Category Archives: Videoconferencing

Day 8: Collaboration Sites and Listservs

20 Days to Being a Better VC CoordinatorYesterday with Roxanne’s guidance, you set up accounts on the most common websites you’ll need to login to and register for videoconference programs.

Today’s focus is on collaboration sites and listservs. This is your support community. You’ll learn from others, get ideas for using VC in the classroom, and even find out about new programs from content providers.

Collaborations Around the Planet
Also known as CAPspace, this site is where the popular Read Around the Planet registration and matching happens. By the way, today is the last day to register for RAP (and you have to have verified equipment already). CAPspace also allows you to post your own teacher-created collaborations to an audience of over 2000 educators (emailed daily).

  • For today’s challenge, work through the CAPspace scavenger hunt. At least, check your phone number and address, collect some badges, and set your privacy to Full if you want others to find you for collaborations.
  • If you already have your account set up, go to My Projects, Collaborations, and write up a past collaboration that you’ve done. This will add to your stars or “reputation” in the site. Make sure you mark it as Past or you’ll have partners signing up!

Other Collaboration Sites
Next, pick one of these collaboration sites that you haven’t explored yet. Get an account set up and explore it.

Listservs
Finally, are you on the popular videoconferencing listservs? If not, pick at least one and sign up for it. The easiest to sign up for is the Collaboration Collage.

  • Collaboration Collage: The oldest and largest VC listserv.  Listserv ended Fall 2010.
  • K-12 IVC (Established January 2003; CILC took on maintenance of this listserv in October 2008).
    • To subscribe to K12IVC@CILC, please send a blank e-mail to k12ivc-addme@cilc.net.
    • To unsubscribe to K12IVC@CILC, please send a blank e-mail to k12ivc-removeme@cilc.net.
    • To post a message to K12IVC@CILC, send it to K12IVC@cilc.net. You must be a subscriber to K12IVC to post.
    • To switch to digest mode, send an email to tstevens@cilc.org with the subject K12IVC@CILC.
    • For general list help, please contact tstevens@cilc.org.

Challenge
CommentDid you do all three challenges? Please comment and tell us what you thought!

  • CAPspace Scavenger Hunt
  • Sign up for another collaboration site
  • Sign up for a listserv

CommentComment: Did I miss your favorite site? Do you have any other tips? Please share.

Interviewing a Tuskegee Airman

Today we had a very special treat: an interview with Tuskegee Airman, Alexander Jefferson, and author of Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free. This program was made possible because of coordination by Gail Desler, hosting by Wayne RESA, and bridging and facilitation by Berrien RESA. Thanks Gail, for sharing this opportunity with us!

Alexander Jefferson, Tuskegee AirmanHere is a sample of the students’ questions:

  • Why was your squad so successful?
  • Was it hard to leave home and go to war?
  • What was your experience when you came home?
  • What is your opinion of how the world turned out today?
  • I’m an aspiring pilot, and I want to know did you enjoy being a pilot?
  • What were the conditions like inside the plane?

Some of my favorite moments were:

  • In talking about segregation and civil rights: “We helped to change this country.”
  • One student mumbled their question and he gave her quite a little lecture and told her to speak up. It was pretty funny. All the kids laughed. You could tell he was a teacher for 35 years.
  • Partway through the videoconference, a conversation broke out with two people visiting at the school – Mrs. Edith Roberts, widow of George S. “Spanky” Roberts, and Mr. George Porter, Crew Chief at McClellan AFB. They talked about an invitation to Washington and I googled and found out that the Tuskegee Airmen got a special invitation to the inauguration. Mrs. Roberts didn’t get an invitation though, and she mentioned how once their airmen have passed on, people forget about them. I’m thinking though, that it would be so fascinating to hear their side of the stories.

The interview was incredible, and I think we’ll probably be scheduling a TWICE ASK program with Mr. Jefferson sometime soon. In the meantime, check out the streaming recording.

Negative Things About Using VC in the Classroom

Yesterday we began this little journey of examining results from a little survey I did last May. Review the previous post for more information on the survey.

