Two people provided the most technical support: pirates Shane Howard and Paul Hieronymus, the SIG IVC ops team for 2010. In addition to arriving several days before the conference to set up the network and equipment for videoconferencing sessions Saturday – Tuesday; they moved all the equipment over Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning to be ready for the playground’s opening at 8 am.
Besides providing tech support, Shane guarded the treasure from anyone who didn’t complete the pirate tasks!
Paul guided incoming sailors to the queen to gain a “letter of marque” for permission to sail the islands.
Paul and Shane also spent a significant amount of time solving problems, answering tech/bridging phone calls, and fixing any issues that came up during the playground. Watch out for that sword!
Arrr, good job mates, argh! We could not have had a playground without you, argh!
The videoconferencing playground, a first at the ISTE conference, was a smashing success! More detailed posts coming as I sort through my notes and pictures. I want to share a report from each of the six videoconference solutions featured at the playground, as well as some reflections on the learning that occurred. I thought in the meantime that you might like to see this picture to get a feel for the fun we had!
This isn’t the whole crew – just a few of us! My copy of the whole group pic didn’t turn out well.
The playground was set up with six islands with different videoconferencing solutions (mostly H323). Attendees first visited the pirate queen to get a letter of marque so they could explore the islands. If they visited at least 3, they were entitled to some pirate treasure, and their names entered in a drawing for over $4000 worth of content provider programs and professional development.
You can read more about it at the official wiki for the IVC playground. More information to come in future posts! And if you’re planning to go to ISTE 2011, keep us in mind & volunteer!
Yesterday I snapped a picture of the cart that was used to go out and about on the conference floor to send sessions and posters etc back to the IVC ops room and then out to the remote ISTE sites.
It’s a Logitech HD 9000 on the top of the cart – hooked up to Vidyo (GCI Alaska supplied logins).
Poster Session:Amy Colucci, Jefferson County Public School with Jeremy Renner
Just stopped by a poster session on the way that Jefferson County Public Schools uses classroom-based videoconferencing systems to facilitate real-time lesson studies without interrupting the classroom instructional.
I talked to Pam Caudill, who is the videoconferencing contact supporting the project. It’s a really cool professional development model. (In case you’re interested, they are using Tandberg equipment.)
So imagine this:
The model teacher is in the classroom – and videoconferences back with a group of teachers at another site.
She explains the idea for the lesson; prep etc.
She teaches the lesson. The teachers at the other site are watching. A mic is on the teacher, and a room mic is used also. Someone in the room unobtrusively manages the camera so the far site sees everything going on.
After the lesson, the model teacher debriefs with the teachers at the far site.
THEN, the teachers at the far site learn how to use the technology tools they just saw used with the students.
Sweet, huh?!
Think of this:
Teachers see the technology tool used WITH kids! BEFORE they are taught how to use it.
Teachers see the benefits to learning and how it fits into instruction; and THEN they learn how to use it and develops their own lessons.
Elizabeth and Christina are describing how they are using videoconferencing in the elementary classroom.You can get their PowerPoint from the ISTE site here.
News: Center for Puppetry Arts is trying to get funding so they can offer their programs via Elluminate for schools that don’t have H323 videoconferencing.
Tips for connecting to content providers:
Ask them to tailor the program to your standards and grade levels
Make sure the programs match your standards when you are searching for programs
Make sure teachers talking to each other over a videoconference collaboration is to face the camera so students see that they are talking to someone on the television.
Collaborations: Multiple Connections
They are doing literature groups: with a class in OH.
NH/TX kindergartens (There are so many TX people doing VC that there seem to be enough partners in TX for everyone “outside TX” 🙂
Pen Pals: They are sending care packages back and forth with some of their long term partners.
Hawaii: (They connected with Hawaii really early in the morning their time; and afternoon Eastern / New Hampshire time.) This collaboration also included some grant funds that had some teacher/students swaps between Hawaii and New Hampshire. Sweet collaboration!!
NASA
CMI
High school / middle school language classes
They only do collaborations that actually tie into their curriculum.
Some collaborations evolve because other teachers have really cool units and teachers want to learn from each other.
They fund programs with special funds for distance learning and they connect with the community to help raise funds and raise awareness.
Community Connections
After school enrichment (some authors), Lee Richardson Zoo. They had so much interest they had to add additional sessions.
Interest groups
Girl scouts / Boy scouts
Historical societies – they want to VC with their own historical societies in their town
Senior housing connections – they have VC in their performing arts center – and they sent the band performing out to the senior housing so they didn’t have to travel over.
Community information sessions – connect 10-15 minutes so the community knows what the students are doing; parents said they would pay for their children to do videoconferencing. They did the Great Barrier Reef at 7 am at night and had parents asking if they could come without their kids because the kids had a conflict with a ball game or something. Cool!!
Family nights
NASA Demo
For the videoconference they connected to the NASA Glenn Research Center and gave an overview of their programs. NASA has several centers across the country that all over videoconferencing programs. We learned some cool things about NASA, weightlessness, facts about John Glenn, etc.
Audio tip: Use your playground voice when you talk in videoconferencing.
NASA is also thinking about offering their programs via Elluminate, Adobe Connect, and other tools for those who don’t have videoconferencing. But they can NOT do Skype due to security issues.
