Category Archives: Professional Development

Professional Development, Training, Faculty Development, Workshops

Training Hosts at the Canadian Space Agency

This morning at breakfast at the Elevate 2008 conference, I chatted with Marilyn Steinberg from the Canadian Space Agency. I commented that I heard their programs fill up quickly, so she described how they focus on quality, particularly how they train their “hosts” – the scientists and engineers who videoconference with the students. Her training program isn’t published or researched, however, Alberta Education is conducting a three year research project on their student programs.

I learned some really interesting things from Marilyn as she described their training program for their experts. Sometimes the best learning is in the conversations at a conference!

Components of the training

  • An annual 7 month training that consists of 2-4 hours a month
  • Three levels of training – beginning, intermediate, and advanced
  • Beginning focuses on room presence when presenting face to face
  • Intermediate and advanced include speaking the same curriculum language as students and teachers, body language in a videoconference, initiating a warm connection in the first 2.5 minutes of the connection, etc.
  • Pairing beginning and advanced presenters in the first face to face workshops at the Space Agency so the beginners aren’t alone

Lessons for communication
Marilyn shared some really important communication points for videoconferencing. I asked her how she learned them, and she said by observing. They’ve been doing videoconferences for quite a long time. So here are a few of her tips.

  • An early tip for their experts is how to engage with students and teachers who come to sessions on-site at the Canadian Space Agency. The experts learn not to turn their back to the audience – “only your spouse should admire your backside” – a humorous way to remember the lesson! Moving around instead of staying in one place to present requires the audience to multi-task and follow you.
  • Don’t point to the kid on the front row. Pointing is very aggressive. Instead, call on the student in the first row with a green shirt – with an inviting smile on your face and your eyebrows raised. The student will respond with a smile and you’ve engaged them and made a human connection.
  • Don’t break eye contact with the audience. She talked about how when you’re thinking, you might look down or up to the left. But this just makes you look really scary and shifty in a videoconference. Their presenters practice in the mirror and with each other in preparation for looking at the audience and not breaking eye contact. She described the results of this training in a session where the students are working in the room under the supervision of the remote host/scientist – and students just approach the microphone to ask questions of the scientist. Clearly the scientist is “in the room” in the students’ minds.

The scientists improve so much in their presentation skills that they come back from their conferences and comment on the poor quality of presentations done at their scientific conferences. They’ve learned so much they’ve become critical consumers of presentations.

Curriculum Connections
The other part of her training program is in depth learning about the curriculum requirements of the schools. The scientists and engineers learn how to use the same language that the students are using in their scientific curriculum. This is so critical! How many poor expert presentations have you seen? Marilyn commented that they are “talking to themselves”, which I thought was pretty funny because it’s so true!

Assessment
A really brave (in my opinion) component of their training is annual assessment. This isn’t just a three year training where you just walk through the workshops and then you’re done. Each year they assess the experts to see what training they need to focus on for that year. The training is tailored to their needs. She didn’t describe how they did the assessment, but this seemed really brave to me. How many guest experts would be willing to go through this? Yet, clearly they are able to get past the initial hesitancy of their engineers and scientists to the point where they value and appreciate the training. They come back and say this interaction with the kids is their favorite part of their job because of the positive feedback they receive.

I look forward to future publications and presentations of the great work that the Canadian Space Agency is doing!

Leadership Jazz

This post is for those of you who have participated in the Jazz workshop or are thinking of joining us in 2009. The rest of you may find it a bit too far afield from my usual posts. 🙂

So, I’m on vacation, enjoying the Canmore Banff area. After hiking and canoing almost to the point of exhaustion, today we wandered through art galleries. In one of them, I glanced over a brochure and noticed that tonight there was a program called Leadership Jazz in the Banff Centre sponsored by Leadership Development, free! So we went and enjoyed a great interactive evening with Jazz Impact. What follows are my scribbles and notes, direct quotes…. if you’ve participated in Jazz , I’m sure this will resonate with you like it did for me.

Observations on what Jazz musicians do….
Jazz is a HOW not a WHAT…

  • listening to each other
  • letting each have their turn to shine
  • building off each other’s ideas
  • some dissonance in the chords but rhythm
  • smiling, showing passion
  • they don’t try to replicate a song exactly the same as it was the last time
  • jazz is full of diminished chords – 7ths! – cool chords – but not perfect clean triad majors

Random thoughts….