Today, let’s look at the companion question:

Please identify three to five negative things about using videoconferencing in your classroom.

Negative Things About Using VC in the Classroom

What words jump out at you this time? TIME! What ways are time challenging for videoconferencing?

  • Time zones
  • Time to schedule a videoconference
  • Time to prepare the students (and yourself) for a videoconference
  • Time to get all the classes at the level/grade to participate
  • What else can you think of?

Scheduling and technical problems stand out in this list too. While these teachers tend to be in my schools with better bandwidth and infrastructure, they still have done enough VCs to run into glitches.

I’ll share a couple full answers with you. This one is from Lacy Payne, F.C.Reed Middle School, in Bridgman, Michigan, (RUS grant school) whose students have done ASK programs, MysteryQuest, The Cleveland Museum of Art (to name a few), and has also participated in the Jazz workshop.

I have a couple of experiences where I had to reschedule because of technology problems, scheduling problems sometimes occur, time availability, and cost. I have two sessions of classes I teach and in order to get them both in I have to have them at the same time which creates a large number of students upwards of 50-60 kids. If money wasn’t an issue it would be much easier to do one conference per class.

From Peggy Clore, Coloma Middle School, (RUS grant school) 6th/7th grade language arts teacher:

1) Preparation takes time out of other lessons I’ve planned, so I have to make sure I’m covering as many of the GLCE’s as I can. Editor’s note: GLCEs are Michigan’s Grade Level Content Expectations.
2) Snow days cancel programs:)
3) Hearing may be difficult due to the other classes’ facilities.

And of course, this one is my favorite answer from a teacher who preferred to be anonymous in the survey results.

I don’t consider any part to be a negative worth griping about. If forced to nit-pick, the time frame is sometimes out of classwork sequence.

Are these negative things a barrier for these teachers? Read yesterday’s post!

So, please comment – either with your own list of negative things about using VC in the classroom, or with your own interpretation of the data represented above, or your own ideas of how to address these challenges.

Positive Things Abut Using VC in the Classroom

Last May (2008), I asked twenty of my teachers who used VC most often to complete a little survey. This is the beginning of sharing the results. Each teacher had used videoconferencing at least 6 times in the school year, and the teacher using it the most had done 12 videoconferences in the 2007-2008 school year. All of these were “curriculum videoconferencing” or using VC to support curriculum instruction.

In this post, I’ll share the answers to one of the questions. I decided to use Wordle to represent the data visually. Interestingly, it’s quantitative data (counting the number of times the word is using) represented in a more qualitative way.

Please identify three to five positive things about using videoconferencing in your classroom.

Positive Things About Using VC in the Classroom

Isn’t it interesting that the word students is so huge?! Learning, experiences, and opportunity jump out at me. It’s all about the students, isn’t it! Click the graphic to see the words much larger. Think about each of those other descriptive words.

And, I selected one full answer to share with you. This answer is by Peggy Clore, 6th and 7th grade language arts teacher at the Coloma Middle School, Coloma, Michigan (one of our RUS grant schools). She took the Jazz workshop a couple years ago and has been hooked on VC since. One of her more memorable VCs was the Around the World project in April 2008. She has also participated in the ASK interview with Jim Stovall and Read Around the Planet.

1) Students have an authentic audience, causing them to take greater care with their work.
2) Students learn to create valid questions through the ASK kit.
3) Students reflect upon what they learn and sometimes change their thinking or make connections to what they know.
4) Some of our challenging students’ behavior is so much better because they’re interested in what we’re doing.
5) When we connect to another part of the country or a foreign country, we open our students’ world to ideas they may not learn through a text book. Most of our students do not have opportunity to travel or see areas outside of our rural community and county.

So, how would you answer this question? Please comment – either with your own list of positive things about using VC in the classroom, or with your own interpretation of the data represented above.

The More You Share, The More Power You Have

I was intrigued by Will Richardson’s post from this week – “the less you share, the less power you have.” I’d like to state it more positively – the more you share, the more power you have.

I’m thinking in particular of Monster Match and its spin offs and the spin offs from the spin offs. My teacher who posted the “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing” project was so excited to see the class that used her idea for More Descriptive Writing… Her partner teacher noticed the Snowman one that was posted. She found it so affirming that others were using the ideas.