Don’t forget also that the NASA DLN offers webcasts as well that anyone can participate in.
NASA correlates everything with the national standards because the state standards change so much.
NASA showed off some of the cool technology they use in their sessions and some of the neat videos – like from the vomit comet – and what water does during a free fall. It stays in a ball due to surface tension. We learned how to go to the bathroom in space, which of course kids love. Liquid waste is recycled to turn into drinking water and for washing.
(This session featured the clickers and that was pretty cool although Quizdom was late bringing them in.)
They are also working with the Great Lakes Science Center to be able to offer more programs with and for NASA as well.
NASA (and other providers) have some programs that are more than one VC; and students do projects in between the videoconference sessions.
They gave away two programs during their program. Sweet! Drawing was given to the people who had the oldest coins in their pocket/purse.
Note for planning: The sessions that are hosted by educators in the trenches and include what they are doing plus a connection somewhere are really well attended and very well received!
This morning I popped into the SIG IVC Ops room to see what’s happening. Today at ISTE the videoconferencing peeps are running remote ISTE. Remote ISTE is a way to bring a day full of ISTE experiences to a site that is remote.
Every year one of the sites is always from the state that is hosting ISTE the following year – so this year MAGPI is hosting Remote ISTE for Pennsylvania. You can check out their website here to see how they are organizing it. There are three other places across the U.S. hosting Remote ISTE.
It costs about $1500 to host a remote ISTE; and you have to have videoconferencing capabilities (H323!). Some places pay the cost for their attendees, other places charge their attendees to recoup the cost.
Agenda
The agenda for today includes:
Introduction to the ISTE Conference
Keynote: Innovation and Excellence: Buzz Words or Global Imperative?
Virtual Environments (Second Life) with Scott Merrick
Workshop: Google Guide: 29 Secrets for Using Google in the Classroom with Howie DiBlasi
Afternoon poster sessions
Concurrent session: Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributers
Wrap up
So if you ever wondered why there aren’t any more SIG IVC sessions on Tuesday, it’s because the crew is busy with remote NECC. I did find a couple other poster/sessions and will blog those later today. Don’t forget also that you can follow ISTE remotely with ISTE Unplugged.
CET Challenger Learning Center (they are almost ready to unveil a new CyberSurgeons program, where students are surgeons on a mercy ship – cool!) It’s not on their website yet. Students will work in teams to solve diagnoses and treatments for several pages. NIH funded this mission because they want the next generation of young people to be familiar with clinical trials and to be willing to do them (they are running out of people to participate in the trials). The e-missions are listed here. We got to see a bit of the new e-mission – which has great use of Google Earth, and other visuals.
Blended Learning with the Arkansas Department of Education – we heard about all their full courses offered via videoconferencing, online learning, and a combination of both. They are also using technology that allows them to push content to every student’s computer as well. (I didn’t catch what it was.)
Marci Powell, Polycom hosted several people sharing what universities are doing with videoconferencing: Dr. Thomas Kane from Prescience Communications on videoconferencing in the UK – administrative meetings, higher ed meetings with industry, some classes. He’s also doing a lot of work in K12: connecting K12 students to higher ed, etc. We also heard from another person how schools in California are using videoconferencing for 3d simulations, live performances, and others within colleges and community colleges. California is also working on K20 Video: a common scheduling system for all of California.
News:
Paul Hieronymus is the new SIGIVC Chair/President/Head-Honcho.
Amy Spath is new to the SIG IVC leadership team this year.
After that there was some time to share business cards & eat snacks; some items of business from the leadership; and some time to share what everyone is doing, and a whole bunch of prizes. If you missed it, you missed out!
One of the most interesting pieces of information I learned at ISTE today was through @kusdiva who visited the Avermedia booth. She found out and shared via Twitter that they will offer this fall a new HD videoconference system – small and low cost – but cost not set yet as you can’t buy it yet!
Check out the picture from their website. You can sign up to learn more about it when it comes out. I’m hoping to get a chance to stop by their booth.
(Who says H323 is dead? Certainly not with new players entering the market!!)
Utah Education Network has been operating the state-owned videoconferencing system for over 25 years, currently managing approximately 250 events per day. The classes and training events are broadcast to over 500 IVC sites and thousands of students in every corner of the state. The courses highlighted in this session are operating at the highest standards and with consistent positive feedback and student performance outcomes.
All sites are equipped with the capability to broadcast video and content over two separate channels, allowing for the use of document cameras, video, computer presentations and other media without losing the ability to see and interact with the instructor. Instructors from highlighted courses will share ideas and techniques they use to deliver their content in effective and interesting ways.
We VCed with one of their broadcast sites to hear about what they are doing; we also talked to one of the teachers in a automotive class with an SUV in the auto shop behind him as he talked to us. We also heard little video clips from various teachers across the state who teach on the system, including clips of students in an American Sign Language class. I get the sense that Utah really has the full course method of VCing down pat! They are experts at making it work well! Nicely zoomed in; great best practice use of VC demonstrated.
They usually do their calls at 768 or 1080+ – so they usually do high speeds and high definition – so doing 384K for the conference was “coming down” for them!
It was great to talk to the automotive teacher and hear how he’s teaching and ask him questions!
At the ISTE10 Conference last week, the pirate crew hosted a playground for learning about videoconferencing.