  • To find creativity go to the intersection of disciplines…. “intersectional innovation”
  • collaborative innovations, collaborative negotiations
  • risk, listening, courage to embrace change
  • jazz musicians are comfortable with discomfort – the wildness of Jazz
  • some may think improvisation is loss of control and unpredictability, but it’s really moving from certainty of the present moment to the uncertainty of what comes next
  • one person improvising alone is not relevant or useful to business or an organization
  • structure plus flexibility – structured time plus local time
  • jazz is a way to interpret, discover, and actualize our ideas simultaneously
  • jazz is the only place where you lead and support at the same time – syncopation – critical that both pieces happen at each site
  • none of the individual parts lose their integrity – unique but together
  • they trust each other – Jerome said sometimes you have to bear the burden of someone who doesn’t have it together – it’s like pulling teeth – one person can throw it off by being a drag – but in their jazz ensemble, they can relax – it feels like home – you know everyone will do their part. It takes being prepared and ready to for what is next – when deciding who will be the soloist next….
  • you’re in the place of having blind folds – you feel the intention of the people you’re “jazzing” with

The presentation was organized around five important parts to jazz: autonomy, passion, risk, innovation, listening.

Autonomy

  • interactive autonomy – team focused interaction
  • feeling responsibility for your part – this is huge!!
  • intellectual athletics – hard work to blend with others – critical for our collaboration
  • when you lead in jazz, you’re the soloist – the other people create the context
  • the supportive role is critical; comping skills are critical – we must learn to support others – you have to be able to support and lead both, to host a Jazz workshop
  • interactive innovation is not achieved by power
  • note how they give clues to know when to read and when to pull back and let others lead

Passion

  • passion makes connecting possible – connecting between the ensemble members, and connecting with the audience
  • we have a fear of uncertainty around creativity; must let it go
  • passion requires emotional commitment
  • emotional commitment gets us part hard spots and hurdles and difficult times – you can’t just “receive” the Jazz workshop – you have to be emotionally committed to do your part and jump in where you’re needed it
  • you manage passion by valuing it
  • how do you create an environment where passion is at the individual level?
  • innovation is contagious – new ideas compliment the other person’s ideas
  • “I’m playing with someone who is actually listening” – is what you find out when they play off your ideas (Jerome)
  • level of accountability is crucial to passion – each person’s piece is crucial for success
  • you have joy and pleasure in others’ successes
  • Respect. Space. Play. (Audience comment)
  • Respect is important when you’re taking risks

Risk

  • Jazz is high risk
  • orchestra is top down – skills to interpret a composed score from the past; with jazz its constant risk of own musical invention in real time with others
  • the tune sets up the foundation to provide minimal boundaries
  • a zone of improvisational freedom
  • most management structures try to mitigate uncertainty
  • functioning in real time, you can’t eliminate uncertainty
  • change and risk are constant – if you can’t live with the uncertainty and ambiguity and variety of connection quality and experiences, you don’t belong in Jazz
  • ask questions without fear of reprisal
  • “take the risk“

Innovation

  • Do the structures in you work with provide fluid flexibility?
  • chord changes are the structure, the foundation for the tune – the basic framework of Jazz is the foundation – but lots can happen by being flexible around it…
  • constantly trying to discover new ways to move forward
  • the ideas go back and forth between the soloist and the rhythm section (leading and changing Jazz each year with new ideas)
  • much higher level of cross functional understanding and influence between leader and support section

Listening
We all put on blindfolds, were divided into four sections, and we created music together. Really cool. Listened so carefully to each other and how we fit into to big picture!

  • How do you listen for innovation?
  • creative destruction
  • reinvention of a core value established in the past
  • empathic listening – becoming cognizant of all the assumptions and judgments we create to protect against uncertainty, then suspending those judgment- do we all listen carefully to each other throughout Jazz and in preparation for? do we teach our participants to listen to each other during the small group time?

What connections and thoughts pop into your mind about collaborative experiences like Jazz and others???

Fall Professional Development

What kind of videoconference professional development opportunities are you giving to the teachers and schools you support this year?

I just got my forms and options listed online for my schools, so thought I’d share what I’m up to.

