E.164 Dialing

For the last 6 months I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around how e.164 dialing could/should/is working connecting outside of our own networks.

Here are some of the things I’ve discovered.

  • E.164 dialing is a specific kind of H323 dialing your endpoint could do, usually in conjunction with a gatekeeper.
  • There is an educational Global Dialing Scheme in the works. You can read about it on the Internet2 website.
  • Megaconference and Megaconference Jr. use the E.164 Global Dialing Scheme dialing. This requires registering to a gatekeeper that participates in the Global Dialing Scheme (GDS). Gatekeepers can be neighbored together to join this scheme and there is a specific procedure for participating in this. Megaconference Jr. did have to allow some sites to dial the IP address instead of the GDS e.164 number because some units could not connect. It would be interesting to know more about that.
  • The United Kindgom has a service called JVCS that is using the GDS. Yesterday I did a test call with a location in the UK. They gave me their long e.164 number. It looked like the long ones used for the Megaconference dialing, so I registered with the Internet2 Commons gatekeeper to see if it would work. They were able to call my e.164 number on the Internet2 Commons gatekeeper, but I couldn’t call them the same way. We are still investigating why. They were also able to use the JVCS MCU to call me via IP address. (I’ve done a few connections now with JVCS’s MCU and the calls work great.)

Questions I Still Have

  • How do organizations get their gatekeepers registered and organized to participate in GDS? Who organizes that? Is it different for each country? What does it cost to participate? Some of the answers are here, but not enough for me to know how my 70 endpoints could participate.
  • If the vendors are pushing us towards gatekeeper registration as “best practice”, then in K12 we have to get something working so we can keep dialing each other. Is that even possible/feasible?
  • On the other hand, I’ve been thinking about this review of my projects session at NECC.

“Towards the end of the session the presenters had participants talk about implementation ideas in our respective school districts. The two people I spoke with agreed that there are a number of challenges to successful video conferences including cost, the technology and developing the programs. One person from a university said that she had never been part of a video conference yet that didn’t need a technician present to make sure it all worked, that it took time before the video conference to make sure all equipment was working prior to the event, and that often, there were interruptions in the connections. In our small group conversation, we wondered what place video conferencing may continue to play in education with the advent of lower costs communication solutions such as podcasts and web based interactive software such as Elluminate or Tegrity. Only time will tell.”

While I don’t agree totally with the tech support issues raised (I have several media specialists who are now able to do calls on their own with minimal problems), it certainly is a valid point. I’ve already blogged about how teachers can’t be expected to do this on their own.

If the technology is getting more complicated (all this weird dialing) instead of easier to use (I’m thinking specifically of K12 schools with limited tech support who want to connect to any other K12 school out there), what then???

I’m still mulling this over. Please comment if you have any thoughts on this!

In the meantime though, I’m going to keep doing creative curriculum based VCs for my schools!! I still do believe in the power of whole group based quality audio videoconferencing for communication & curriculum reasons!

Collaborative VC Projects are the "Third Wave"

On the plane home from NECC, I read the latest Wainhouse Research study, Taking the Wraps off Videoconferencing in the U.S. Classroom: A State-by-State Analysis. (The paper is on the Tandberg site right now because they sponsored it, but it will be on the Wainhouse site soon.)

I was most interested in the section titled, The Coming Third Wave for Videoconferencing in the Classroom.

Wave 3 will consist of increased student-to-student collaborative projects and even student creation and delivery of content. Connecting groups of students to participate in real-world, real-time learning engagements is a very powerful use of this technology and educators are just beginning to explore this application.

And we in Michigan having been leading this application of videoconferencing for almost 10 years!

  • Michigan Collaborative, now Michigan Week Exchange Projects, started in the 1997-1998 school year! This project, consisting of matching 4th grade classrooms to present to each other about their community (4th grade studies Michigan), has been a consistent success throughout the years. The model of ISDs (educational service agencies) gathering together to pool resources to provide such learning experiences served as an early precursor to TWICE, Michigan’s K12 videoconferencing organization. The model of matching classrooms for a 45 minute exchange (you present 15 min.; we present 15 min.; and 15 min. of Q&A) has proved to be a model for many other similar projects designed by teachers and curriculum people.
  • Michigan Collaborative was the model for Read Across America, started in March 2002 with 200 classrooms, expanded to 1042 classrooms in 2006, and growing to Read Around the Planet for 2007.
  • Then there are the projects like MysteryQuest: World Geography, MysteryQuest USA, RegionQuest, LAPS, and other classroom to classroom events that model the value of classroom to classroom or Kid2Kid videoconferences. These projects are being replicated in other states as well (see Wisconsin History Mystery).

