TV Production Goes the Distance

Presenters: Jay Moody, Canton Local Digital Academy with Drew Clark, Greg Fach and Dale Rush.

Another gold nugget I found today was also in the Student Showcase posters. In a nutshell, a high school teacher created lessons for elementary and middle school to go along with a trip to a location (Disney and National Everglades) with the digital iMovie class high school students. The high school students videotaped programs and the elementary students back in the home county consortium watched them and did the lessons to go with them. In addition, they have a wonderful Polycom satellite truck, identical to the one that Bob Dixon put together for Ohio State University, and that Stark Parks uses for their videoconferencing. From the satellite truck, they bring experts and interviews from wherever they went (National Everglades for example) and connect back to their classes & share with each other. Very cool stuff.

This website has the archived video and lesson plans etc. (wrap around materials as CILC calls them) to go with the videoconferences.

Conference Tags: necc necc06

VC Stories from NECC

One of my favorite things about these conferences is getting together with VC colleagues that I’ve connected with during the school year – and sometimes haven’t seen face to face ever. It’s pretty cool to swap stories and share the student impact we’ve seen over the school year. Here’s one of my favorite stories so far.

Howie DiBlasi, IT Director for Durango School District, Colorado is on the IVC ops team – behind the scenes networking and technical support for the videoconferencing sessions here at NECC. On Monday we chatted while sitting around waiting for a test call to work.

He told me about a project where kids in Colorado and Linden, New Jersey shared presentations with each other, and then turned to the Q&A time. This is one of my favorite parts of videoconferencing – students really connecting and understanding each other and realizing they are so similar. During this particular connection, one of the students from New Jersey asked a startling question.

Do you have bullies in your school?

Howie and the teacher looked at each other and wondered what to do.  Sometimes, though, you just let it play out. So they did!
One student in Colorado started to name the bullies in their school! But after that, the classes spent several minutes together discussing how they handle bullying in each of their schools. Turned out to be a very educational discussion.

Sometimes learning is hiding behind the unexpected! Are you ready for it?Conference Tags: necc necc06

Birds of a Feather: Searching for Mr. Goodware

I just came in late to Scott Merrick and Joan Roehre‘s birds of a feather session on desktop videoconferencing.

Here’s some of the tools mentioned.

  • iVisit – PC & Mac. iVisit to iVisit connections. Has a push to talk button to help reduce echo. They have a server for education – for schools and for higher ed. They also have regular rooms.
  • Sightspeed. PC & Mac. Sightspeed to Sightspeed connections. Multiparty calls.
  • Skype PC only for video. Audio works on both PC & Mac.
  • Xmeeting for Mac. H.323 desktop videoconferencing. Among the group we had tested it with Tandberg, Polycom, and another bridge – I didn’t catch which one it was. Possibly Codian by the sound of it.
  • Ekiga – H323 desktop videoconferencing.
  • iChat AV is the Mac to Mac videoconferencing tool. Awesome quality but can’t connect to PCs.

Hardware
Polycom Communicator. You can do an audio conference with anyone (Skype plus other stuff) and be able to have a roomful of kids talking with someone and not have the echo issues. We talked about how the Polycom Communicator makes the lag go away. Read Scott’s blog entry about it. How does it do that???? It’s so cool! Also Scott’s entry about his connection with kids.

On the side, netvibes is what Scott uses for his RSS agreggator.

Joan: Kids are resilient and accepting of whatever technology you use for collaborative projects over VC. Kenosha is using Breeze to do in district cross platform collaboration.

Joan & Scott meet in this education site for videoconferencing rooms from Illinois. But you can use it if you’re outside IL.

Joan shared a video of Kenosha teachers sharing their use of web cams and teacher mentoring and using iSight cameras. The new teacher could see the mentor teachers class to learn how she was doing discipline, daily schedule, etc. The mentor teacher was in a different building. The two of them talked daily about how their daily work was going. Joan is getting several more iSight cameras for professional development like this. And she’s going to put this movie on her blog soon!

A great informal sharing session!
Conference Tags: necc necc06

Metcalfe's Law of Videoconferencing

Here’s a little tidbit I wrote down today – I think in the WebQuest session by Bernie Dodge.

Metcalfe’s Law The value of the network goes up by the number of people in the network.

Or, Janine’s adaptation: The more people you know with access to VC, the more VCs you can do! Which is why you should attend events like NECC either in person or virtually. (or network via listservs, etc.)

