Changing My Mind on View Only Sessions

In the first few years of our distance learning program, I thought that view only sessions were a waste of time and energy. In those days, classes had to travel to the high school to get access to videoconferencing. VC is an interactive medium, so I didn’t want anyone to waste their time, energy and funding just to do a view only session. I’ve felt strongly for the past several years that VC isn’t worth doing if you can’t interact with the people on the other side.

However, I’m beginning to change my mind. Now most of our teachers have access to VC in their building. They don’t have to travel.

In addition, they are still very nervous about the possibility of videoconferencing. They want to know what to expect. They want to see how it works. They don’t want to commit to involving their students until they know it’s worth their time and meets the goals of the curriculum.

Enter view only sessions.

View only sessions allow teachers to experience the possibilities with students in a low-key environment. Everyone can watch how the event occurs. They don’t have to say anything or be on camera, but they can see what happens in a typical videoconference. While watching how others behave in a videoconference, they can learn how to teach their own students how to behave in a videoconference.

A view only session is a stepping stone to a full videoconference.

Do you agree?

Michigan Week Connections

To my Michigan readers, it’s time to hurry up and sign up for your 4th grade Michigan Week Connections! You can choose from Michigan Week Exchange (Read Around the Planet is modeled after this project) or from Where in Michigan?

This year’s flyer is online now for you to share with your teachers. Register by April 4!!!

For those of you outside of Michigan, these are great statewide (provincial too!!!) projects. Feel free to copy them and run them in your area! We’d sure appreciate it if you reference TWICE as your inspiration.

TWICE Gives Award to COSI Columbus

In this final blog post from the MACUL Conference this year, I thought you’d like to know that at the TWICE Annual Meeting, COSI Columbus received the TWICE Board of Director’s Award. This award is given to an organization that makes an outstanding contribution to distance learning in Michigan and throughout the country. It was a delight to see Gail and Barb connected via videoconference to receive the award. We had to hurry the presentation because they had an expert program starting shortly. Congratulations to COSI Columbus and thank you to all the COSI Columbus team for all the great content they provide to our schools.

Mark Your Calendar: Elevate 2008

I just found this in my email from the Collaboration Collage listserv.

We are in the planning stages of Elevate 2008, an international conference on K-12 educational videoconferencing to be held in Banff, Alberta August 24-28, 2008. We are searching for possible keynote presenters at this time. If you have any ideas you wish to share with me, please email me at daniel.maas@gov.ab.ca. To find out more information about Elevate 2008, please visit http://www.vcalberta.ca/elevate2008. Thank you!
Danny Maas

Project Coordinator, Videoconferencing

Stakeholder Technology Branch
Alberta Education

10th floor, 44 Capital Boulevard
10044-108 St

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 5E6
Tel (780) 415-0820

Fax (780) 415-1091
daniel.maas@gov.ab.ca

www.gov.ab.ca

I was in Alberta last summer for their Summer Broadband Conference and it was excellent. I’m sure this is going to be THE K12 videoconferencing event you won’t want to miss! I know I’m marking my calendar and starting to save pennies to get there!

Slime Time, Cold Critters, and Water Wonders

MACUL Session: Friday, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Presenters: Danielle Letter, Distance Learning Coordinator, Bridgeport-Spaulding Community School District, and Michael Maison, Media/Technology Coordinator, St. Clair County RESA
Connection: Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum

07-03-16annarbor.jpgFirst Alex gave an overview of each of the programs that Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum offers to the students. Ann Arbor sent sample materials from the programs and everyone got a chance to touch the materials and see what they were like.

Then everyone divided into groups to dissect owl pellets. This activity is part of the Owls from the Inside Out program. Participants carefully open up the owl pellet to examine the bones and see what they can identify. Participants found skulls, lower jaw bones, shoulder bones and more. Owls regurgitate about one pellet a day.07-03-16annarbor2.jpg

Danielle Letter, the teacher presenting this session, talked about how this type of activity would be very difficult to pull together on her own. Because of this, she feels it is worth the $100 it costs for this program.

This building’s principal mandated one videoconference per grade level per month . They have 92 scheduled for the 2006-2007 school year. There are 42 teachers in the building, so about 2 sessions per teacher each year. They are doing lots of projects, NASA programs, Smithsonian programs, and other content providers.

This was a great session. Participants were really involved and excited. Lots of conversation about how to get videoconferencing in their building, who to contact at their ISD to get help with videoconferencing. The enthusiasm was palpable!

Getting Started with Videoconferencing

Note: This post was written for the MACUL conference blog 2007 with attendees in mind. However I’m reposting it here because it seems it would be useful for readers here too.

H.323
The videoconferencing TWICE is showcasing here uses the H.323 videoconferencing standard. We connect using IP or via the Internet. Generally this is “room-based” videoconferencing which allows for a whole class to participate. The H.323 standard allows multiple types of equipment to connect to each other, no matter the vendor.

By comparison, Skype videoconferencing is desktop based, designed for one person at a computer using a headset, and requires Skype installed on both computers to work.

Codec / Videoconferencing Unit
First, you need a codec or videoconferencing unit. There are three main manufacturers that schools tend to be using. Polycom and Tandberg are the most popular, and Sony offers several units, including cheaper low end versions. Most of the companies don’t sell directly to customers; instead you purchase the videoconference unit through a reseller. Some resellers that Michigan schools use are: ICI which is based in Michigan and provided the audio-visual equipment in the TWICE room, and SKC to name a few.

Generally room-based videoconferencing units run around $5000 and upwards from there.

