Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Do You Match?

Today we had another videoconference with a class in Wales, UK. This collaboration is a result of the Jazz workshop and is a spin-off of the Monster Match format. Both classes created teddy bears, wrote descriptions, and emailed them to the partner classes. Then they made each other’s teddy bears. Today’s videoconference was to see how well they matched. The students in this videoconference were preschool 5/6 year olds.

Teddy Bear

Each child from both classes had brought a teddy bear from home to show on camera.

The classes enjoyed comparing the teddy bears and seeing what was the same and where they had challenges. We found out that students in Wales don’t use the term “curly cues” and weren’t sure how to draw that on the teddy bear they made to match ours.

The classes also spent some time asking each other questions, such as:

  • Do you watch TV and what programs do you watch?
  • What time is it there?

They also compared how their countries address chicken pox – in the UK several students were off because they had chicken pox. None of our students have had it since they had a shot for it.

Our partner class in the UK also showed us a teddy bear they made with recycled materials that will be the mascot for their Eco Committee.

The students in Wales also sang a song to our students in Welsh, along with fun actions to say goodbye.

This format is so easy and enjoyable for young students. They learn so much from the program – speaking and listening skills, as well as drawing, describing, comparing, and of course what children are like in another country.

Sign Up for Two Awesome ISTE Videoconference Workshops

It’s time to sign up for ISTE workshops! (Denver, June 27-30).

I hope you are planning to attend the ISTE conference this year, as there is a great line up of videoconference related content (both standards based videoconferencing and Skype videoconferencing). In addition, on Wednesday from 9 am to 1 pm there will be a SIG IVC playground that is bound to be an interactive, fun, and awesome experience, led by VC Rox and a team of talented and passionate videoconferencing educators.

There are two workshops that you don’t want to miss by award winning presenters. Perfect for integrating Skype or standards-based videoconferencing into your curriculum.

A Novel Hour: Extend Reading with Wikis, Skype, and Videoconferencing

Sunday, 6/27/2010, 8:30am–11:30am
Roxanne Glaser, Content Director of Whirlidurb, with Christina Hum and Rich Hum

Discover how to use wikis, Skype, and videoconferencing to create highly engaging learning environments for intermediate and middle school learners. Read more…

Roxanne GlaserAbout the Presenter:
Roxanne Glaser has presented at regional and state conferences in Texas, NECC 2008,and Elevate 2008 in Alberta, Canada. She was awarded the Excellence in Education Technology Award from COSI Columbus in May 2007 and the Don Foshee Memorial Grant Award from the Texas Distance Learning Association in May 2007 and 2008.

Glaser won two National Distance Learning Week Awards one for MysteryGuest Showcase for her work in staff development and one for Monster Match 2007 for best collaborative project. Texas Twisted Weather (www.texastwistedweather.com) was awarded second place in the 2009 SIG TEL Award.

Designing Quality Interactive Classroom Projects for Desktop or Room Videoconferencing

Monday, 6/28/2010, 12:30pm–7:30pm (an hour break included for dinner)
Janine Lim, Berrien RESA

Design your own videoconference projects using proven research-based instructional strategies. Engage your students in solving mysteries, sharing math and science problems, and more. Read more….

About the Presenter:

Janine Lim has been coordinating videoconferencing for 22 school districts in southwest Michigan since 1999, where her schools create and participate in over 300 projects a year. One of the co-founders of TWICE, Janine has spearheaded popular projects such as Read Around the Planet. Janine teaches two popular online class for using videoconferencing which have attracted participants from all over the world. Committed to promoting quality VC educational experiences, Janine writes a regular blog sharing experiences, curriculum thoughts, new resources, and technology comments related to K12 videoconferencing.

Lim won 2010 MACUL Educator of the Year, and USDLA 2008 Outstanding Leader in Distance Learning. Her videoconference program at Berrien RESA won the Computerworld Honors Program Laureate 2009; and her blog was nominated Best Resource Sharing Blog in 2008.

