K12 Videconferencing in Ontario

I just ran across a community site for interactive videoconferencing in Ontario. It looks like a Moodle site with RSS feeds from several VC blogs including mine. Neat site. Seems like they are just getting started. Check it out!

Dalcroze Eurhythmics

This afternoon Lighthouse Education Center is connecting to the Cleveland Institute of Music for the program Dalcroze Eurhythmics. We already love programs from CIM, but hadn’t seen this program yet.

The program began with clearing the floor of tables and chairs. Students learned about opposites in music (high/low, sound/no sound) while practicing following instructions. Stopping when the music stops. Jumping a a high trill. Touching toes with the bass notes. Marching to quarter notes. Jogging to eighth notes. Running to sixteenth notes.

The instructor plays the piano and gives the students various instructions and movements to do to express the music. In the next activity the students are divided into groups and each group is assigned a different speed.

Next the students apply what they experienced in running and jogging and marching to seeing the various types of notes and what they look like. In the next activity, students practice having feet move at one speed and hands at another speed.

This program is full of activity, learning, listening, and following instructions. We loved it!

Dec. 7 Interviewing WW II Veterans

Today we had a full day of interviewing our World War II Veterans in remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. Several local history classes, as well as classes from Illinois and New Hampshire participated in the sessions. You can read more about the questions in my blog entry about last year’s VC.

This time I want to say a few words about running these kinds of events.

First, I do these for my local schools (that’s my job of course!). But if I can’t fill them locally I offer them free to the rest of you. This year I turned away so many. So, here’s what I think. It’s time for more schools and educational service agencies to be producers of content and not just receivers. And the good ideas should be copied! Like this idea. Take it and do it yourself!

I’m sure you have local veterans who would love to participate in such an event. One of the students today asked the veterans how they felt coming home. The answer included this: “Programs like this are still a welcome home and make us feel appreciated.” They long to tell their stories and to share their experience with younger students. It makes them proud and honored to see students asking quality questions and thinking carefully about World War II before talking to them.

So take the plunge! If you have access to a bridge to connect several schools together and share the incredible value of live interviews with our treasured veterans, do it! I depend on one of our veterans to coordinate, call the veterans, remind them to come, etc. They appreciate the opportunity and help me make it happen. You can do it too!

Support VC Research: Take Two Surveys

We all know that more research needs to be done on videoconferencing. So, help that get done by completing two surveys today! These are two direct quotes from emails.

The first is from the UK:

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you can take a few minutes to help with a survey that my daughter Tamsin has prepared. Tamsin is preparing a dissertation looking at the impact of videoconferencing in the classroom. The survey is designed to give her research some basic information about who, why and where VC is being used. Tamsin is a student at City University, London, studying Business computing. Her particular interest is HCI (Human Computer Interaction) which is why she is interested in videoconferencing.

The URL for the survey is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=414602995487

I am also hoping to introduce this method of getting feedback for the VC sessions next year. It will be interesting to see the response and the information the survey generates.

Many Thanks in advance.

Mike

Global-Leap/ Videoconferencing in the Classroom Teachers Association
Supporting, Delivering and Extending Content and Promoting Interactive Communication Technology to add value to teaching and learning across the curriculum around the world.
http://www.global-leap.org
Global-Leap/ Videoconferencing in the Classroom Teachers Association is a Not-for-Profit organisation funded by UK member subscriptions.

And the second from Massachusetts:

I am a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and I am surveying K-12 videoconferencing educators, as part of my research.
Click on this link to be taken directly to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=161492304337
This study looks at ways videoconferencing is actually used in classrooms. We are trying to identify some videoconferencing techniques that are based on learning theory so that everyone may benefit from this information.
Your participation in this survey will be confidential and only studied as part of a group. You will remain anonymous. Also, I will post the results back to this listserv, so that you may use this research when writing grants, planning research or while implementing more videoconferencing opportunities.
The results of this survey will be useful to educators using videoconferencing as well as future research projects.
If you have questions you can e-mail me at sweeneym@chelmsford.k12.ma.us
Thank you so much for your contribution to technology research,

Marilyn A. Sweeney
Doctoral Candidate
University of Massachusetts Lowell
and
Technology Integration Specialist
Chelmsford Public Schools

Take just a few minutes today to support VC research with your time!

