Flying with Butterfly Puppets

Last session of the day! I’m back in the Teaching strand for a videoconference with the Center for Puppetry Arts. We are doing the Butterflies program. This is one of my most favorite videoconferences of all!

Patty is great at making the program interactive. She asks questions, getes us to comment, uses student names, and more.

But the really interactive part is how we learn a concept, glue part of the puppet, learn another concept, glue another part of the puppet, etc. Or as I like to say, Learn a little, glue a little, learn a little, glue a little. Perfect for young students with short attention spans! What a fun end to a very full day!

If you haven’t gone to the Center for Puppetry Arts, plan to schedule a program this year! Excellent programming!

Creative PD for Teachers

Bringing Teachers on Board with Professional Development by Dave Miller and Paul Heironymus from The Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium.

Dave and Paul started their session with an IVDL Jeopardy game that they use with their teachers in training.

Dave and Paul have a very creative professional development program going with team teaching projects that occur locally within their consortium.

I really like how they categorize their types of videoconferences – it’s fresh & new compared to what I’ve seen elsewhere:

  • content providers
  • team teaching
  • school initiated partnerships
  • specialized programming
  • course offerings
  • student operated classes

Dave & Paul had some video clip examples:

  • a team teaching session where students were working on writing samples
  • a virtual recital
  • a virtual college tour

In the session, we learned about the extensive PD model that they use instead of one-shot inservices. They work with a set of 75-80 teachers each year. Their consortium buildings have to send at least 2 teachers to the program each year.

The first day covers what is VC, who can I connect to, what’s a content provider, how do I mute the mic, etc. They also have to select a partner to work with before they leave in the first day.

After that, they have to do 4 videoconferences: A meeting between the teachers, a planning session with your partner teacher, an introduction of students, and the fourth is a connection with a content provider with the two classes connected.

Two months after the first day, they come back and share all the things that they did. Then they build skill sets. They learn to team teach with their partner.

Then they do 4 more videoconferences with their partner class.

This pattern is repeated for four days during the school year and a total of 16 videoconferences together in their partnerships.

They have also a pool of existing trained teachers as they repeat this process year after year. Then, these existing teachers participate in continued training. They learn to develop programs and look for partners locally, within the state, nation, and internationally. They have to offer at least 3 projects during the school year.

Their term for local district contacts is “district advocates”. I really like this term! Might borrow it!

They have an incredible reporting system as well to help districts see their use & set goals for using the equipment in the next year.

Each year at the end of the year they do an end of the year showcase and each teacher presents their favorite videoconference of the year and they make it into a DVD to share with the other schools and teachers to get ideas for new programs.

I think Paul and Dave’s model is incredible. I’ve never seen anything as comprehensive, sustained, and effective for integrating VC in the curriculum. This program is fantastically successful and I think we have a lot to learn from it! They do about 1000 connections a year with their 16 member organizations and 38 videoconference units! I think I need to set my goals a bit higher!

As with the other sessions, you can get the handouts online at the Keystone Conference website and their distance learning website is LCDLC.org.

As I was listening, I was thinking about my new online class, Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections. I was worried that requiring 1 VC a month between the partner classes would be too much, but I don’t think so! I hope that we get many people to participate in the class so we can do at least a mini-version of what Paul & Dave are doing in their county in Ohio. The class starts November 1. Registration details online here.

I hope that someday I can actually try this type of full year model with my districts as well.

Global Connections

Global Connections: Learning With, not About, People from Other Countries
By Atieno Adala (from Kenya) and Deb Hutton, (from Canada) from the Indiana University. Yet another Keystone Conference session.

This presentation covers programs done by the International Studies in Schools content provider. They connect US students to international locations, and also allow students to talk to international people who are studying or working at Indiana University.

They showed a nice collection of pictures of international connections they’ve had.

We also saw a 5 min. clip of a connection from last week where students in several locations around the world discussed the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

Undergraduate students at IU and other places shared their thoughts on how governments are addressing the problems in their countries and in the world.

As always with multipoint videoconferencing with tons of sites, there’s some mic rattling sounds coming from an unknown location. Fun fun! But we’re learning anyway!

I really like how Deb addressed the question on time zones. She said “it’s about mutual respect.” This means who is it that comes in at a inconvenient time to connect for the program? Sometimes the only way we can connect with an international school is if we connect in the evening our time.

Atieno shared a good set of tips for working with international presenters. This included focusing on contemporary information, using the presenters strengths, preparing students for a thick accent, and preparing students to ask good questions and to make respectful comments. As is true with good ASK programs (link), don’t ask questions or look for a presentation on something you can find in the textbook! Take advantage of learning from the experiences of the presenter.

