Blog Reviews & Video Clips of Content Providers

We’ve just added a couple new features to our VC Program Database linked on TWICE and Polycom. Now under the special searches on the left green bar, you can find all the programs that were reviewed by a blogging educator – , or all the programs that we can find video clips for – . TWICE is planning to add more video clips this summer.

We’re collecting the links to blog reviews from all the people I know of that are blogging – see the Other VC Blogs linked on the right – scroll down a bit. If you’re blogging about VC and I don’t have your blog listed, please let me know!

On another note, while checking links, I noticed that the Battleship New Jersey has a new math program, What Good is a Parabola Anyway? It’s always hard to find a good math videoconference, and this one sounds really neat. I hope to have a teacher do this program next year.

Construction Trades Videoconference

Today we have a special videoconference between two construction trades classes in Michigan. New Buffalo High School and Wayne-Westland High School are reporting to each other on their construction house project. Thanks to Steven Michael from Wayne RESA, a webcam, Polycom PVX, and a cable modem, the Wayne-Westland class is presenting from their construction site!

After introductions, Wayne-Westland started a tour of the house. The sound of boots in empty rooms echoed through the house. Students explained the various section of the house including:


A custom fireplace.


Shelves.


Custom windowsills


A window in the master bedroom.


Tile on the bathroom floor.


Walking through the house.


The siding.

We found that it was easier to hear the students after they had stopped at a location vs. when they were walking around the house. Background noise of construction vehicles and people walking around the house caused audio issues a few times and made it hard to hear.

Then our class shared their construction project, using a model and photos. Finally, the students asked each other questions. Unlike the elementary exchanges where usually students immediately talk about social topics, the high school students started with good questions related to their content.

  • Have you faced any major problems on your house this year?
  • How big is your house and what does it cost?
  • Have you had any work related accidents this year?

Next year we hope to do this again with a class somewhere in the southern U.S. where construction is somewhat different than here in Michigan. So if you have a construction trades class and would be willing to work with us next spring, let me know!

Teacher Suggestions for PD

teacherIn my Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections online class, a discussion ensued on how to get teachers to look for and select programs. One of my local teachers, Shellie Jaques, from Watervliet North Elementary, shared these suggestions for staff training. (Shared here with permission.)

Tell your staff they should be looking for programs that are interactive not just informative. This heads-up from our assignment for class had me looking at the programs with new eyes as I searched.

I could suggest holding the inservice in the computer lab. Provide the addresses Janine did for our assignment this week and tell each teacher to search for VC programs in a subject area they would like to improve and write down their top 2 or 3 choices with the justifications for each choice. Give a time limit and discuss what each person found at that time. Once again like we did in class.

Or

Have grade level/subject area teams go to classroom computers so discussions won’t disrupt other teams, and once again ask for 2 or 3 top choices and justifications providing a time limit and discussion time.

Anytime my principal needs us to do an online survey for the state or other things like that we start the staff meeting in the lab and just do the work right then and there, then it’s done. It provides a good environment for helping peers if they have any questions too. We are also given time limits when we need to accomplish a group task for a staff inservice. It keeps our off topic discussion to a minimum because there is always at least one “Chatty Kathy” in every group. By the way we all like our principal and this format too.

The assignment was: Pick a unit that you teach and find at least two programs for that topic. These should be two programs new to you. You will find the BCISD and CILC searchable databases most useful for this assignment. Compare the two programs. Answer these questions:

  • What is different between the two programs?
  • Which would you choose of those two programs and why?
  • What criteria did you use to make your choice?

So, what strategies do you use for helping teachers learn what is available?

A Day in the Life of a Distance Learning Coordinator

Inspired by Arnie, Roxanne and Sandy, I thought I would write about a day of videoconferencing. So I picked a pretty busy day to record. If you are blogging too, pick a day yet this school year and tell us what it’s really like!

7:30 a.m. River Valley participates in the first ever Literature Quest. I came in early and sat by my phone waiting for a call in case they had trouble. No phone call so they did great on their own!

8:00 a.m. Patrick Hamilton connects to the Buffalo Museum of Science. This connection didn’t go well and after a few minutes of struggling, I had the school dial directly to Buffalo and then I didn’t hear from them so they were fine!

