Indispensable Media Specialists

Yesterday I team presented an all day pre-conference workshop at MAME with Diane Nye, media specialist at E. P. Clarke Elementary, our local building who consistently uses videoconferencing most often every year. We did much of the content from my RUS grant training, with extra emphasis on the Voices project, and quite a bit of time on the role of the media specialist in supporting the videoconferencing.

We had great discussions on managing the equipment location / cart, supporting teachers, knowing how the connections work, etc.

I know a big part of the success of our implementation in our area is due to the building level coordinators who make it happen.

They are the ones who help take the edge of disappointment when a content provider cancels a program due to technical difficulties. (Happened to us yesterday.)

They are the ones who help a teacher adjust to the frustration caused by what their partner teacher did for their project. (Happened to us this week.) Calming the teacher & helping them model flexibility and resourcefulness, and respect for the other site.

Media specialists already have a relationship with their teachers and often have a good grasp of their curriculum as well. They are already well skilled in helping teachers find resources to meet their curriculum.

I realize that this is a position that is getting cut in many places, but from my point of view, media specialists are an indispensible piece of successful videoconferencing!

I Want to Work at the Zoo

Today we have a high school class connecting to the Columbus Zoo for their program I Want to Work at a Zoo.

This is one of my favorite career programs because of the diversity of careers presented & the interesting way they are presented. For advertising careers, they have a wonderful set of clips of very funny ads for zoos around the U.S. Students also talk to one of the animal trainers and get to ask questions about their work at the zoo. Next the students learn about exhibit design and what needs to be considered when creating an exhibit for an animal. Then they see video from an exhibit and hear about how that exhibit was designed.

Next they learn how Columbus Zoo field researchers work out in the wild. There’s a great hands-on activity where students look at pictures of gorillas snapped by a field camera to try to figure out how many gorillas are in that area in the wild. It’s a tough task for the students.

This is a great program for an overview of careers in all areas, not just animals!

Visiting Three Content Providers

Tonight Macomb ISD has again shared with us the successful Virtual Providers Showcase after school workshop. We’re focusing on language arts and social studies related programs. Here’s where we went.

Holocaust Memorial & Education Center
Another way to connect to holocaust survivors. For east coast schools a way to get a connection for morning classes (Museum of Tolerance). There are some mostly talking programs that are still incredibly powerful. Hearing a story live and realizing that the person telling their story is actually in front of them really impacts kids. It makes the reality of the Holocaust incredibly real to the students.

Discovery Center of Springfield
This provider has several programs, not just on science! We learned about the programs on various areas of the world, and how social studies and language arts are included in the science programs as well. The Discover Center sends a kit of materials for all their programs (which have to be sent back when you’re finished). These are used for hands-on activities during the programs. The presenter researches the school ahead of time so she can tailor the program and explain to students the population differences compared to their own town.

Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum
We were wondering when we connected, where this place is in Oregon. Well, it’s the end of the Oregon Trail. They also have a lot of information, exhibits, etc. on Lewis and Clark. They have online web activities, as well as the videoconference programs they offer. The programs have a packet of teacher materials and pre and post activities. They are hoping to develop some new programs in the future on the Oregon Trail, since most of the programs right now are about Lewis & Clark. We really liked these programs. Lots of great visuals – both photographs and artifacts. This is a hidden treasure you probably haven’t visited and should plan to!

Also, since I just learned about Roxanne’s Content Provider Note Taking Sheet, we tried that out in the workshop tonight. Love it! Will definitely keep using this great handout!

Jazz Presentation Yesterday

I wanted to blog about the 123 Jazz presentation yesterday but haven’t had time. Roxanne did a great job. So if you want to read about an amazing VC PD workshop, read The Jazz Project Presentation at ESC 11 Distance Learning Conference.

First TX VC Blogger

I was delighted this morning to receive an email from Roxanne Glaser, ESC 12, in Waco, Texas. She is the first videoconference blogger from Texas (that I know of!).

Roxanne is doing some really cool things, including running a big Monster Match program within her region. She also has a neat idea of a content provider demo note taking guide. I know we’ll all be learning great ideas from Roxanne!

Love the play on words in your title, Roxanne (VC Rox)!!

The New CILC

Today I attended the first webinar on “The New CILC.” If you’re really into VC and you use the CILC site, you really ought to attend. There are a bunch scheduled in the next two weeks, and I’m sure CILC will schedule more if needed. Here are some initial thoughts & comments about the new format.