Register now for both of these workshops! Sign up before May 1 to ensure these workshops happen!

MacBeth High School Collaboration

Today I watched two classes interact in an amazing celebration of the study of Macbeth. Both classes had divided students into groups to prepare presentations and skits. We had a RAP, an mini-opera, as well as posters and skits. One of the skits included light saber swords, which the students really enjoyed seeing! Another group had prepared quiz questions for the partner class to answer, testing their knowledge. Our class even mailed a DVD of their Macbeth performance to our partner class in Louisiana.

Students asked each other several questions, including:

  • How many of you are moving up to the next level, i.e. college?
  • When do you graduate?
  • How many seniors do you have?

This was a great collaboration! Students were clearly engaged in their presentations, and the content of the story was reinforced by seeing the presentations by the other classes.

Regarding high school scheduling challenges, both schools rearranged schedules and brought two classes to the connection so that everyone could be involved. It seemed to work out great!

MysteryQuest USA and HistoryQuest5 Movies

Last week’s spring break project was to create sample videos of three MysteryQuest format programs. Each video is 6-10 minutes long and has a sample from each section of the videoconference. It’s a great way to learn about how these programs work.

Unfortunately WordPress won’t let me embed the videos right here, so you’ll have to watch them from the wikis:

These sessions are still open for anyone to participate.

  • MysteryQuest USA and HistoryQuest5 are $35 each; however we do have limited scholarships available if the cost is a barrier to your participation. Email janine.lim@berrienresa.org for further details.
  • HistoryQuest8 – the Berrien RESA sessions are full; however, Paul Hieronymous is running another 3 sessions and still needs partners. These ones are free. Details here.

Test your geography/history skills and participate in a quest this spring!!

The VC Continuum I Recommend to My Schools

As we end this week of talking about desktop VC, I thought it might be helpful for me to share the continuum of videoconferencing that I recommend to the schools in the two counties that I serve. This may be helpful to know the perspective I’m coming from when I evaluate desktop VC.

I’ve made a more generic overview of the videoconferencing continuum before, but here’s what I recommend to my schools.

What We Have Already

Remember we have:

  • 70 Polycom Viewstations and VSX 7000 endpoints; 1 LifeSize 200 installed last week; 1 Polycom QDX  6000 installed last fall
  • Tandberg infrastructure: MCU, Gatekeeper, IP-ISDN Gateway, and Tandberg Management Suite for scheduling

I still have about another 20-30 schools in my service area that don’t have VC in their school building.

How We Use VC

  • We do about 700-900 videoconferences a year.
  • All our videoconferences are with standards based H323 units.
  • 60% of them are with other schools – collaborative projects etc. 59% of those are out of our service area; 45% of them are out of state; 5% are out of the U.S.
  • 15% of our VCs are with content providers: zoos, museums, GNG, NASA, etc.
  • 15% of our VCs are ASK programs: interviews with authors or specialists: either ones we run for our schools or TWICE ASK.
  • The last 10%  are meetings and professional development, mostly within county or content we get from the state.
  • Many of the teachers just walk into the room to do the VC. The call has already been set up by me or the VC coordinator in the school, and presets are already set if needed. All the teacher has to think about is the muting and unmuting if they are in a multipoint, and the presets if their class is presenting or participating in an ASK program, and of course preparing their students on the curriculum side. Often I’m listening to the VC so if something goes wrong, I can fix it for the teacher.