8:30 a.m. River Valley’s second Literature Quest starts. Again they were doing it on their own. At about 8:40 I called the media specialist to see how it was going. Very well. We’ll probably modify the materials to include three presentations from each school. At the high school level it seems, based on this pilot, that a full MysteryQuest with six presentations can be done between two schools in an hour long class period. Good to know and we’ll continue to use this model to develop more programs.

9:00 a.m. Pat Ham finishes with the Buffalo Museum and Washington Elementary connects to them. With Washington El it worked fine on the bridge. I scramble to set up the distance learning room for an ASK program. Presets, tables, logo. Welcome panel participants.

9:30 a.m. Sam Adams and Marcellus Middle School participate in ASK: Monkey Island with our panel of experts. We rescheduled to today so that Marcellus could participate. So now I’m facilitating and making sure the Buffalo Museum program is still going at the same time!

10:00 a.m. Washington El finishes with Buffalo Museum and Patrick Hamilton is back for another session with a different class. While facilitating the ASK program, I keep checking my bridge to see when Washington is done. Then I disconnect so Pat Ham can dial directly. Note: Later today I received an email from Washington Elementary with this feedback on their program with the Buffalo Museum of Science: “The vc went wonderfully. The kids really enjoyed it, and I liked that the kids were making good observations and deductions. It’s definitely one that I’ll recommend to our teachers.”

10:30 a.m. ASK Monkey Island finishes and I thank our panel members and walk them out of the building.

11:00 a.m. Brandywine and St. Joseph High Schools connect to Global Nomads Group for their Pulse program on Muslim-Western relations. St. Joe’s camera was acting up so we had to reboot. Brandywine was connecting at 128K and we tried to resolved that but finally gave up. This program is led by David MacGuirt and is a facilitated dialogue with David posing questions and the students responding to the question, and then commenting on each others’ responses.

12:00 noon. Whew. Time for lunch.

12:30 p.m. River Valley’s last LiteratureQuest starts. On their own again. They did fine!

1:00 p.m. Catching up on email and phone calls. Arranging two more videoconferences. Helping a teacher in my online class. Answering a district tech coordinator’s questions about a grant.

2:30 p.m. Ottawa Elementary goes to the Bronx Zoo. For some reason in today’s connection I couldn’t call the Bronx Zoo, so I had to have them call me. But that was quickly resolved and we had a great program on Animal Colors.

3:40 p.m. Quick test call for Where in Michigan tomorrow.

4:00 p.m. Final videoconference reflection for the Kid2Kid Videoconference Class. We talked about what went well with their projects this year, talked about challenges – mostly related to technology and communication and talked about what other VC projects we have going on. It was a great debrief!

In between VCs today I worked on automating my final report for this year. It’s almost done!

So tell us about one of your days!

Being Patient with Teachers

Stress One of the challenges of coordinating videoconferencing is what to do when teachers cancel or change their minds on doing a videoconference. While it can be very frustrating for those who have put in time scheduling, doing test calls, and all the preparation necessary, I think we have to step back and look at it from the teacher’s perspective.

Cancellation Reasons
They may not always tell us why they are canceling, but almost always it’s a very good reason. Family issues, health issues, school scheduling issues that they didn’t know about before, curriculum pressures…. these are all reasons why teachers cancel. They sign up thinking that it will work out, but when it comes right down to it, they can’t make it happen.

Sometimes, with a little patience and encouragement in discussion with the teacher, you can resolve the issue satisfactorily to salvage the program. But other times it honestly has to be canceled.

Reacting to Cancellations
In our early days of videoconferencing, I sent some strongly worded letters to teachers about canceling programs. Guess what? They’ve never done a videoconference since. What was I thinking?!! We don’t do that anymore. We can’t take it personally! We have to consider their point of view and be gracious and understanding!

Of course we want teachers to realize that scheduling is challenging, but teachers are really stressed and under a lot of pressure. If we add to that stress, we are teaching them that videoconferencing isn’t worth the trouble. We have to cut them some slack and work with them to resolve whatever challenges arise so that they will continue to participate and use videoconferencing.

What About You?
So how do you handle cancellations? Any advice? What tips do you have to help teachers work through challenges with a videoconference?

SIG IVC Forum

If you’re going to NECC, don’t miss this SIG IVC Event!  This sounds really fun!

It’s SIGIVC’s First Forum

And we need YOUR participation.