So, if you haven’t already, catch the third wave of collaborative projects!

If you need some help along the way, try one of these resources:

NECC Exhibitor Visit #2

Today I talked to Polycom, Tandberg, and directPacket Research about their firewall traversal units. My main question is, how does it accept incoming calls?

Tandberg and directPacket Research require the “rogue” or “unknown” endpoint on the public side to register with the embedded gatekeeper to allow calls.

Polycom allows incoming calls with extension dialing, however it’s a bit of a trick to make a Tandberg endpoint dial in. I’m waiting for an email with a solution for that. I talked to someone who knows how it can be done and will send me the trick.

Why should I want incoming calls from public IPs?
Read Around the World 2007. How can I match a ton of sites if almost all of them can only dial out?????

“Best Practice”
Here’s the interesting thing. The rationale behind requiring sites to register to the gatekeeper is (in Tandberg’s point of view) best practice videoconferencing. I’m thinking maybe it’s really about security. Is it really secure to punch holes in your firewall for videoconferencing? I’m not a security expert for sure, but there’s a whole bunch of us doing VC this way (with VC holes in our firewalls) and I haven’t heard yet of someone hijacking an endpoint to hack the network.

Here’s my question really. If the industry thinks (or at least some in the industry think) that best practice is not allowing “rogue” or “unknown” units to dial in…. then…. how do we call each other? That term cracks me up! If you want to do a project with me, you’re a rogue endpoint! How does that make you feel?!!! LOL.

The answer is supposed to be gatekeepers. I still chuckle at that. Or at least I try to chuckle at it so I won’t cry! LOL. I did 400 VCs last year with almost 400 different places. Am I going to register with them all? Are we all going to neighbor our gatekeepers together? There’s so many ad hoc installations out there with very little technical support that I really think it’s a pipedream. Wainhouse Research just did a survey of VC in the U.S. and it was announced in the SIG IVC session this evening. The paper is on the Tandberg site right now because they sponsored it, but it will be on the Wainhouse site as well next week. Bottom line. There are 23,000 VC rooms in the US. Now, tell me, how are we going to connect to each other if we have to use gatekeepers?? Can we really get organized enough to neighbor 23,000 endpoints and their respective gatekeepers together? I have me doubts.

Then there was the conversation with vendors about gatekeepers getting in the way of calls. It makes me laugh to see the puzzled looks. I got this at the H323 workshop I went to in May too. Gatekeepers aren’t supposed to get in the way of calls. Unregistering from the GK isn’t supposed to be a solution to make the call work. But just about everyone I know who does lots of VCs  with “rogue units” (i.e. other schools) has run into this little quirk. One of these days several of us need to open trouble tickets so the gurus can trace the packets to see what’s really happening.

What we really need is an option on the front screen to unregister from gatekeepers, or to have a list of “favorite gatekeepers” so the end user can jump between the places (read: school districts around the world) that they like to connect to. I know this isn’t a corporate VC need for sure, but it’s driving some of us in K12 crazy.

I also learned that there is a new standard for firewall traversal called H.460 version 18 & 19. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this in the future. I didn’t get very far in googling it.

Well, I’ll keep learning and investigating this and sharing what I’ve learned. If you know more, or have comments (even vendors!), please comment.

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Hyper-Mirror Videoconferencing

Experience HyperMirror Videoconferencing! Japan-LA-NJ Collaboration! Energize Hands-On Learning!
Agnes Zaorski, Eatontown Public Schools with Takanori Maesako, Osamu Morikawa and Cathy Timpone

I’m in a really cool session about HyperMirror….

Right now during introductions I’m amazed by the blue tarp on the wall and the presenters are in the screen with the remote site! You have to see this! I’ve linked to a picture – but look at the images on this page.

The curriculum focus is on using probes and doing water testing between NJ & Japan.

She’s using phrases like, “we’re sharing data in a HyperMirror with Japan…”

They started with a New Jersey pond study and sometimes an ocean study. In Japan they did a river study.

Hands-on is the best way for students to learn. Students took probes to the water, recorded the data, and brought it back to the classroom for analysis. Two scientists were available in the classroom and via online for the students to ask additional questions.

Any international project includes culture as part of the learning, even in this science collaboration.

HyperMirror makes magic so they look like they in the same room.