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Cool Stuff from NECC

Ok, this isn’t really related to videoconferencing, but it’s really cool.

In the Keynote today, at the beginning the ISTE staff did a survey of 4000 people in the keynote room using Turning Point technology. Someone came by and handed us a unit and voila we voted!! We can see the votes coming in at the bottom of the screen that also showed the question. There was also a number in the bottom left showing the number of seconds counting down. Very cool. Then we saw the results.

Here was the most interesting question & results:

What is the most essential element for transforming education for this digital generation?

  • visionary leadership 44%
  • Redesigned professional growth 24%

Sorry I didn’t write down the other results and I’ve forgotten already. Brain is full!Conference Tags: necc necc06

Extension Dialing: NECC Exhibitor Visit

One of the “todos” on my list was to talk to the two main VC vendors, Polycom and Tandberg, about extension dialing. This is on my “figure it out” list for this summer. I’ve already done some testing with Arnie Comer at Macomb ISD, and will be publishing the results of that when we finish testing next week. But I figured while I was here I would ask both vendors to get their take on it.

If you remember, I tested a Polycom V2IU a couple weeks ago. One of the things we found was that the Tandberg endpoint can’t seem to dial into it. I am still discussing this issue with both Tandberg and Polycom, and plan to go back to the booths to discuss further.

But here’s the two main take-aways today!

  • There isn’t a standard for extension dialing! And yes, I got that answer from both of them!! Yikes! No wonder it seems like extension dialing/meeting room dialing is this really weird strange world. I’m still reeling over this discovery. What does it mean for matching for Read Around the Planet for example? Hmm. Must consider and learn further.
  • Gatekeepers. Argh. I keep hearing about gatekeepers. The Tandberg firewall traversal unit requires registration to the built in gatekeeper to dial into it. Of course you can dial out. True on the Polycom V2IU firewall traversal unit too. But I’m a little ornery. I want dialing to work both ways without gatekeeper registration. Am I asking too much?? That’s just from experience with RAA matching. And lots of other collaborative projects.

So hmmm. Hmmm. That’s where I am at this moment. No standard for extension dialing.

In theory gatekeepers are supposed to make life easier. What’s the chance, though, that we in K12 education, could be organized enough to neighbor all our gatekeepers together so we can call each other whenever we want. Sounds like a pipe-dream to me!

Hmmm. Any thoughts? Please share them!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Through the Wardrobe: The Magic of Reading Returns with Videoconferencing/Moodle

Sometimes the real nuggets at a conference are hidden away in poster sessions and student showcase sessions. Here’s one of those gold nuggets. It’s an excellent example of a sustained project – more than a “one-off” event, as Carol Daunt called one event videoconferences in our session yesterday. I think it’s an Australian term and it’s so descriptive!

I talked to Christine Olmstead, from the Brea Olinda Unified School District in Orange County, California about their project using videoconferencing and Moodle, an open source course management system. She is an educational technology specialist, working with videoconferencing and other technologies with her teachers and students. 

Three 5th and 6th grade classes, two in California, and 1 in New York, did sustained projects together over the last school year. They shared in depth one of their projects. Two students from each classroom divided up the tasks required to run literature circles. In Moodle during the week they discussed and planned, and on Fridays the classes videoconferenced (10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST) to discuss and share their projects.

The first book they did together was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In addition to the literature circles, the classes also did hands-on projects related to the book and shared them with each other over videoconference. At the poster session table, they had a wonderful diorama of the manor house with the rooms described in the book. An example of just one of the student projects shared. They also watched the movie and discussed together the difference they saw between the book and the movie. 

Then they followed up this project with another 6 week book study with the book Touching Spirit Bear. Same format of literature circles, discussion in Moodle, and videoconferences together on Friday. This one they culminated the project with a videoconference with Ben Mikaelsen.

This is a great model, easily replicable and can be done at just about any grade level. I’m glad I found this one!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

WebQuests and VC: Is there a connection?

Do you also support the integration of technology in your districts, in addition to videoconferencing? How much have you thought about connections between videoconferencing and other technologies? It’s worth considering and I’d appreciate your thoughts & comments too….

Today in addition to attending VC sessions, I’m learning a few other things as well. Bernie Dodge’s session on the QuestGarden included a wonderful overview of webquests created in the QuestGarden over the last year.

So here are the questions I have related to WebQuests. Now that it’s much easier to create WebQuests with the QuestGarden, what possibilities can you imagine? WebQuests often include a culminating activity that requires analysis, synthesis, design, or evaluation – a presentation, a debate, a project, a hands-on creation.