However if you want to dabble in videoconferencing before purchasing a higher-end unit, you can start with H.323 desktop videoconference. With a webcam you can use open source H323 clients or Polycom’s PVX for $120ish, to connect to H.323 content like TWICE is showcasing here. You could hook it up to show a class via a projector too. The challenge with this setup is the audio. The sound in desktop videoconferencing is designed for a headset. So if you use a microphone and speakers you’ll find a lot of echoing. The solution is to have a ready finger on the mute button so that you are always muted when the other site is talking. Annoying but doable if you want to just try it out.

Projector / TV Monitor
You’ll need a way to show the video from the codec. Most commonly this is a data projector or a TV monitor. Some installations have several monitors, but one is minimum required.

Cart
Some schools install videoconferencing into a fixed room, but it is becoming more common to purchase a cart to bring videoconferencing right into the classroom.

Network Issues
One of the huge challenges with videoconferencing is making H.323 work through firewalls. TWICE has a collection of resources and articles to help you address this. Definitely start talking to your technology people early if you are interested in VC. It may take several months to work through the networking challenges that come up with H.323 videoconferencing. Give it time and realize that it’s a journey!

Grants
So how can you get grants to support the purchase of videoconferencing? Here are a few resources I know of:

Learning About Great Lakes Native People With Cranbrook

MACUL Session: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Presenter: Charlon Franke, Teacher, Fraser Public Schools
Connection: Cranbrook Institute of Science

After an introduction from Charlon on how she uses Cranbrook’s programs in her curriculum, Cameron Wood from Cranbrook gave an overview of the programs that they offer.

07-03-15cranbrook.jpg

As Cameron walked us through the activity, he explained how he was accessing the visuals. We started by identifying the three Native American tribes in Michigan. We greeted each other and learned “thank you” and “see you later” in one of the native languages.

Cameron talked about the timeline and showed various artifacts for each time period.

In a discussion of what people need to survive, Cameron draws the items that the students come up with – food, shelter, etc. Peter Reynolds, the keynote speaker today, would have been proud of his line drawings.

Cameron noted that the program can work as a review or an introduction. What varies is how much he leads the students in the question and answer section.

A bartering game teaches students how trading works and economic concepts. While some participants were concerned about how the activity would work, Charlon shared how well Cameron handles the students in the actual videoconference. “I just sit back and say, oh my, is this my class?!”, because they are handling the activity so well.

A cup game teaches students the difference between a communal democracy, an American democracy, and a monarchy.

After the program demo, Cameron shared with us the other programs that Cranbrook offers and took questions and answers.

Places to Go, People to Meet, Things to Do

MACUL Session: Thursday, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Presenter: Keith Sadlier, Teacher, Utica Community Schools / TWICE Board Member
Connection: Ebeling Elementary, Utica Community Schools

Keith Sadlier is sharing with us today the power of kids talking to kids via videoconferencing. Keith started with a nice overview of what you can do with videoconferencing and how to find more information about shared classes, content providers, and more on the TWICE website.

We connected back to Ebeling Elementary and listened to their Spanish teacher talk about a project they did with a teacher in Costa Rica. The teacher in Costa Rica was from Michigan. The classes set up an activity where the students could learn about each other’s culture. The 4th grade classes presented to each other about their area. The Michigan students did a presentation on the alphabet of Michigan. The Costa Rican students shared native costumes and dances. The students were pen pals with each other and wrote to teach other. In the second videoconference the students were able to talk to their partner.

After the teachers described the session, a couple of the students reminisced about their presentations and interaction with Costa Rica last year. One of the students still keeps in touch with her pen pal. “The more I talk to her, the more I realize how much the same we are.”

They sent the letters by snail mail to the Costa Rican school’s P.O. box in Miami and they were able to send each other items as well.

When asked what they liked best about videoconferencing, the students said, “it’s nice to know that you have a friend so far away.”

After this connection, Keith talked about all the different types of projects and activities you can do in each content area. Good advice included: don’t pack in the students, don’t settle for a talking head, and don’t use this as a stand alone lesson.

Eighth Grade Science Students Work with NASA

MACUL Session: Thursday, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Anders Hill, Teacher, Missaukee County Public Schools
Connection: NASA Digital Learning Network, Cleveland, OH

This session started with Anders Hill describing how he uses connections with NASA in his eighth grade science class. He’s used the Cars in Space program with his robotics class, talked to NASA engineers with his rocket unit, and talked to Wilbur Wright about the Bernoulli principle and flight.

NASA started by explaining that all the NASA Centers offer videoconferencing programs to schools, as well as podcasts and webcasts for students. Topics covered include space, flight, ratios and proportions, simple machines, and how to apply science and math to the real world workplace.

07-03-15nasa.jpgTom Benson showed how he uses the green screen technology to take students to NASA experiments, to the moon, the sun and more! We watched some great video clips of how water behaves in weightless environments. Students always want to know how the astronauts go to the bathroom in space. We saw clips of flying through the International Space Center.

There are a ton of topics and lessons that NASA offers. They are FREE! Most content providers cost something, but NASA’s programs are free.

Tom told us about a class that was connecting to learn about shuttles, and as luck would have it, the shuttle was rendezvousing with the space station. So the students saw it live and Tom narrated the event.

Tom believes strongly that the kids who are in 5th and 6th grade right now will be the ones who make the Mars mission happen.

When kids ask the question, “what do I have to do to become an astronaut,” they put up a big black and white screen with huge letters: DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

The session ended with questions and interaction between the participants and the presenters. Another great videoconferencing session.