We are looking for 15 successful programs/projects to highlight in a fun and informative format called Speed Networking.
Here’s how it works:
First: 15 people have 2 minutes each to share about their project.
Next: Time is provided for all Forum participants to network with the presenters.
Last: One page Project Overview handouts will be available to enable each participant to create a folder of best practice projects.
How to become a presenter:
•Submit a Project Overview by email.
•Judges will choose the 15 that have the greatest appeal.
•Those selected will be notified by June 1, 2007.
Project Overview Submissions Requirements:
•No longer than one typed page.
•Include all the following in this order:
1.Organizational Overview
2.Your challenge, problem or organizational need
3.The solution
4.The results
5.What innovations &/or best practices were used?
6.Contact information
Submission Process:
•Email one page Project Overview to Vicki Allen at va9187@att.com
•Deadline: May18, 2007.
SIGIVC Forum Information
When: Tuesday June 26,2007 from 10:30am to 1:30pm
Where: NECC Atlanta, GA
Who: Anyone interested in videoconferencing
Forum Registration: On NECC website.
•Go to http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2007/registration/
•Register or reassess your registration.
•Click on Add Special Conference Events
•Under Tuesday, June 26, 2007, choose SIGIVC
•The cost is $20 which covers the cost of lunch
SIGIVC: Who we are
Mission Statement: Our mission is to promote an understanding of Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) and related virtual learning technologies.
Our goal is to promote and share research and best practices in the field.

Sincerely,
Dawn Colavita
Secretary
SIGIVC

VC on YouTube

I was wandering across the Internet recently and found this link to YouTube videos about videoconferencing linked from the AT&T (SBC / Pacbell) Videoconferencing site. These links probably won’t work at school (they don’t for me), so try them at home. (Issues with YouTube include inappropriate comments on the page featuring the clip and that’s an issue with some of these too. Beware!)

Here’s some clips that show the use of videoconferencing outside the school setting:

Video clips that feature school use:

There are many more including Cisco and Tandberg ads (including some funny Russian Tandberg cartoon ads); examples of Cisco’s Telepresence system featured in popular shows, and other odds & ends. If you’re ever looking for some partially work related entertainment, here’s a place to start!

Author Janie Panagopoulos VCs from Home!

Today we have four sessions of ASK: Train to Midnight with Janie Panagopoulos, sponsored by TWICE. Fourth grade students  from around Michigan have prepared questions based on their reading of Janie’s books. Tomorrow we have four sessions on the book Journey Back to Lumberjack Camp. I’ve written about ASK programs with Janie before if you want to read about what those are like.

The sessions this spring are unique in that Janie is connecting from her home in Illinois using her computer, Polycom PVX, and the Polycom Communicator. You can see in the picture that she has a poster of the book behind her and the picture comes through very well. It’s been a bit of a journey getting the cable access to work properly with videoconferencing at her house, but now we’re reaping the results of those efforts.

We now have Janie listed as a content provider, and one of my schools is planning a professional development session with her on the topic of writing. So if you were wanting to try connecting to an author, here’s another possibility!

CSD is Blogging!


I’m so glad to tell you that Cooperating School Districts in St. Louis, Missouri is now blogging about their great videoconferences. For example, international connections, dinosaurs, and puppets. I look forward to learning from CSD as always! 🙂 Go Rebecca!

Visiting Edmonton, Canada

Thanks to Shane Grundy, Edmonton Public Schools, for being willing to connect with our students who are learning about Canada.

Trinity Lutheran, St. Joseph, students started by introducing themselves, telling about their hobbies, places to visit and eat in the U.S., one thing that they didn’t know about Canada, and what they’d like to do if they could visit Canada.

This class has done videoconferencing before, and you can see the evidence in the preparation of students for the “getting to know you” part. The little paragraphs are written on note cards and students shared some neat personal connections. I let the students use the remote and the document camera controls this time. They did a great job paying attention and switching the camera as appropriate.

It was neat and very affirming for the students here to hear the reaction to their presentation.

Then the class in Edmonton shared a PowerPoint and groups shared presentations about several important topics about Canada including government, inventions, geography, and more.

All of these interactions include the favorite question and answer time. Here’s a couple highlights:

  • Here’s an interesting fact. The students in their school can choose French or Punjabi as their second language to study.
  • In a discussion of national parks, the students here said “take me with you!!!” when referring to Banff National Park. One of the Edmonton students said, “We’ll bring you in through the screen and you can come with us.” Lots of laughter!

This was the last of a series of point to point connections we’ve had with our local middle school students who are studying about Canada. We look forward to scheduling even more of these next year!