other’s Skype accounts from using it in Jazz. Some of us “Skype each other” regularly to ask questions, get help, share resources etc.
  • Twitter: This is the new one for me. Just started in August. But I realized when I was reading Senge that there is a stream-of-Jazz-lead-facilitator-consciousness running along in Twitter.
  • Sharing VCs: In addition, some of the Jazz facilitators create and share content throughout the year with the others. This builds community; builds relationships; builds trust.

All of these tools help us learn together, share together, THINK together throughout the year. So when we come to plan Jazz in the summer, we have a collective shared knowledge and growth from the year.

To Jazz Facilitators: Participate!
However, not all of the Jazz facilitators participate in this community of thinking together. They are missing out! I’d like to challenge the Jazz facilitators who might fit into this category to do at least one of the following:

  1. Subscribe to the blogs listed above – both comments and post RSS feeds. Then comment at least once a month.
  2. Get TwitterFox and follow one or more of us. I’m not sure as of this posting if all the Jazz lead facilitators want me to post their Twitter account here, so I won’t. You know how to contact us if you need to.
  3. Create some content and share it with another Jazz facilitator. This year! Before June 2009!

If you do, there won’t be such a learning curve when we get to making Jazz happen in the summer. We’ll have a year’s worth (or more) of shared knowledge from which to innovate, improve, and inspire our workshop participants.

To the rest of you:
How are you contributing to a learning community? Are you participating? Do you have a personal learning network?

In the Words of Teachers

I have a session of Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections finishing up this week and next. The participants have been reflecting on the preparation for their collaborative project. Here are some comments from Shellie Jaques, Watervliet North Elementary, who is doing a project called “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing.” It’s a spin off of Monster Match, using turkeys, with each student making a turkey and actually mailing the turkeys to the partner class.

Here’s a comment on how the project inspired reluctant writers:

A few of my reluctant writers shocked me with the quality of their writing and enthusiasm for the project.  I think having an audience that goes beyond the building’s walls helps too.  It makes the project seem more important.

And a very detailed description of the preparation. Note the use of the rubric to increase the quality of the writing, and the classroom management tips.

All 23 students in my Lang. Arts class are still working on their descriptive drafts they started last Friday.  They made their turkeys last week and they look great.  I’m very impressed with their creativity.  After seeing the dry, boring rough drafts written last week I decided to make a rubric that includes many writing skills we have learned so far this year and grammar skills we are currently practicing.  I am pleased that the “My turkey has . . . ” papers are no longer in existence.  Instead we have some “Wanted Turkey” posters, missing turkey stories, etc.  Much more interesting.

Everyone will be on camera when reading his/her own paragraph.  When the partner class is reading their descriptions, my class will take turns guessing the turkey that matches the description read.  My students are seated in 8 groups of 3, so each group will have about 3 different turns guessing.  This will keep more people actively listening and limit the temptation to blurt out an answer. The group will reach a consensus and each person in the group will have a turn to be the group spokesperson.

The participants have been reading Wesley Fryer’s Tech4Learning article, “the future of collaborative videoconferencing”. Several participants picked out his comment that teachers see this as “fluff”.

If it’s tied tightly to the curriculum, and research based instructional strategies, is it fluff?! Shellie’s project doesn’t sound like fluff to me. What do you think?!

Monsters and Marzano

As I’m listening to Monster Matches today, I hear the students working hard to identify what is similar and what is different between their monsters. In the session I’m listening to now, both teachers are having their students identify things that are similar and different. The teachers also have the students think about how they could have written their description better.

It occurred to me that this fits nicely with Marzano’s strategy of having students identify similarities and differences.

As an instructional strategy, it includes various activities that help learners see patterns and make connections. For example, students compare things that are similar and contrast things that express differences. They classify when they identify features or characteristics of a group of objects or ideas, and then develop a scheme to organize those objects.

After identifying the differences, students make connections (organize?) by trying to determine what they could have done differently to help the other class better understand what they meant.