Ideally a VC cart

Most of our equipment was purchased with grants. When that is possible, I prefer an installation that includes:

  • The H323 videoconference system: LifeSize, Polycom, or Tandberg
  • HD if it can be afforded
  • A sturdy but lightweight cart
  • A 37 to 50 inch monitor
  • A document camera
  • An Avermedia QuickPlay to connect the computer in via S-Video (yes, yes, I know, lower quality, but guaranteed to work with anything we connect to) or any other method that connects the computer that is NOT H.239/People Plus Content/DuoVideo
  • In our latest installation we also had a DVD/VCR, but I wouldn’t recommend that now. My schools never use it.
  • If possible, installed with an IP address NATed. In only one district do we have a firewall traversal unit, and we’re trying to make it work without it because the extension dialing is such a pain.
  • 3 years maintenance on the VC system at least! Usually my districts can’t afford maintenance after the grant runs out, so if we’re using a grant we always do 3 years maintenance. I also strongly urge any districts buying their own unit to buy 3 year maintenance on it.
  • This list is about $7000-9000.

Next Best, Mobile Within the District

Two of my districts were not eligible for the latest RUS grant. When we switched from ISDN to IP in 2005, their PictureTel Concordes were obsolete.

  • These two districts have a Polycom VSX 7000 in a box.
  • It connects to the TV in the classroom or a projector.
  • If a document camera is needed, it is borrowed from elsewhere to use with VC.
  • The district tech moves it from school to school, and updates the network settings as it moves.
  • This setup is just the codec only. So it could be as low as $2000-5000.

Next Best, Buy Old Units

  • In a couple of my other schools, they purchased refurbished or gently used VC systems. In one case from eBay. In the other case from their network services provider which had some extra Polycom Viewstations kicking around. (Another place would be The Videoconference Store, which sells used systems.)
  • Both of these scenarios use existing TVs/projectors/carts.
  • This setup could cost around $1000-$3000.

Interactive 21st Century Classrooms

That brings me to the next scenario: 2-5 school districts that have or are purchasing interactive whiteboards and installing them in every classroom. Each of these districts sees the value of VC as we use it in the curriculum. They all have teachers who are tired of getting the cart to VC in their classroom or going to the library or fixed room. (Kind of funny really. I remember when they were tired of busing to the high school to VC.)

These districts COULD spend their funds to upgrade their existing system to HD. But the possibility of VC in every classroom is intriguing and tempting.

  • Whiteboard plus short throw projector means the display is already there.
  • Some of these teachers are already doing Skype on their interactive whiteboard. So why not H.323 also!?
  • It needs to cost the same or less to put VC in every classroom than they would spend to upgrade their carts to HD and 50 inch LCD monitors.
  • H.323 standards based videoconference is a must.

This is one of the main reasons I’ve been investigating desktop VC (in case you missed the posts, so far I’ve looked at Mirial, Vidyo, and Polycom CMA Desktop. In the future, also need to look at Tandberg Movi and LifeSize Desktop at least).

Desktop VC On a Cart

Finally, the other scenario is for our private schools and districts that don’t have VC yet, but definitely want it. They aren’t eligible for grants – not poor enough or not rural enough or not a public school. But they also don’t have enough funding to buy the ideal VC cart or even the refurbished units. They need something under $500.

  • They could use an existing laptop and projector cart (many of them are sharing the projector in the school this way already).
  • Plus a webcam for $100-ish.
  • Plus a microphone for $150-ish. (I’ve tried out the Clear One Chat in a classroom situation with very poor results; next I’ll be trying the Phoenix Duet.)
  • Plus $120 for Polycom PVX or something similar with one of the other options that I’m exploring.
  • HD is NOT essential as their projector and laptop are probably older anyway.

So, that’s where I’m coming from as I evaluate desktop VC. I’m trying to get more VC to my schools. More H323 VC!

What do you think? Is this similar to what you recommend to your schools? What would you add or change? Please feel free to comment!

Thinking about Polycom CMA Desktop

This post continues the journey to figure out how to get videoconferencing in the 21st century classrooms in our county. Remember my original vision from 2008 as well. The other tool that is really catching my attention is Polycom’s CMA Desktop.

When I first learned about Polycom CMA Desktop, it had two drawbacks: the requirement to be on the same network as the CMA server (via VPN or physically), and it didn’t work on the Mac. Both of these have since been resolved.