How did they solve the time zone! US EST classes came back to school at 6:30 p.m. The Japan kids started at 7:30 a.m. There was a 13 hour difference. Both sites were willing to adjust their learning time. This is THE MOST important part of doing international connections. Being flexible and both sides giving are really important.

They used Moodle as their online community for asynchronous discussion forums to bypass the email issues. They had forums for troubleshooting, ask the expert, general discussions, discussing the latest results, assessment and more. They also use the glossary tool in Moodle.

They went to their water sources and tested various places using litmus paper, probes and computers. “Technology was perceived as process, product and tool.”

The findings were recorded in Excel and DataStudio. Students generated questions about their data.

This is a great example of a higher level thinking project that I’ve been thinking about all week.

So, next, how does HyperMirror work?

Problems with current VC – participants in different spaces and display splits them into 2 worlds.

The development concept is that we can be in a new conversation space that is on screen in a new space together. Digital Mirror World or HyperWorld.

The inventor showed a real mirror in the PowerPoint, and then a HyperMirror. Electronic Mirror. He had a create set of short movies to explain the concept. We are in the same room. What I see is What You See. WISIWYS.

There’s a mixer in between that mixes the two together. You get a live feed where everyone is in the same room using chromakey mixing. Here’s the graphic from the page on how to make it that was in his PowerPoint.


The emergence of etiquette as if you were in the same room. People start to act as if they were in the same room.

This is just wild!!! Amazing!

They started in 2001 and have connected with China, Korea, Afghanistan, Kenya, Mongolia since then.

So now they are going to do water tests on from both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The students are doing the water tests side by side in HyperMirror.
I really wish I’d had a digital camera! Next year I’ll have to come to NECC (if I can come) with a digital camera!

Now we’re doing an origami lesson together. Everyone is folding to make a crab.

This was a really cool session. I see Dale Hilton from the Cleveland Museum of Art here in this session. They already have the chromakey, so it seems it wouldn’t take much for them to implement this. Maybe soon we’ll be “hypermirroring” with the Cleveland Museum of Art!!

Every year at NECC I see a “WOW” connection. This was it for this year!!

Oops. Nope. We might not be doing this. The unit that mixes is research at the Osaka University and isn’t a commerical product. So maybe we won’t be doing it soon.

Hmmm. this works with iChat too.

Other things: virtual dressups with other cultures. Very cool. Very fun. Bringing people together into the same room virtually. Awesome.

Ok one more thing. The switch only needs to be at one site. The blue screen is only at the room that has the mixer. Cool. So we can do this with them!!!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

IVC Showcases

I didn’t get to see as many of the IVC showcase sessions as I wanted to. But there were two that I wanted to mention.

I totally missed the Indianapolis Zoo session – but I heard that they have installed the chromakey or green screen technology. Very cool. Gotta go to the Indy Zoo again this year for sure!

I saw about 5 minutes about the Grossology session. It was highly interactive and the teachers were jammed in. They were laughing and chuckling… good signs of engagement in the learning. I haven’t connected to the Adventure Science Center, but it’s certainly on my list for next year!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Online Class Networking

Here’s another neat NECC story from talking to people.

At the fireworks party on the 4th of July I ran into Donna Farren, NY and Carol Scott, OK, who took my online class together a year or so ago – Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. It was great to hear how they had kept in touch with each other and done projects between their classes.

I knew in my head at least that the networking in the class was a huge value to the participants, but it was wonderful to hear much later how that networking was impacting students with quality projects. Go Donna & Carol!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Designing Quality Projects… Round Two

Just finished the one hour version of my 4th of July all day workshop – Designing Quality Interactive Projects for Videoconferencing. The room was packed again – standing room only. It was interesting to see the high level of interest! We connected to Jenny Homer (through Global Leap and JVCS) in the United Kingdom and she shared her experiences participating in the pilot international Read Across America (in this case, Read Across the Atlantic).

Then we talked about what VC is – the continuum of VC and shared lots of project stories. I did add three slides to my PowerPoint, so if you’ve downloaded it already you might want to get it again. I added them based on some of the questions people asked in the workshop on Tuesday.

I added these questions to ask before you start designing a project:

  • What is my required curriculum?
  • What can my students learn from connecting to another class?
  • How does it add value to the lesson?
  • What benefit is gained in greater curriculum understanding because the students collaborated with another class?

I added a reminder about ISTE NETS for Students Standard #4:

  • Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
  • Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

And I added Bernie Dodge’s “Five Words” that intrigued me so much yesterday. I had everyone pair-share really quickly some ideas on those 5 words, but didn’t give them enough time. But I encouraged everyone (and I encourage you too!) to keep thinking about these five words!