Here’s a challenge for you today: How are YOUR videoconferences using research based instructional strategies?

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!

Upgrading My Online Classes to start Oct. 6

This week I’ve been working on my two online classes on curriculum videoconferencing: Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections, and Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections. They both start on October 6.

New Articles
It’s been time for an upgrade, and some new articles. Some of you know I’ve been working on a VC Literature Review. I’ve been able to add some great new research articles to both classes, many of which I don’t have on my blog review yet. I think this will definitely make the discussion more interesting and bring a much needed research base to our use of curriculum videoconferencing.

CAPspace & Collaboration Tools
I’ve added new assignments to get your account set up in CAPspace, and for coordinators, this will include getting your equipment verified for Read Around the Planet. Might as well get set up for that project, among others that will happen in CAPspace this year. We’ll also be exploring the wealth of other collaboration sites available for target audiences.

Movies
Haven’t done it quite yet, but am hoping to add some more little welcoming video clips to each week of the class. This will spice it up a bit more too.

A Little History
I’ve been teaching these online classes since January 2004. Did you know that the Jazz workshop grew out of the PICC class? Ken Conn & Bennie Tschoerner started it after they met in one of the early PICC classes. A few other famous videoconferencing leaders also got started with the PICC class, like Roxanne Glaser of VC Rox fame. I hope you’re reading her blog too!! In addition, it was Ken who suggested a follow-up class to PICC, the Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections class. “Kid2Kid” is Ken’s idea too!

Join us!
So, all this to say, classes start October 6 and we’d love to have you join! I usually have a mix of my local educators and those across the country, and even outside of the U.S. sometimes. If you have more than 10 teachers from your region/area, we can negotiate a discounted price. Click the link for either class in this blog to find additional details and registration information.

Elevating Conversations

Here at Elevate 2008, my favorite part is the conversations I’m having with VC friends from here and there and everywhere. Here are a few snippets of those conversations.

Tracy from BC
I met Tracy from BC, a teacher-librarian. We had several great conversations about Read Around the Planet, using Web 2.0 tools, and professional development opportunities. We hope to connect our classes soon.

Chris from Australia
I told Chris about our connections to Australia in May. We talked about things we could do together. I know some of my schools would be willing to connect to Australia in the evening during a parent night or something similar. We also talked about my idea in the projects booklet of time-delayed collaborations with the Polycom RSS or a similar device. I’m hoping we can actually make some of those happen this year.

H.239 with Ken, Shane, Roxanne
I learned another reason not to use H.239 / People Plus Content / DuoVideo. Did you know that only one site in the conference can send H.239 at a time? I can think of several projects we run where we show each other content at the same time. This standard is designed for one way presentation style communication, not the interactive-engaging-collaborative-constructivist-learning experiences we prefer to do.

CILC Content Dollar Bank with Ruth
Ruth Blankenbaker and I had a chat about their dollar bank program. It’s a really cool service for anyone struggling with the challenges of scheduling and managing the funding of a lot of content provider programs. She said schools are using it for managing grant funding and for after school programs.

Chatting about firewalls with staff from an unnamed district
It’s so unfortunate when networks are locked down so tight that you can’t call another school in your building, and your tech won’t give you an IP address to give to the place you want to connect to. It’s so challenging to solve the connection problems with H.323 and firewalls. It’s nice to get together with friends and mutter together.

These are just a flavor of the conversations from Elevate 2008. If you were here, what conversations did you learn from?

VC7 – Brain Based Learning Techniques

James Tapankov: The VC7 – Brain Based Learning Techniques in VC
At Elevate 2008

This session will explore the use of brain-based learning techniques in the videoconferencing environment. The VC7 is a list of seven approaches that are guaranteed to enhance the level of interactivity and value to every VC, regardless of its focus. The session will involve the history of the development of the VC7, from its beginning roots to the current project with the VCRLN (Videoconferencing Regional Leads Network) to develop an online multimedia reference to highlight effective aspects of learning via VC.