Talking to Mrs. Claus

Thanks to CESA #7, we have several classes this year connecting to Mrs. Claus in the North Pole. The session starts with questions from the students such as:

  • What’s your favorite cookie?
  • What’s the weather like in the North Pole?
  • What do you like to cook for Santa?
  • What is your favorite color?

Next the program includes a couple of stories and songs. A great first VC for young students, and covers language arts skills too. I think CESA #7 has a few slots left if you want to participate this year. What a fun connection!

All I Want for Christmas is a Videoconference

While I am admittedly a fan of H323 videoconferencing and mostly write about that, occasionally I have an experience with desktop VC that I must share with you. This weekend was one of those times.

With two nurses among my in-laws, sometimes we celebrate Christmas at odd times. This year it was last night. All the in-laws gathered at our house, with the exception of my brother- and sister-in-law who are teaching in Taiwan. Last year we connected to them with Yahoo with video one way (to them). This year we wanted to do video both ways. They are a Mac family, so hooking up our PC to them with a full blown VC has been a puzzle since they moved to Taiwan. When we started talking about our celebration this year, we found out that the new version of Skype has video on the Mac FINALLY!

So this year the tech set up in our house included a laptop with Skype, a projector, and a Polycom SoundStation. In Taiwan, a Mac laptop, web camera, and a splitter connecting two headphones completed the setup. The sound was excellent and the video quality just like I see at work with H323 and good bandwidth. The only pixellation and breakup came when they took their laptop outside wireless to show us their yard & surrounding scenery.

But it really wasn’t about the technology this year. It was about being together. Family. Which is what family celebrations are all about anyway! We exchanged gifts long distance, but the real “connected” moment came when my four year old nephew began throwing torn wrapping paper at the wall where we were projecting larger than life full screen of my brother- and sister-in-law. Soon a paper fight broke out. Only once did my nephew turn around to see if the paper had fallen behind him (the one they threw!). Giggles and chuckles from everyone around, the moment continued on, each one feeling the love and connection across the miles. This morning he was still talking about playing with his aunt & uncle in Taiwan.

We also played the trading game. You know, where everyone brings an wrapped un-labeled gift. You draw numbers, and then open the gifts or trade with someone until the game is over and everyone has a gift. Of course we’ll have to mail them their gifts now, but it was very fun to play long distance. The interaction was incredible; almost like being together. My nephew kept trying to touch them and hug them.

So this Christmas, I’m thankful for (among other things) technology that brings us closer together.

1.7.07 Update. Added after reading The Weblog Handbook. The Polycom SoundStation was given to me by a Polycom Sales Specialist.

Another Excited Media Specialist

Yesterday two of my new RUS grant buildings did their first VC between the middle school and preK students at one of the elementaries. They did a simple little story presentation. There was a lot of nervousness at both buildings before the conference, but it went so well they are sold on the idea of videoconferencing. In the words of my media specialist….

We just finished our storytime program with McKinley Elementary and it was GREAT!!! We ended up connecting for almost an hour! The little ones were just a great audience, and even entertained us with a couple of songs. We want to do another one with a Christmas theme before the holidays! This is all just too fun!

So, you’re thinking, it was fun. So what? What did they learn? Think about the skills the middle school students practiced: speaking, presenting, storytelling language arts skills. And what did the little ones learn? Listening skills! And for all involved, a love of reading and books! So worth it!

ASK with Janie Panagopoulos

Today we are starting two days of ASK sessions with Janie Panagopoulos: 8 sessions, 24 classes. We are focusing on the books Traders in Time (6 sessions) and Little Ship Under Full Sail (2 sessions).

I love the questions with a comment at the beginning. Janie likes to hear what the students think about her books too. Here are just a small sampling of the comments and questions from today.

  • I noticed that you focused on the theme of teasing at the beginning of the book. Did you get teased a lot in school?
  • We caught ourselves laughing out loud in parts of the book.
  • How would you like to go back in time and visit with your ancestors?
  • Describe how you’d feel if you had to get up in the middle of the night and go canoeing.
  • How do you think of the characters?
  • What made you want to write historical fiction?

