Still interviewing people at NECC 2008. In this video, Angela Conrad from Humble ISD, TX tells about a Read Around the Planet connection with Alberta, Canada.
If the YouTube video below is blocked for you, try this link to the same video on TeacherTube.
Sunday night during the global poster gallery at NECC, I thought I’d interview the presenters and post the interview online. Yes, I asked them for permission!
The presenters were Cathy Timpone, Park Ridge Public Schools with Agnes Zaorski.
The Teddy Bear project is described online, and this Moodle site is used to support the project.
If the YouTube video below doesn’t load, try it from TeacherTube.
Is it just my computer or my hotel Internet connection or did YouTube pull a lot of frames out of this video? This is my first try with this idea and I may need to tweak the process a bit.
Lit Review: This is a post in a series focusing on the research studies on videoconferencing.
Berson, M. J., Carano, K., Carlson, L. A., Mixon, N. K., Rodriguez, P., Sheffield, C. C., et al. (2006). The use of videoconferencing as a medium for collaboration of experiences and dialogue among graduate students: A case study from two southeastern universities. Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2006, 262-267. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/
My Codes: VCProjects
Main Point: The authors are part of a collaboration between the teacher education programs at two universities connecting via Internet2. The article describes the semester long team-teaching course, advantages and disadvantages of the team-teaching videoconference format, and discusses some of the content covered during the joint sessions. The class used blogging as an asynchronous method to connect the classes and allow for additional reflective thinking.
Theoretical Framework/References:
The article references Vygotsky to show the importance of “cultural exchange, social interaction, and peer collaboration” for the learning process.
Methods, Sample, Variables/Case:
This article is a conference paper so it doesn’t have a clear description of method. The study is called a case study (p. 2), but methods of data collection and analysis are not described.
Findings:
It seems mostly a discussion format was used for the videoconferences, and the two professors team-facilitated the discussions.
The participants learned from each other’s different perspectives. One class was comprised of mainly graduate students who were already teaching; while the other class had mainly graduate students who had not yet taught or were not teaching at the same time as taking the class. These different perspectives added to the quality of the discussion and learning from both sides.
The students were able to gain the advantage of having two professors without putting a strain on either university’s resources.
The double class size due to the videoconference afforded a wider perspective and more interesting discussions.
There were some challenges including some audio problems, one night one site had a blue screen the whole time (even universities have firewall problems!) A few times one university would “take over” the conversation and they had to adjust procedures to make sure the conversation was well rounded from both sides. Some mic issues included hearing side conversations and fidgeting noises, so muting the microphone was used to resolve that.
Author/Audience:
The authors are university education professors and they were presenting to an educational technology conference of K-20 educators.
Questions/Thoughts/Implications:
We can’t say that higher education isn’t trying to expose teacher education students to technology, that’s for sure. You may have your doubts about the university close to you, but there are definitely professors trying to expose pre-service teachers to current educational technologies. Yeah for them!!
I wonder if they experimented with any specific pedagogical techniques to make the instruction and discussion varied and interesting between the sites. I’m thinking of strategies by Carol Fleck and Kim Perry who presented at the Keystone Conference in 2004.
This is a great example of collaboration at the university level, and a model for team-teaching as a specific type of collaborative videoconferences.
Have you seen this Teachers’ Guide to Videoconferencing done by Athena in the UK? It’s really great!!
There are sections on:
It has a nice friendly design with nice little animations. Some summer exploring for you.
Thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to either take my research survey or forward/promote it with your local videoconference coordinators/site managers. We’re up to 290 responses now.
I need 100 more responses! I know the end of year is busy crazy for you, but please find a moment or two to support my research and take the survey or remind your local coordinators.
To tantalize you, here are some interesting results so far.
Videoconference Coordinator’s Position:
| Media specialist / librarian |
|
18% | |||||
| Media aide |
|
2% | |||||
| Paraprofessional |
|
2% | |||||
| Principal / Administrator |
|
3% | |||||
| Secretary |
|
0% | |||||
| Teacher |
|
17% | |||||
| Technology specialist |
|
34% | |||||
| District videoconference coordinator |
|
4% | |||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
Videoconference Support
| Do you receive videoconference support (technical, content and/or training) from a consortium or educational service agency (BOCES, BOE, DOE, ESC, IU, ISD, RESA, LEA, etc.)? |
| Yes |
|
59% | |||||
| No |
|
41% |
Grant Funding
| Did your school receive grant funding for videoconference programming? |
| Yes |
|
27% | |||||
| No |
|
73% |
You can also view the status report by states/countries and by educational service agencies. Thanks again for your time and support of this important research.