Another good tip included: being respectful of their date, time, holidays, safety, context and needs. Share equally the connection time for their benefit as well as that of your students. I.e. plan the program so that both classes are learning what they need/want to from the program.

Tips on good instruction was included as well: short activities, involving learners, focus on 3-4 main points, etc.

Sample sessions they’ve done (requested by teachers not designed by Deb Hutton):

  • Affects of the African Rainforest Biome on the Local Culture
  • The Daily Culture of South Korea
  • Living Under Apartheid in South Africa
  • All About Paris
  • Germany: Memories of WWII
  • Travel in Spain
  • Mathematical Symmetry in Turkey
  • Raising Children in Kenya & Russia
  • Transitions: Communism to Capitalism
  • Series: The Daily Cultures of Bulgaria, India & Kenya
  • Series: What do you want to know about Afghanistan? Iraq? Islam?

I think that International Studies custom programs are hidden resource many of us haven’t considered or realized! This possibility of designing a custom program tailored to your curriculum is wonderful!

Deb’s handouts have a wonderful set of links for international programming – both VCs and email projects. Scroll down on the page to find her presentation handouts. Great set!

6 Tools for Effective Videoconferencing

Powerful Video Conferencing-Opening New Doors to Learning presented by Geoff Turrell.

I’m now in the Teaching strand watching the first presentation from Athena Education Action Zone in the United Kingdom. They are working with students with special needs, and are using videoconferencing as one of many interventions for meeting students learning needs.

Cool ideas include an interactive soap opera for VC, a ROCK IDOL with students performing to a panel of judges via VC, and a classical dance class.

Teachers have VC systems at their desks and they also do VCs with schools internationally.

They are addressing the “no significant difference phenomenon.” They aimed to answer the question: How can we make sure it is BETTER than direct teaching?

In answering this question, they have 6 tools for effective videoconferencing.

It’s cool to see that they are really trying to do more than just a talking head. They sent a 6 parcels from the UK to us here in Indy and he’s getting the audience to open the parcels. What a fun way to get the remote site interactive! This is the creativity I like to see!

The 1st tool was a teddy bear and represented was “interactivity.” Yes!! The best interactive videoconferences have hands-on materials and conversation back and forth. Cool way to explain it!

Interaction includes, according to these presenters: questioning pupils, setting tasks, exercising communication skills, and creating an awareness of audience.

The second package has an owl teddy bear. It represents the 2nd tool is teachers or pedagogical presence. The program needs to be coordinated by a real field teacher who has good classroom management skills, an understanding of good teaching practices, etc. The presenter also needs to understand the importance of telepresence skills.

The third package has a package of tea. It represents the 3rd tool or contextualization. This is about having students experience a “real life” context and incentive for learning. It adds an extra dimension to learning and brings the task to life. It puts the excitement back in learning.

The fourth package has a set of nappy pins, or otherwise known in the US as diaper pins. This represents the 4th tool or underpinning. This includes focused planning, use of worksheets and supplementary information sheets to support the lesson content, and accommodating learning styles.

The fifth package has swimming goggles. This represents the 5th tool or an immersive learning environment. The includes using core materials from the Internet, interactive white board content, supplementary materials, etc.

The final package had a jigsaw with a piece missing. This presents the 6th tool or collaboration because the missing piece was over in the UK. This tool allows for shared writing, design and composing, application sharing, and teacher & student collaboration across many miles, and distributed learning, which we just heard in the keynote.

A great session and a great model of interaction during the session!

Tuesday Keynote: Millennial Learning Styles

The Keynote presentation today is coming in live from the Harvard School of Education. Chris Dede, is talking about Emerging Digital Media and “NeoMillennial” Learning Styles.

Dede is describing Millenial & Neo Millennial Learning Styles – students using the web to compare multiple sources of information, individually incomplete and collectively inconsistent. Is it mindlessly accumulating or seeking, sieving or synthesizing? He’s wondering about his daughter multitasking… can she really concentrate? He described his daughter and her virtual “think tank” of friends on IM doing their homework.

He’s describing how Cisco is using multitasking for meetings and using PDAs for multitasking and instant messanging.

And here I am in this session multitasking! Showing IM to the person sitting next to me, IMing my office back home, blogging the session, and listening to it all at the same time!

Now Dede is suggesting we use distributed learning instead of distance learning. The term distributed infers how the learning is spread across time, space, and media.