RUS Grant
We’re in the third year of our RUS grant implementation, and some schools are still working on meeting these requirements.

  • Each coordinator has to take two “long” classes through the course of the three years of the grant. They are graduate credit length classes. There are several options for them to meet this requirement.
  • At least four teachers (other than the coordinator) need to do some type of professional development about videoconferencing. This can be either the long or short courses, depending on the PD needs of the teachers in the school.
  • Each school building needs to participate (with at least two teachers in attendance) in at least one after school workshop about a topic other than videoconferencing. I’m really pleased with how some of our content area consultants have already planned their VC workshops without any reminding from me! There are a couple more that I’m hoping will offer something this year, but we have nice line-up already.

Showcases
One new plan for this year is the Content Provider Showcases. Last year I didn’t do any content provider showcases and several of my schools were begging for them. They really want to be able to attend them at their school right after school. So I’m trying a new format.

  • Multipoint. I explained it to the content providers and as long as they know I’m bridging and will be moderating to keep the multipoint connection in order, they are ok with it.
  • Program, not overview. I’m also paying the content provider for a full program, so that instead of just a talking head about the programs they offer, we’ll actually experience what it’s like to participate in a program.
  • Prize drawing. Finally, I’m going to pay for three programs; so after we are done with the provider, we’ll do a drawing and give three programs away to the teachers who attended.

I’m really hoping this new format will generate interest and will remind teachers to pick their videoconferences for the year soon.

Online Classes
Finally, just a reminder that I’m still offering two online classes for integrating videoconferencing in the curriculum. These classes are open to schools outside of our area (indeed, most of my participants are not in our area). I’m willing to negotiate bulk discounts if you have several teachers who want to participate. Or if you’re rolling out a new implementation and would like coordinators in all your new schools trained, we can negotiate a price for a session just for your area. Let me know if you want to discuss further.

So, what are you doing for PD for your schools/teachers this year?

Two Successful Jazz Sessions

So, how is your summer going? Going, gone? Feels like that to me.

Last week we participated in the second successful Jazz workshop of the summer. If you’re not familiar with this workshop, visit the website.

The participants and facilitators really enjoy the process of immersion into videoconferencing in the curriculum.

Some features from this summer’s sessions include:

How did your professional development sessions go this summer?

NECC Sunday Morning

It’s Sunday morning at NECC and I have a few little things to say before I starting blogging NECC!

Jazz
June 20 we finished up a week of the Jazz workshop. It was incredible and busy so I didn’t blog at all. It was the first international Jazz workshop with a connection to Wales all week. Yes, we did work out the time zones!! So check out these resources:

NECC
I’m presenting my all day projects workshop today and Collaborations Around the Planet tomorrow. All my handouts and resources are on the right of my blog.

My Research Survey
Another shameless beg to fill out my survey. I still need some more! If you haven’t done it yet and you coordinate VC at a school or district, please click here to read about it and then take the survey. Thank you!!!

Gary Stager Makes Me Think…

After listening to Gary Stager at the MACUL 08 Conference, I went up to ask him about the handouts from his session yesterday that I missed.  In the course of the conversation, he said to me,

“Why do people identify themselves with just one technology?”

He was referring to some of the ideas in the Web 2.0 session he did yesterday that I had missed. He didn’t mean to, but he challenged my own practice.

It made me think! (Which I think is the point of listening to Gary Stager.)

I like to refer to myself as a “one technology girl”, referring to videoconferencing. I try to keep my blog focused on videoconferencing. Every time I go somewhere or see something or learn something, I’m trying to see how it ties to videoconferencing.

I want to say, how can we make our videoconferences more constructive? But I feel like I’m coming at it from the wrong angle, by starting with the technology. On the other hand, it seems that videoconferencing is a perfect fit for social constructivist learning because it’s a communication technology. I need to keep thinking about this….

One of Gary’s points was “less us, more them.”

Some beginning thoughts are:

  • what if the kids picked who they wanted to connect to instead of the teacher?
  • what if the kids researched to find and request an expert to connect with them via videoconferencing?
  • how often do we have the kids generate the activities and interaction?
  • with the KC3 programs, do the kids decide how to represent the topic? do they decide the topic?
  • what structures like MysteryQuest or Holiday Challenges could we create that are based on even more constructivist principles?