Well, I’m done with MysteryQuest USA for the year, and the last ASK programs are finished as well. One thing that I’ve noticed is that videoconferencing really does promote/encourage/require/give practice for speaking skills.
When students share a clue in MysteryQuest, and then have to repeat them again and again because the other students couldn’t hear them, they learn to speak up and slow down! And they gain more confidence and poise because of their practice being on camera.
As Cifuentes and Murphy (2000) found in their study of a long term collaboration between Texan and Mexican students: “The students became more confident in their speaking, poise, and behavior on camera.”
I think also of Rusty, of Weather with Rusty fame. If the students ask their question too fast or they mumble, he makes them do it again! He mentors students so they catch some of his “on camera” professionalism.
What do you think? How did you see students learn and grow in their speaking skills this past year?
Today we had 11 classes from Michigan, New York and Texas interview a panel of our Vietnam Veterans as part of the ASK program. Students had read the books The Wall and Patrol, and prepared questions ahead of time.
We’ve done this program before, so I didn’t write down as many questions as I have on past ASK program posts. Plus I got so interested in the answers that I forgot to hook up another school with the Buffalo Zoo! Oops!
Our veterans answered 134 questions in the whole day, and in the session after lunch we hit a record for questions answered by a panel of veterans – 39 questions!! Two of the questions that stood out for me today were
While the topic is often very serious, we had some funny moments too. Today’s funniest moment was when a student from Killeen, TX, ask the veterans if they had ever “interacted with domestic animals.” One of our veterans had a very funny story on how one of his buddies, incidentally from Killeen, had an encounter with a water buffalo. Everyone was laughing. It was a neat moment.
I really like it when the students prepare special expressions of thanks for our veterans. Note this poster from last year. Today we had a couple classes give a standing ovation at the end. And Lee Elementary from El Paso TX had all the students wave flags as they said thank at the end. The veterans really liked that and appreciated it!
In addition, a few of the classes really decorated the area where the students were asking questions. Our veterans enjoyed this expression of patriotism too.
Thank you to all the classes who prepared such excellent questions & took time to learn about the Vietnam War.
Classroom Exchange
Our Upton Middle School students just finished connecting to the Reef HQ. Now, they are talking to middle school students at Scots College in Sydney.
We had 3 girls from our school, because everyone else is at soccer practice or other activities. The school we connected to was an all boys school, so it was a fun exchange.
Our students started by telling a little about our town, St. Joseph and the schools in the district. Then they shared a presentation about their area, including their beaches. We learned all about rugby and cricket, and some of the best Aussie sites to see. Another presentation from the Australian students covered the flora and fauna in their area.
Here are some questions we asked each the Australian students. Our students had used CultureGrams to compare the countries and prepare questions.
What brands do you usually wear?Some of the funny word differences that we really laughed about were:
Some of the questions they asked us were:
A funny line from Australia was “we’re the only country that eats our emblem.”
These two experiences were part of a unit on Australia and turned out to be a great experience. We learned some lessons about scheduling and hopefully will have more students on our end next time.
Ottawa Elementary, whose school mascot is the otter, is connecting this afternoon to author, Laurie Keller, to discuss her book Do Unto Otters. We also have Mars Elementary participating locally, and there are other classes across the US, too. This is a Polycom Special Event and the students have followed the ASK process to prepare.
Each school also shared their favorite classroom or school rule. Some them were:
Laurie also showed all her materials used during the preparation of the book. It was a great experience and I’m sure we’ll do this again!
This afternoon, Brown Elementary connected with author Laurie Keller for a Polycom Special Event based on the ASK format. Several other schools across the country were participating as well. Students had read Laurie’s book, The Scrambled States, and had prepared questions to ask her. Here are a few of the questions from today:
We got a peek look at the sequel coming out in August, The Scrambled States Talent Show, and we also saw some of the writing process and other books that she had written. The students each shared 3 facts from their state as well. Great connection!