So, you could say, how is that more power? Well, how do you define power?

  • If it’s greater self-confidence to influence others, then this is an example of greater power.
  • If its a realization that one can make a difference not only in one’s own classroom but for other teachers too, then this is an example of greater power.

It empowers teachers to realize that others are using their ideas. Do you agree?

Need partners for Eco-Conversations

I need two more partners for our EcoConversations project. We’ll take classes in the US if we can’t get Canada or UK partners.

Description: Students connect internationally to discuss current environmental issues and their impact locally. Students present their research and the local perspectives and then discuss the issues with the partner class.

Please check the project website for which times are still available. Registration is online there too.

At the time of posting this, I need two classes.

Fresh Water: Dec. 9 9:20 – 10:05 US EST / 2:20-3:05 UK
Carbon Emissions: Dec. 11 8:50-9:50 US EST / 1:50-2:50 UK

Veterans Day Interview Nov. 11 at 9:00 EST

We have a panel of veterans coming in on November 11 from 9:00-10:00. We’ll be using the interview format, with each class getting an opportunity to ask questions of the veterans.

I need some more interactive classes! If you can join us, please sign up online here, and then email me to let me know you want to participate.

FREE!! 🙂

Subscribe to the TWICE Blog

RAP HatJust a reminder to everyone who is subscribed to my blog, to make sure you’re subscribed to the TWICE blog as well. Particularly if you plan to participate in Read Around the Planet this year. It’s time to start thinking about this big project, and you’ll want to know about the updates and tweaks to CAPspace for Read Around the Planet…..

Final Monster Match Thoughts

Are you subscribed to Roxanne Glaser’s blog? If not, be sure to check out these two informative reflective posts on last week’s Monster Match sessions:

You may as well take a moment to subscribe to her blog too if you haven’t already!

So, what’s next? I have two days of ASK Stellaluna, more November and December ASK programs, starting to prep for Mrs. Claus in December, and getting some Eco-Conversation projects for December off the ground. Also getting ready to get to work on verification for Read Around the Planet.

What are YOU working on next?

Monster Match "Horror" Stories and Last Pairs

Last day of Monster Match. Whew! We made it. I had 37 classes participate, which doesn’t sound like too many compared to a few other VC friends. But I’m still pleased with the results.

I thought you’d enjoy some “horror” stories from the week. These are some of the interesting things that went on behind the scenes. Any project of this size is going to have some little “issues” along that way the need resolving.

  • A fire in the room across the hall. Yes, can you believe it? And that connection only started 10 min. late. Not too bad!
  • Partner conflict over the depiction of a knife on the monster. This was resolved by removing the offending item.
  • Partner conflict/frustration over the use of “approved materials.” It seems a few teachers who did it last year didn’t think they needed to read the instructions this year. Oops!
  • Having to bus or walk to another location due to VC not working. Now that’s dedication to students!
  • A teacher on her own because everyone who runs the equipment left the building. With a little scrambling we got through it and everyone was happy.
  • A couple classes with such high excitement and poor classroom management skills that all the kids were talking and yelling at the same time. VC does tend to accentuate classroom management issues.
  • Hooked up the wrong building in a district. Oops! This is easily solvable too.
  • Custodian recycled the monster. Bummer. It made it impossible to compare, but they were still able to say how close it was.

Still, we had some great conversations about similarities and differences, and got to know each other a little more. I even heard a class this morning comparing who they were “rooting for” in the election.

Finally, a few more Monster Pairs for your viewing pleasure…

Lakeshore and Coloma Middle Schools, MI (6th grade)

This was one of the better matches I saw at the middle school level. Pretty close!

Doesn’t the head look a bit like a chocolate bar?

Coloma Elementary, MI and Groesbeck, TX (4th grade)

And here’s the monster that matched the one that got recycled. Check out the guitar!

Hope the stories this week inspired you to do similar projects. I’ve seen a few on CAPspace: Elves Exchange, Turkey Time, etc. You too can do this kind of project!