Gary also emphasized the importance of good prompts. We need more good prompts for teachers and students using videoconferencing. What tough questions could help them head down to a path of interaction with experts and/or peers?

These are just a few beginning random thoughts stirred up after listening to Gary today.  Off to the next session, but these ideas will keep simmering….

Understanding and Troubleshooting H323 Networks Workshop

I’ve blogged about this Understanding and Troubleshooting H323 Networks workshop from the University of Wisconsin before here and here. It’s excellent. Now they are offering it again and this time via web/phone conference. If you can possibly scrape the dollars together, I highly recommend it for your networking and technical videoconferencing support staff. Even videoconferencing coordinators like me – educators turned MCU support – can gain something from the workshop, especially if you’ve done a lot of connections to sites outside your network and run into strange scenarios.

They don’t pay me, or even ask me, to advertise this workshop. I’m just sharing it with you because it was such a benefit to me.

Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections Starts Feb. 11

If you are interested in doing collaborative projects, you may want to join my online class, Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, starting up on February 11. Get assistance planning and implementing a videoconference collaboration from start to finish! Discounts available for bulk purchases. Click the link for more details. Hope you can join us!

In the words of a teacher

I’m running the Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections class again. Here’s a comment you’ll enjoy. This from Karen Ennesser, Dowagiac Middle School, who participated in Eco-Conversations in December. Dowagiac Middle School is one of our RUS grant buildings too.

I personally feel that every school should use VC. The benefits to my special education and Title 1 students were absolutely amazing! They played a big part in drawing the backgrounds…and felt very successful! These students were on equal ground with the “A Students” and did a better job!! It had an educational impact on EVERY student that I teach!

I hear this often – the impact that VC (and even just technology in general) has on special ed students. We need to keep collecting these stories and comments on the impact that curriculum videoconferencing has on our students.

Listening to High School Teachers

This evening I did an ASK workshop for my local teachers. I had two high school English teachers in attendance. They’ve come to other workshops on videoconferencing. One of them has done a couple ASK programs; the other wants to but hasn’t found the right fit yet.

After the workshop, we talked for quite a while about the situation in their school and their wishes for a videoconference for their curriculum. I realized again that we cannot just be frustrated with teachers who won’t use videoconferencing. We have to listen to their concerns and situations and see if there is an appropriate, helpful way to integrate videoconferencing in their curriculum. And if there isn’t, we should accept that!

Some of the concerns were:

  • New schedule. The school switched this year from a block schedule to trimesters. This is a huge jump and is causing all kinds of frustrations.
  • New curriculum. The updated state curriculum has ramifications for their curriculum. In addition, due to the trimesters they are teaching classes they didn’t teach before.
  • Less prep time. With the new schedule and new curriculum, they are also dealing with less prep time! More preps of new classes crammed into a smaller amount of time.

With challenges like that, who would even consider using VC? However, these teachers see the value. They are struggling though to see how to fit it into already crammed schedules.

So I asked some questions. I think the most important question was, “what do you already do to teach that curriculum”? In this case, British literature. In the course of the conversation, I discovered the students act out scenes from Shakespeare’s play. Voila! Here’s a perfect way to insert a videoconference. The students will already act out scenes. Just add a videoconference to up the ante with an outside audience. We’re hoping for UK or Canada when we get around to scheduling this. The students will already be practicing the performance.

We also discussed how stressed and freaked out high school kids are when they do collaborative connections. It’s really hard for them. I remember an 8th grade class last week in an ASK program. I overhead a kid saying, This is really creepy, before they muted the microphone. Creepy! How do you get kids to overcome their fear and concern about the videoconference? It’s different with high school kids! There’s this whole “body image” thing going on that’s really tough for kids.

So in our discussion we came up with this idea for an agenda:

  • Introductions
  • Insults – both classes prepare 5 Shakespearean insults for the other class. The two classes share insults back and forth – one from each class at at time. This should break the ice and get them laughing and more at ease.
  • Scenes. Then the classes share scenes from a Shakespeare play. We’ll have to see how long the scenes are and how many can be shared in one class period.
  • Question & answer. It’s critical to include the “fun” questions. They want to know about each other: what they do for fun, what music they like, etc.

What do you think? How do you listen to the teachers you serve?