We were going to connect to Janie from her home. This summer we worked hard to get her set up with a Polycom PVX on her cable connection at home. Everything was perfect and ready to go, until she came home from travelling and found the cable connection out at her house. So she had to drive her anyway. But we are still very hopeful that soon she’ll be consistently connecting from home and we’ll get her in the Polycom-BCISD / TWICE VC Program Database as well. She has many wonderful writing workshops she can do with schools as well as the ASK program on her many books. So stay tuned for more details!

Why it's been quiet here…

Yes, my blog has been a little quiet lately. Here’s a quick run down of some interesting things happening…. So much to write… so little time!

November 15 we did an awesome Operation Montserrat Training with CET Challenger Learning Center. Teachers were excited and jazzed and we’re scheduling 9 sessions with them this year. Stay tuned on the results of those VCs.
November 16 I finished the last all day training of building contacts for our RUS grant. 60+ teachers and local staff trained over 4 days! Lots of excitement about VC keeping me busy. The new building coordinators are so excited. Tonight one building is presenting to the board connecting between two buildings in the district to show how it works. With students showing a sample of what they could do in the Read Around the Planet project (and they haven’t participated yet!!).

November 17 we had two sessions of ASK: Monkey Island in celebration of homelessness awareness week. Andrea Israeli blogged an excellent summary!

I’ve been scouring high & low for Canadians to connect to in January & February for 6th grade classes studying Canada. Things are coming along on that custom project.

November 20 TWICE hosted Margaret Willey for ASK: Clever Beatrice. Wrote about it last year.

The Read Around the Planet project has been expanding insanely, with a not-so-smooth ride on the new database this year. But everyone has been patient with the process and we seem to be in for another record year of participation. Thanks to TWICE and Polycom for making the expansion possible this year!!

Requests for VCs from my 18 districts are coming out of the woodwork! Last year at this time I had 102 requests for the year, and totalled 279 programs for the whole year. Today I already have 245 and I haven’t advertised RAP to my schools yet! Yikes! I’ve hardly advertised anything at all. Usually I’m emailing them constantly with things they could do. This year we’re swamped and it’s a great feeling to know everyone is interested in using VC.

And I have to mention Andrea’s blog on the Cisco ad. Did you see it? While it’s cool that VC in classrooms is getting ads on TV and the quality looks cool, I wish that the example was a bit more educational. And more realistic on the time zones. It implies an Asian connection during the day for both schools which is impossible. Still it’s a step in the right direction of helping the general public understand what we do!

Hope things are hopping in your VC land too!

First After School nonVC PD

Tuesday we had our first after school professional development VC about something other than videoconferencing. We’re doing a series as part of the RUS grant. I know you’re wondering, so, sorry, I am only offering this for our county this year. But feel free to take the idea and do it locally! The Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium is offering programs like this too (for their members).

Tuesday’s session was on Best Tech Tools. Kevin Clark, Berrien County ISD Instructional Technology Consultant, facilitated a discussion of various tools and ways they are used or could be used in the curriculum in each participating building.

We had 28 teachers from 7 buildings in two sessions. Not bad for the first time. We switched between full screen showing Kevin’s computer, and the discussion format for sharing between the buildings. It was a neat low key informal conversation and worked well.

Here are some participant comments on how the VC part of the workshop worked for them:

Thanks for the great hour! I have heard of and played with many of the sites you showcased tonight, but I was madly making notes for myself as you went through things. Sitting in on sessions like this even when the particular sites aren’t new to me give me so many ideas.

Ten minutes after you finished up, three of the five of us had to be at the high school gym to play volleyball for a charitable function. Had we had to have gone anywhere, even to the ISD, we wouldn’t have been on time to play our first game. Just going to the library in your buildin beats the heck out of taking time out of the classroom to travel elsewhere to attend conferences.

Of course I enjoy videoconferencing. And I feel it makes learning more convenient and less expensive for everyone.

Seems we’ve hit on a format that will work well. Stay tuned for reports from future sessions. (And feel free to leave comments on how you’re using VC for PD in your area!!)