Megaconference Jr. Magic

Here are some more highlights from today's Megaconference Jr.

Megaconference Jr. is facilitated mainly by student VJs. It's a great opportunity for these students to practice and showcase their communication and presentation skills.

Here's a picture of the students from Riverview Elementary School giving clues about their location in the Rainy River District. There were quite a few "where are we" type presentations and clues today which made it more interesting and engaging for classes watching.

This picture shows University School in Ohio sharing information about space science simulations. I really liked the layout used here as the presenting students took questions from the 5 interactive sites assigned to their session. In past Megaconferences I have really enjoyed the roll calls even though they can be fairly chaotic. So I was disappointed at first when I saw the schedule for this year's Megaconference Jr. But I have changed my mind! I think the 5 interactive sites per session has worked very well and shown everyone the true possibilities for student-to-student project connections.

Here's another example of the interaction during sessions. This class did a Jeopardy game as you can see in the picture.

Megaconference Jr. is always an amazing experience and a learning experience for videoconferencing etiquette. This year 235 sites are connected and there's always some weird glitches due to mics not being muted and people not paying attention to their site that is connected. It's a good way to learn what NOT to do in a videoconference. It's also a good way to learn to keep going no matter what! I was pleased to see that the presenters and VJs were well trained to keep going no matter who popped in and interrupted the program!

Another neat new feature this year is Virtual Postcards. But they aren't web-based as I first thought upon hearing the name. To leave a postcard, you dial into the IP address given at one of the times listed and record your session with the assistance of a technician. It's a video postcard! Recorded using your endpoint! How cool is that! To view the postcards you dial into another IP address and you can select the postcards from a menu.

I would sure like to know what type of technology is behind that. I'm suspecting a Codian but I'm not sure. Do any of you know? Leave a comment!

Kudos to the Megaconference Jr. team of volunteers. It takes so much work to make a big event like this happen! And we participants sure appreciate all the labor & love that goes into this project! The impact on student global understanding is incredible! 

0 replies on “Megaconference Jr. Magic”

  1. Hi,

    the virtual postcards are provided with a Codian VCR,
    The main MCU was a Polycom, but a lot of the MCUs around are
    Codians.
    Codian MCUs are the most powerfuls MCUs (for IP) that you can
    get today.

    Regards
    Juergen

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