I’ve been really looking forward to this session since I read the blurbs for the sessions at Elevate. I’m so interested in what the 7 things are!! James doesn’t have this information online anywhere that I could find, but last night at dinner he gave me permission to blog his session, so you too, can learn about the VC7.

James’ work is influenced by that of Marcia Tate of Developing Minds and Stephen Covey, and Viktor Flankl – Man’s Search for Meaning. I’m impressed with the connection and grounding in theory.

His handout has room to write down the 7 things, room to scribble and draw. He does this session via videoconference as well.

Keys to Brain-Based Learning

  • Relaxed alertness
  • Orchestrated immersion in complete experience
  • Active processing

#1. Make it meaningful.

Get everyone involved ASAP. Give meaning right away. Why are we here? Allow input into the “how”. Have everyone to something in the first 5 minutes instead of listening. Aim learning at solving problems together. Process learning in multiple ways. Connect life experiences. Build in reflection.

#2. Get them active.

Build in reasons and opportunities to: move. talk. draw. role play. play games. sing/dance. SHARE. “The last thing you want is a videoconference that could be recorded and sent out and it would have the same effect.”

#3. Keep it fresh.

Chunk it up, change it up. Take timely breaks. Give things to do OFF camera. Do unexpected things. Plant a “mole”. Change participant perspectives. Use new tools.

Marcia’s rule – maximum length of an activity: average age – up to 20 age/minimum. Grade 5 students who are 10, then chunk 10 minutes. Adults, 20 minutes max.

Example of unexpected things. He had some “moles” to pull out this snack that he likes – and everyone would taste it. Garlic sauce covered pretzels.

#4. Engage the senses.

Use A/V cues. Involve peripheral learning. Provide physical props. Use music. Use smell/taste. Use touch.

Visuals around and behind you but you don’t actually reference. This goes along with my idea to crunch MysteryQuest to an hour and change some of the clues to being nonverbal – like the climate and human environment interaction clues.

How do you convey the other senses when VC only conveys sight and sound?

He talked about the project he did with Santa and how they used clues. One of the squares in a multipoint is a sign that said “everybody scream” and after they did, Santa came on screen. When the grinch came on that same screen they hand to ring their bells and sing a song to make him go away. They used a green screen to transport Santa in & out of the different places. Like Santa got stuck in the dungeon and they had to answer questions to get him out.

#5. Make it personal.

Connect a camcorder. Tell (appropriate) personal stories. Give things to do OFF camera. Do unexpected things. Plant a “mole”. Change participant perspectives. Use interactive digital tools.

He thinks the robotic movements of the camera are impersonal, so he likes the camcorder instead hooked into the aux ports. You can really quick zoom in on what is going on that you want the other site to see. Of course you have to have enough bandwidth to handle all the motion.

When you build relationships with people, you want to see their reactions. Kids love to be behind the camera running it. Hmm. I wonder if a camcorder plus PVX plus Promethean is where I should be heading with my “every classroom” project

#6. Engage their emotions.

Use music to direct/adjust mood and focus. Create opportunities for empathy. See first five points. James wants us to contribute too so that these don’t repeat quite so much.

#7. Celebrate the experience.

Encourage/reward risk. Enjoy your time together. Be silly when you can. Highlight progress made. Provide opportunity afterwards.

Celebrate what happens at the end of things – like the big bang finale in Jazz.

Low threat / high challenge for brain based learning.

So many “one-offs” happen, so provide an opportunity to keep connecting.

Presentation Tips

  • Play music while the people talk. When the music stops, everyone stops talking.
  • Use a parking lot to write down questions and comments for afterwards.
  • “I’d love to hear 3 comments.” and he gave away 3 pens.

James has set up a wiki to continue the conversation and wants us all to contribute and extend these ideas. Gotta add this to the Read Around the Planet materials for this year!