Communities of Interest (COI)
One feature of the new Premium membership is communities of interest. This has serious potential for networking and sharing with each other. But only if you come share! I’ve been asked to assist with moderation of the K12 Education COI. Two of my other good VC buddies who also blog, Paul Hieronymous and Scott Merrick, are also moderators for the new COIs. I’ve just posted a bunch of interesting questions based on conversations we’ve had here, on the phone with many of you, and from my online classes. I think we can get a really good profitable conversation going. So there’s one benefit of Premium membership. ($25 introductory pricing).

Learning Times
I was really curious about the new online community tool CILC is using: Learning Times. I’ve looked at this before & dabbled in online conferences, so I was interested to see what that was like. I haven’t decided yet what I think of it as I haven’t used it enough.

Other Premium Services

  • There’s a calendar of events. Members can post events that are free to share with everyone else in the community.
  • There are spotlight session webinars for premium members.
  • There will be discounts on the conferences CILC will be offering – including Keystone coming back next fall after a year’s hiatus.
  • Access to CILC research and literature reviews, etc.
  • The collaboration center will become a premium service only starting in January. Hmmm.

The COIs are the main attraction for me. You can subscribe to get the interactive discussions in your email or in RSS. I’m still working on figuring out the RSS feeds. This is a huge feature though. Online communities die out quickly (or never get off the ground) if you have to go to the website to read them. With this one, you can get it daily in your email, by message in your email, or weekly digests. Plus the RSS that I’m still working on getting working for me.

So I hope that gives you some info to help you decide if you will “upgrade” your CILC membership.

Advertising Projects

On Friday I had a chat with a colleague in Michigan whose teachers are creating lots of projects, but having challenges with scheduling. One thing we talked about was the necessity of having teachers post the times & dates they have in mind for their project. If you say exactly when you can do the project (range of dates and exact start & end times), it’s much easier to find a partner. So I thought I’d share with you my suggested format for advertising projects – on the listservs (Edvidconf, K12IVC, etc.) and CILC Collaboration Collage.

  • Project “title” or brief description line
  • Project detailed description. Describe your plans, i.e., agenda, outcomes, etc.
  • Project time frame (Be as precise as possible. For example, between February 15 and 28. Tuesdays or Wednesdays between 9:30 and 11:30 EST.)
  • How to sign up
  • Project registration deadline
  • Number of classes that can participate (i.e. will you take the first person who responds? or can more than one school participate?)
  • Type of connection (i.e. is it open only to ISDN/H.320 schools or only IP/H.323 schools?)
  • Project details website if applicable.

If you’re really specific on the dates & times you can/want to do, then the participants self select before you start your conversation with them.

If you have any other suggestions for finding partners, please comment & share them!

PICC Ending

My fall session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections ended Friday and we are finishing up last details. I just had to share with you this quote from one of the evaluations. The class is set up in Moodle with a high level of interaction and discussions between participant from all over.

This is the first time I have used Moodle. The previous on line class I took from a major university now comes off as lame – more lame than it appeared at the time. I likened that class to lecture with written reponse and questions submitted in triplicate 3 days after the lecture. This class has been like a large party where I can move around and participate in any number of discussions or I can just listen.

You too can join the next party! Another session runs January 22 – February 16, 2007. Registration is open now.

Interview the US Flag Designer

We have Bob Heft, the current U.S. flag designer, here on November 6 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. EST. We have room for a few outside classes to participate. We’re recommending grades 5-12. You can read more about Bob here. He will talk and then towards the end we’ll have time for some questions. If you want to connect with us, use this online registration form.

2 V2IUs Successfully Installed

Two Polycom V2IU 4300T firewall traversal units were installed in two of my districts during the last two days. These two districts are part of my RUS grant and we were not able to make H323 work through their firewalls. So this is my first experience with firewall traversal, not counting the demo unit we tried out this summer.

All the tests we did this summer for the WAN side configuration still worked great. Connecting to my Tandberg Gatekeeper & Gateway worked fine still too. I’m glad because the gatekeeper is on a new version since the summer tests. Yeah for H323 standards!

I learned two things about setting up the Polycoms behind the V2IU.

  1. NAT has to be disabled on the Polycom VSX 7000. The endpoint just knows its internal IP and the V2IU as its gatekeeper.
  2. The endpoint gets registered with the V2IU as its gatekeeper and then the V2IU registers with the WAN side gatekeeper – my Tandberg Gatekeeper. And voila everything works.

This is our first year also having districts with multiple units. So our next puzzle has been – how do we have the endpoints within the same district network call each other? I have one district where it works and another where it doesn’t. The rest we haven’t tried yet. So I asked the Polycom field engineer how these units behind the V2IU will call each other – and the answer is – they call each other using their e.164 or H323 alias. So I learned yet another thing today! It’s likely that’s the solution in the district where it doesn’t work. More testing to do and one more puzzle solved.