New Read Around the Planet Packets

Note: This post is written from my role as a member of the TWICE CAPspace and Read Around the Planet Committee.

Are you participating in Read Around the Planet this year?

Have you participated in the past?

Either way, be sure to get the new packets for Read Around the Planet. They’ve been majorly edited and rewritten.

  • Teacher Packet 2011: includes sample agenda, tips for preparation, ideas for different types of interaction / presentations, ideas for preparing questions and answers.
  • Coordinator Packet 2011: ideas on promoting Read Around the Planet, explanation of the timeline and process of this huge event, tips for preparation and organization, and more.

Don’t forget also these training videos:

These resources can be very helpful for first-time participants, and even useful for past participants to improve participation. Hope you can participate in Read Around the Planet this year!

Top Five Read Around the Planet Pitfalls

Image by Warning Sign Generator

Note: This post is written from my role as a member of the TWICE CAPspace and Read Around the Planet Committee.

Yesterday (December 1) registration opened for Read Around the Planet 2011. As you prepare to register, be careful of these top five Read Around the Planet pitfalls.

5. Procrastinate until the last minute.

  • Verification ends January 7.
  • Teacher registration ends January 13.
  • Don’t wait till the last minute.

Especially if this is your first year, it takes a little time to get your account set up, get your equipment entered, have a test call with one of our faithful RAP Verification Partners. THEN, you can register teachers. Give yourself some time and get verification done NOW!

4. Don’t plan any time in February to make it happen.

Here’s what happens in February:

  • Test calls with each partner class. 20 registrations = 20 different places to connect with! Fun, but it takes time to test!
  • Teachers need to contact each other and discuss the interactive agenda.
  • Any problems or issues that arise need to be solved.

Plan some time for these activities!

3. Be inflexible.

Some connections will have to be rescheduled due to weather, illness, or other unforeseeable events. If you have to reschedule, be kind and understanding. Read more on preparing yourself mentally for RAP.

2. Enter only one registration for multiple sections.

Let’s say your 6th grade teacher needs 5 partners for her 5 sections. Then, you need five registrations. A common mistake is to only do one registration. Then you only get one partner.

One registration = one partner class.

Here’s how it could look:

  • Registration A: Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 8:00 am
  • Registration B: Tuesday or Thursday at 9:00 am
  • Registration C: Monday, Wed, or Friday at 10:00 am
  • Registration D: Tuesday or Thursday at 12:00 noon
  • Registration E: Monday, Tues, Wed, or Friday at 1:00 pm

You know your situation, but enter all the dates a teacher can do for that class period.

1. And the all time, most common and problematic pitfall: Enter only one date & time for your registration.

What’s the likelihood of an exact match when you only enter one day & time? What if there aren’t any other 4th grade classes that chose that time? You’d think with 1950 classes participating, it wouldn’t be a problem, but it still is! Situations that are particularly hard to match include:

  • Only one date & time late in the afternoon
  • Only one date & time and any language (only about 100-150 classes participate in a language other than English each year)
  • Schools that book the RAP dates solid, but each class has only one date & time (these are especially hard to match)

Trust the matching system to make sure you don’t have two RAP connections scheduled at the same time. It checks!!

Enter ALL the dates and times each teacher can do!

So, now, what are you waiting for?! Go register for Read Around the Planet!

Follow me on Twitter to get the daily totals of RAP registrations. Did you know that NY hopes to beat TX this year and AB is planning to beat ON again?

Why You Should Participate in Read Around the Planet 2011

Note: This post is written from my role as a member of the TWICE CAPspace and Read Around the Planet Committee.

Today (December 1) registration opens for Read Around the Planet 2011.

To prepare, let’s consider top ten reasons to participate in Read Around the Planet 2011

10. You want to celebrate reading!

Many classes participating in RAP are celebrating one of these events:

  • Dr. Seuss’ Birthday (March 2)
  • World Book Day (March 5)
  • March is Reading Month

9. You have new VC equipment and need help getting started.

Many first-timers use Read Around the Planet to kick-start their videoconference program.