  • Could those be shared via VC as a culmination to a WebQuest?
  • Could two classes anywhere in the world follow the same quality Webquest (design, decide, create, predict, analyze) and culminate in a high quality activity via videoconferencing?
  • What can we learn from quality WebQuests to assist in designing quality videoconferencing activities? Bernie Dodge is reorganizing the Design Patterns to focus on these five words based on the higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy: design, decide, create, predict, analyze.

I’ll be thinking more about those five words. Design. Decide. Create. Predict. Analyze. You think about them too! How can these words help us raise the quality of videoconferencing programs and projects?

Conference Tags: necc necc06

July 4th Workshop Reflection

So yesterday I worked hard on the 4th of July in an all day workshop – Designing Quality Interactive Projects for Videoconferencing. 18 participants from the U.S., Mexico, Japan, and New Zealand connected all day to 4 teachers from Cobourg District Collegiate Institute East (link their website), Cobourg, Ontario. At the end of the day we connected to Carol Daunt from the Learning Technologies User Group in Sydney Australia.

The international flavor of the participants and connections brought up several conversations about international connections and how to best work around the time zones. We talked about www.timeanddate.com and how to use the Meeting Planner to find out which time will work best. Often it means you have to connect outside of school time and so does your partner school. It’s very helpful to visit the site ahead of time before even approaching an international partner so you can immediately see what time will work best for each location.

We spent the day in two major categories of videoconference projects: (1) exchange projects such as Read Around the Planet and Michigan Week Exchange (communities & environment exchanges), and (2) multipoint projects such as MysteryQuest.

As a result of jumping straight into presenting and experiencing sample student projects, the participants learned various lessons about videoconferencing. After each experience we talked about what we learned about VC – how to interact with microphones, camera presets, lighting issues, how often calls get dropped, what makes the experience a quality experience, and more.

The participant presentations were wonderful to watch, even with limited time to prepare. We had oral reading of poetry, a celebration of international holidays, a presentation on pesticide laws in Cobourg, Ontario, and creative presentations with clues to find beaches around the world. The participants really engaged in their presentations and experienced what it takes to make a quality videoconference presentation.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to create projects on the collaborativeVCs wiki site. But stay tuned for future projects created in other workshops.

One of my main take-aways from the workshop is the huge value of networking. I say this all the time…. “the more people you know with access to VC, the more VCs you can do” …. but it was reaffirmed again in the workshop. We spent significant time sharing what each participant was doing with VC, and I learned from the sharing too! Thank you to all the participants and remote locations who took the time to connect on the 4th of July!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

New Collaborative VCs Wiki

Ever wish there was one place with collaborative VC project ideas where teachers could get ideas and also share their great project plans? Are you running workshops on collaborative VCs? Want some materials to assist? Want to share your materials? Interested in having your workshop participants contribute their project ideas to a collaborative community?

Then check out this new website: collaborativevcs.pbwiki.com

Viewing & Replicating VC Projects
You can use the projects already completed to do your own similar project, or as a springboard for your own VC project ideas.

Contributing VC Projects
You can also contribute projects. You’ll find instructions linked in the welcome paragraph on the front page, including the password to edit.

Workshops
You can also use it in your VC workshops, especially those focusing on collaborative projects. If you need help setting up a space for your workshop, let me know. We can pre-load the group/participant pages with a template for their project.

Note the “Projects Being Written” section. Thanks to Roxanne Glaser, Distance Learning Specialist for ESC Region 12 for being the first one to use the site for a workshop. You can see that her participants started their projects, but aren’t finished yet. They are coming back to it in August. Their projects will stay in the “in progress” area until they are complete. Then we’ll move them to the appropriate subject area.

I’m using the CollaborativeVCs Wiki for participants to create projects in my NECC workshop tomorrow. We’re using it for a collaborative workshop (123 VC: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Videoconferencing) with several VC gurus in NY, TX, and MO in August as well.

You’ll find handouts and materials for running a workshop for collaborative VC projects too. Feel free to add your own too if you have something you’re willing to share!

Hosting
The site is hosted & managed by the Berrien County ISD, but we definitely welcome your contributions, input, and ideas! That’s what a wiki is all about! There’s a place on the sidebar to add your organization as a contributer. Come share your VC project ideas! The more ideas we have, the more great curriculum-connected projects we can do with each other! And impacting kids and learning is what it’s all about, is it not?!