  • Design
  • Decide
  • Create
  • Predict
  • Analyze

We had a great time! Lots of people wanted to talk afterwards and I have a badge holder bulging with business cards. People were networking with each other too. Yeah! That’s what it’s all about!!!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Authors, Guest Speakers, and International Connections: Videoconferencing for Learning

Yesterday Elaine Shuck, Polycom, and I had a packed IVC showcase session. About 70 people attended. You can access the PowerPoint and links here.

We connected to Jim Stovall, blind author of the book, The Ultimate Gift. In just 10 minutes of interaction with Jim, the audience was hooked and enthralled with the interaction. We were able to take several questions from the audience.

One of the coolest moments occurred at the end. I’ll quote here my supervisor, Dennis’ comment on one of my blog entries yesterday:

Educators live for those “Aha!” moments. It is no less exciting to see that in educators. Such was the case in a session with Elaine, Jim and Janine presenting about the ASK program with author, Jim Stovall. At then end of that part of the session a teacher, in her Aha! monent, said “I really want to do this with my students – but what’s a Polycom?” – a wonderful, heartfelt Aha! moment. We do indeed touch people’s personal and professional hearts when we share the good thing we are doing with teachers and kids. Janine, Jim and Elaine are demonstrating visionary leadership.

Cool. It’s as awesome to impact teachers as impacting kids with great VCs!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Networking with Another VC Queen

After my workshop on the 4th I had a wonderful conversation with Marycay Densmore, another VC Queen from California. Marycay has done over 100 videoconferences in the last few years. She’s a 7th grade language arts and social studies classroom teacher who is extremely enthusiastic about videoconferencing and its impact on her students learning.

She shared several stories with me about the videoconferences she has done. We had a fairly in depth conversation about the WHY of videoconferencing. The global reasons are big – global learning, global understanding, raising a generation of more globally empathetic young people…. We talked about how kids will use this technology in business in the future and they need to be aware of it and comfortable selling themselves and their products via videoconferencing. Marycay is a former speech teacher, so she also emphasized the speech, communication, and presentation skills that student learn and practice in videoconferences.

We also talked about the ISTE standards – especially standard four.

4. Technology communications tools

* Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.

* Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

Thanks Marycay for a great conversation about VC!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Keynote Inspirations

I didn’t get to stay through the whole Wednesday keynote because I was presenting in the Polycom booth at 1:00 about the database we do with Polycom. But here are my notes, snippets & inspirations from what I heard….

By Dewitt Jones, Photographer and Creativity Expert, National Geography

He quoted this poem incredibly…. and I googled it to read as he was reciting….

“But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes. “
http://www.themediadrome.com/content/poetry/frost_two_tramps.htm

In college Dewitt head Robert Frost recite this. Incredibly moving story…

National Geographic “celebrates what’s right with the world.”

Dewitt asked, “what are the 6 words that are your vision statement” that are your reason for getting up in the morning… Why you are doing what you are doing?

My quick off the top of my head answer sitting in the session: “bringing the world to the classroom”. What are your six words?

Not only is Dewitt Jones an incredible photography, he is also a master of words.

“connection & beauty graced by light”

“the more I celebrated the best in humankind the more I could see it”

“rivers drenched in light”

“the more I believed it, the more I could see it”

“nature was showing me incredible beauty standing just beyond the rat race”

“imagination to imaginaction”

Consider a world based on scarcity and fear vs. world based on possibility. Nature shows a perspective that transforms the ordinary to the extraordinary.

There is more than one right answer. That is the key to creativity. (showing multiple photographs of the same thing)

What are the “more than one right answers” for videoconferencing? What is the next right answer?

Everyday we should ask for the next right answer – “not in terror but comfortably”.

“reframe problems into opportunities”

He told about taking pictures in British Columbia. Seeing a field of dandelions. Seemed like nothing. Intended to come back but not in time. Came back to just “puffballs”. Lots of puffballs. Started taking pictures from all angles. An incredible photo from under a dandelion “puffball” looking directly into the sun & the sun sparkles through the “puffs”.

400 rolls of film for the average NG article.

He shows sequences of photos – good ones to my eye – but then the “wow” photo at the end….

Don’t ask ‘how many good ones did you get in a roll of 36?” ask “did you get it?”

How will I look for the possibilities and the next right answers? How will I look for “what’s right” in the midst of sometimes challenging experiences with annoying technologies?

Conference Tags: necc necc06