If it’s your first time, though, don’t sign up 20 teachers! That’s 20 test calls! You’ll go crazy! Start with 5 teachers!

8.You want to expand your videoconference network.

Random matches with lots of different schools means you meet lots of people! The more people you know, the more videoconferences you can do! From your RAP partners, you’ll find some great VC buddies that you can continue to collaborate with in the future.

7. You need a free videoconference.

Participation in Read Around the Planet remains free thanks to sponsorship from Polycom. You do not even need TWICE membership! Anyone with standards-based (H.323) videoconferencing can participate!

6. You want your students to practice another language.

This year’s languages are: English, English as a Second Language, French, Spanish.

Note that language matches may not be at the same grade level.  You have a high chance of matching with native Spanish speakers in Texas; and a pretty good chance of matching with another Canadian French class.

Another option is Special Education, which isn’t another language, obviously, but allows us to match Special Education classes with each other.

5. You don’t want the hassle of finding your own partner.

Let’s face it, sometimes it’s really a pain to find a partner class. What if you need 20 partner classes!? RAP manages all that for you. Just sign up! When partners are announced in late January, you’ll have all their contact information, a date & time, and even their IP address!

4. You want to connect to more schools outside your district/region/state/province.

There are lots of schools from different places participating in RAP. The highest participation is consistently from MI, TX, and NY, with PA not far behind.

We match automatically outside your state. You’ll only get an in-state match if we cannot get a match for you any other way. Last year only 26 (out of 1950) classes were matched with their same state. The way to reduce this possibility is to make sure you register with as many dates & times as you can possibly do. The more dates & times you give, the less your chances of being in the “leftover” hard-to-match pile! But we work really hard to match those too!

3. You want to learn best practices in videoconferencing.

From last year’s survey, participants learned a lot from their partner classes!

Participants learned from each other:

  • new ideas for presentations (79%)
  • new ways to interact via videoconferencing (52%)
  • new ideas for using videoconferencing in their curriculum (34%)
  • and new ways to use their videoconferencing system with camera presets and visuals (25%).

Sometimes, also, you learn what NOT to do! But be patient with your partner; they might be new to VC!

2. You want to address the 21st Century Learning Skills of Communication and Collaboration.

What better way to practice presenting, communicating, speaking slowly and clearly, than with another class! An authentic audience is very motivating to students!

Some classes extend from communication to collaboration. How about writing a collaborative story via email or wiki ahead of time? Then act it out during the VC!

1. It’s fun and exciting to be part of a huge event!

Last year, 1950 classes and 45,000 students participated from Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, United States and United Kingdom. Will you help us hit 2000 classes this year?! Maybe 2010 classes for the 10th year of RAP?!

Are YOU ready to participate in Read Around the Planet 2011?!

RAP / CAPspace Tips for Bridge Operators

Note: This post is written from my role as a member of the TWICE CAPspace and Read Around the Planet Committee.

Did you know Read Around the Planet registration opens tomorrow?

With that in mind, here are two hidden or new features of CAPspace that are very helpful if you run a videoconferencing bridge and have lots of endpoints.

Super Fast Self-Certification

  • Already have a verified MCU and endpoints from last year?
  • Haven’t self-certified them yet for this year?

Here’s the easy way to self-certify:

  • Login to CAPspace
  • Go to My Equipment
  • Find your MCU in the list and click on it
  • Self-certify it
  • Automatically, ALL your endpoints will self-certify also! New as of August!

Then, of course, be sure to update any IPs or tech contacts that have changed for the endpoints.

Indicate the Test Call Contact

Ever connected to a RAP partner that has 3 or 4 or 5 tech contacts listed? Annoyed that you don’t know who to contact?

Start fixing this by marking the test call contact for your own units. This feature is new this week!