This reminds me of reading The World is Flat this summer and how companies are collaborating across space and time using videoconferencing, instant messaging, and other real-time and asynchronous collaboration tools.

I still want to design some type of international project that uses this same type of multitasking learning environment that Dede is describing. How could we create a learning environment and videoconference project that requires students to collaborate across time & distance to solve or attempt to solve a difficult challenging real world problem?? That is the question I keep mulling over.

Another VC Blogger!

I just found another VC blogger… one of the great reasons to attend the Keystone Conference is the networking with other people. Paul Hieronymus from Avon, OH is blogging VC experiences there in the Lorain County Distance Learning Consortium. Looking forward to learning from great colleagues in Ohio!

Keystone & PICC

Today I’m off to the Keystone Conference in Indianapolis. It’s not too late to sign up to view the conference streaming! And you can access the handouts online as well even if you can’t come. Just scroll down to the sessions & you’ll see uploaded handouts there. I am lucky enough to be one of the last presenters on Wednesday night. I’m sharing Issues in Integrating Videoconferencing in the Classroom, qualitative data from my online class, Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. The issues are in three big categories: administrative, curriculum, and teachers. Looking forward to a great conversation with the participants!

I plan to blog the Keystone sessions too if I can get online. Hopefully!!

Also, today we begin another session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. This session I have a participant from Saipan! We’re a small crowd but I think we’ll definitely have fun learning together! If you want to join us, you can still sign up. Call Jo at (269) 471-7725×149 by Wednesday at 12:00 EST and I can still get you started in the class.

World Issues Class Connects to Pakistan

This morning we connected again to Pakistan, this time with a sophomore World Issues class from Edwardsburg High School.

Our class shared the seven themes of culture: social organization, holiday celebrations (Halloween & corn mazes), language (slang), arts & literature (types of music), religion, government, and economics.

They used skits, pictures, costumes, and props in their presentation.

The class in Pakistan shared information on their form of government and what parts of their culture are similar to the U.S. Another student shared how they celebrate religious holidays in Pakistan.

They showed us the shalwar and qamis national dress and held up examples of handicrafts to show us. They also showed us their money which has the picture of the founder of Pakistan on it, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

We also listened to their presentation about the different provinces and types of terrain in Pakistan.

In the last 5 minutes, students asked questions back and forth.

We connected a bit late because they had lost electricity in Pakistan. It’s quite typical in the summer months to lose power occasionally.

The classes talked about summer holidays, winter holidays and other times off of school, and how education is not compulsory for some students in Pakistan. They also talked about sports and explained the rules of football and discussed favorite teams etc.

It was a great experience for all & I’m sure we’ll connect again!

Janine

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Recruitment Event

This morning Benton Harbor High School students participated in a college recruitment event coordinated by CILC. This unique event allows students to hear from many recruiters from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The recruiters are onsite in Indianapolis. Each recruiter comes up and the classes get to ask questions of the recruiter in round robin format.

The recruiters only get a few minutes, but they cram in useful information, trivia, and fun facts into their quick presentation. After one set of recruiters present their information, students ask questions in round robin format. Then we disconnect and reconnect to another set of recruiters at another location in Indianapolis.

Students get a great overview of the myriad options available to them for college. This is the second year Benton Harbor has participated in this tightly organized event. It’s a good model for others trying to get a college recruiter interview videoconference organized.

Sharing Communities with Pakistan

Today after hurried preparations, we did our first international connection of this school year. A second grade class at E. P. Clarke Elementary in St. Joseph connected with some 2nd, 3rd and 4th class students in Karachi, Pakistan.

The two classes shared information about their homes and families. One Hindu student in Pakistan shared how he lived with his nuclear family. Another student in Pakistan shared how he lived with his extended family.

The two classes shared clothing and the students in Pakistan showed their shalwar qamis. Both classes shared what type of weather and climate are common in their area.

The class in Pakistan shared their alphabet with us. They are going to email us the whole alphabet and how to say the letters.

The classes also shared their holidays. Our class shared how we celebrate Halloween, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and birthdays. They also shared holiday celebrations with us and showed how the bride & groom dress for a wedding.

The format of the videoconference was basically sharing back and forth. Students at one site would share information, then the other class would share information on the same topic. Other topics covered included money, transportation, sports, entertainment, school topics, and landforms.

The students in Pakistan taught our students how to say, “how are you,” “thank you,” and “we are fine” in their national language, Urdu.

We finished with questions back and forth between the schools, thanks and goodbyes! An excellent experience for everyone involved!