These instructions assume:

  • That you have multiple tech contacts listed on your equipment profile(s)
  • That those tech contacts have CAPspace accounts
  • That you created the equipment profile
  • That one of the other tech contacts on the equipment profile is the person who really does the test calls & connections

Ok, here’s what to do:

  • Login to CAPspace
  • Go to My Equipment
  • Click the name of an endpoint where you know the test call contact isn’t the person who created the equipment profile
  • On the left under Administration Tasks, choose Assign Primary Test Call Contact
  • Select the right person and update!

By default, the person who created the equipment profile is the Primary Test Call Contact. Use this new feature only if you need to change it.

For example, in my area, some of my coordinators do their own RAP registration, test calls and connections. In these cases, I want to mark that they are the main test call contact, not me.

Now, are you ready for Read Around the Planet registration to open tomorrow?!

Multifunction Devices & Classroom Videconferencing

Recently, I read this post on the Radvision blog about multi-funtion devices vs. single-function devices. While Sagee was focusing on the Flip camera vs. the iPhone and other Smartphone, I couldn’t help but think about classroom videoconferencing.

Single Device
Would you rather have a single device that only does one thing: videoconferencing?

Multifunction Device

Or would you rather have a device that does multiple things: an interactive whiteboard plus a camera for videoconferencing:

Silvia Tolisano's class interviews an Olympian

A device that can:

  • Do Skype videoconferencing
  • Do standards-based videoconferencing
  • Display web pages and movies
  • Can use for drawing and concept maps
  • And much much more…

This is my vision for my schools: to provide a login to standards-based videoconferencing so that they can use whatever tool necessary to videoconference with whoever they want. All from the comfort of the classroom and using the “technology central tool” in their classroom.

What do you think?

Patterns of Busy Videoconferencing Days

Since I had so many videoconferences yesterday, I’ve been reflecting on the patterns of busy videoconference days, and quiet times in the school year.

Yesterday we had 23 videoconferences:

What makes the day before Thanksgiving holiday so popular as a videoconference day?

  • It’s a nice culmination for a unit
  • Kids are ready for something different and new
  • What else?

What makes the week after state testing so popular (lots of Monster Mayhems and ASK programs the last week of October)?

  • The pressure of state testing is off, time for some engaging learning experiences

What other times of the school year are busy and popular?

  • The week before Christmas (Mrs. Claus and other holiday themed VCs)
  • The week(s) of Read Around the Planet (a huge celebration)

What patterns are you seeing?

  • Celebration
  • Holidays
  • Breaks in the routine
  • What else?

As I’m reflecting on this pattern, I’m thinking about what other times of the year I could capitalize on this pattern. Particularly the week before spring break which in our service area, is the last week of March.

  • What are my classes studying then?
  • What might be a celebration of spring?
  • Maybe spring break / spring math problems?

I’m still thinking.

What do you think? Do you see patterns of high use in your area? What drives it? Are you capitalizing on it? How? Alternatively… how are you capitalizing or planning around the down times?

Celebrating Thanksgiving with Turkey Trade

Today, among other things, we have several classes participating in Turkey Trade. This is a modification of the Monster Mayhem – which is just an all round great experience for students to practice their writing and following directions.

Here are some turkey pairs from today:

2nd grade

5th grade

3rd grade

Another great day of learning, comparing, and testing students’ descriptive writing skills!

Is VC an Expensive Luxury?

This morning I had the privilege of presenting some of my research to the Schools Videoconference User Group in the UK. Here are a few interesting tidbits & comments.

Safety and Videoconferencing
I didn’t get to hear this presentation due to its early morning time, however, I checked out Heather’s slides. You should too. See what you think of her perspectives on the safety of students in a videoconference. Do you agree? Does your school follow these policies?

France Videoconferencing Site
There was a brief presentation on this site for collaborative videoconferences between French and UK schools. I asked if US schools were welcome too, and the answer is yes! I’ll be sharing this with my French teachers.

Night and Day Around the World
Also hear a brief report of this Night and Day Around the World videoconference hosted by JVCS. Among other things, they connected students to a scientist with a telescope in Australia – to see how it is night in Australia while day in the UK!

UK National Parks
All 14 UK National Parks now have videoconferencing! (They beat us to it! There’s a movement in the US to get all the national parks to offer distance learning as well. I guess we have a few more parks though.)

Is VC an Expensive Luxury, or Now More Important Than Ever?
After my presentation, Tim Boundy led a discussion of this big question. What would you say? Please comment!!

Here are some of the interesting comments I noted during the discussion:

Head Teacher (aka Principal) Vision
There was quite a bit of discussion about leadership and the need for leadership to support videoconferencing. In one very successful school, the videoconference coordinator shared that her head teacher has a vision: that they take the learning to the students – vs. taking the students to the learning. This vision drove their use of ICT, including videoconferencing.

What vision does your head teacher / principal have for technology, distance learning, and videoconferencing? How did they get that vision? Can we influence their vision? What if they don’t have the vision? How can we help them get the vision?

Two Views of Funding
Tim shared the dichotomy of views he is hearing on funding. Which one do you hear?

  • We have to cut our videoconferencing program. We don’t have enough funding!
  • We have to use videoconferencing now more than ever so we can save money.

Are you hearing these two views? Which one do you hear the most?

In my area at least, funding is super tight, and videoconferencing use is up!

Busy Content Provider: National Archives
It was neat to hear from the National Archives and what their perspective is on videoconferencing. They are booked a year in advance for onsite field trips from schools. The only way they can expand their outreach to schools is via technologies such as videoconferencing. They see it as a must to reach their goals of outreach to schools. In addition, they find it easier to meet the needs of secondary level classes by offering the programs on demand, vs. on Wednesday at 1:00 pm.

Using VC to Teach Science Teachers
I didn’t quite catch who shared this story – but I thought it was so intriguing. The speaker shared that science teachers don’t want to learn more about how to teach, they want to learn cool science things they can share with their students. So they offered a videoconference on how to do a squid dissection in your classroom – and the teachers loved it. It wasn’t about the VC – it was about the science. The technology just enabled it.

What do you think? Is VC an expensive luxury? What do you think of the comments & questions shared? It was a very interesting discussion, and I was glad to be invited. Please share your own thoughts on these issues!

Cameras for Desktop Videoconferencing

Yesterday I had a couple of excellent meetings with our district tech directors. We were discussing bringing desktop videoconferencing to our classrooms with interactive whiteboards or even just projectors to use as classroom based videoconferencing.

We had a great discussion on the different ways to do the web cameras. I had only been thinking about a basic under-$100 web cam. But they had some other creative comments.

Wide Field of View

Our Berrien Springs district has a long term collaboration with a school in Korea – using Skype. They have been experimenting with different webcams. They found that the teacher prefers a web cam with a wider field of view than the newer HD web cams that have a much narrower field of view.

In addition, they’ve been using a wireless mic with great success. Still waiting to hear which it is.

Document Cameras as Webcams

I learned yesterday that some document cameras can be used as a webcam. That if they come with a TWAIN driver, then they can be used as a USB webcam. But most document cameras only use USB to get pictures off the document camera; not as a webcam. Another district is considering whether they can find a document camera with enough features that can also be the camera for the videoconference. Imagine being able to use the same camera to show the class or a document. Could be easy for teachers.

Camcorders with USB Streaming

Remember when you could connect a camera via firewire to your computer and use that for your camera? We’ve mostly lost that functionality with USB connections. However, a couple tech directors shared about camcorders that could stream through USB. This would make an excellent camera for the desktop VC as well.

Not Standardizing

Someone suggested to me that I have our districts standardize all on the same webcam. But after hearing the discussion yesterday, I think we’ll get better research and ideas if we let them try out different options.

What webcams are you using? What do you prefer? What criteria are you using to choose? Please comment!

New Skype-Sponsored Skype in the Classroom Directory

Skype Classroom Interview Photo

Did you see that Skype is developing their own Skype in the Classroom Directory?

It’s supposed to come out in December, and you can pre-register now.

I am very excited about this development. Right now there are a several scattered sites and places to find people, but one central location would be super helpful.

While we’re waiting, these are the places I know of where you can find Skype partners. Do you know any others?