In the month of March, thanks to Aaron Schippert at Saginaw ISD, I was able to play with the Polycom CMA Desktop and I’m really quite excited about it. I’m thinking in particular of two of my districts installing interactive whiteboards in all their classrooms, and wanting VC in every classroom if it can be done well.

I’m also thinking of my schools that still don’t have VC, as well as participants from my March session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections who were using only Skype. Once they learned what they were missing in H323 content, they were so eager to get H323 VC, but funding is a huge problem. One of the participants had set up a Skype cart for their school. What if, for a small fee, they could get H323 VC on their Skype cart as well??!!

So here’s my thoughts from testing and learning about Polycom CMA Desktop:

Pros

  • It’s super easy like Skype. It has your contact list and an easy call button. It will call an IP address or another person (by name) registered to the CMA server.
  • No echo! Echo cancellation is built in. In our test, we didn’t have to install an additional mic. Polycom CMA Desktop used the audio from the Logitech camera. With no echo. (Better than Skype! I’ve heard a lot of echos on Skype calls!) Echo cancellation is a huge issue when trying to morph desktop VC to work in a classroom.
  • Quality. In my initial tests with a login from Saginaw ISD, the video and audio is GREAT!
  • Scalability and cost. The cost structure is definitely a pro. After investing in the server, you can have unlimited downloads of the client software!!!  Of course, depending on how many licenses you buy (100, 200, 400, 500, & up), you can only have that many people logged in at the same time; and a slightly smaller percentage of those actually in a call at a time depending on setup. But teachers aren’t going to use VC all the time, so if you can just have them logout when they aren’t using it, this resource could stretch a LONG ways in education! Especially if you figure from the 10% use as normal use of VC – which I think is pretty close to a reasonable number when looking at the most VCs I have at the same time and how many codecs I support.
  • It works on the Mac! (starting April 30). Yay! This of course is critical. Not interested without Mac support.
  • When installed with a Video Border Proxy (VBP), it works great across firewalls. No configuration changes to the firewall! I tested a login borrowed from Saginaw ISD while they had a demo VBP at their site. We installed it on a PC behind our firewall, hooked up a 3+ year old Logitech camera, logged in, and we were up and running. Beautiful. Connected fine to several H323 units off our network. No problem. (Note: I understand from talking our sales guys at Polycom that this may not work as well with corporate high security firewalls. In that scenario they recommend a VBP at each network edge.) Just imagine giving an author or expert a temporary login so they can come in via H323! I’ve learned that the reason this works is the new h.460 extension to the h.323 standard. It allows the server to set up a secure connection with the desktop to easily traverse the firewall. Note also that without the VBP, each user off the network has to VPN to connect to the CMA server. Not a good solution in our scenario.
  • Dialing. Another benefit of installing with the VBP is the dialing benefits. I’ve learned that gatekeepers really do help with dialing. For example, if a VBP is installed with the Polycom RMX, the Tandberg bridge can dial in with the alias@IP format (using the VBP’s IP). I wasn’t able to actually test this, but I was told that Polycom endpoints off our network could dial in to a Polycom CMA Desktop user with the IP##alias format; and Tandberg endpoints off our network could dial in with the alias@IP format. This means that I could call out to a classroom involved in a VC, and the teacher would only have to have the computer on and logged into CMA Desktop. I have several districts where they need this level of support. Dialing in/out via H323 is another essential feature for our use of videoconferencing.

Cons

  • H.239. As I got excited and started talking to my districts interested in VC in every classroom, they wanted to be able to share the computer. That means H.239 with Polycom CMA Desktop. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I never use H.239 if I can help it, and I find it incredibly frustrating. There are too many situations where it fails. With a regular unit, that is easily solved by zooming the camera in on the laptop. But how would that work when the laptop IS your VC system? After learning how LifeSize handles H.239 last week, my expectations were raised. I thought I’d test to see how CMA Desktop works when sharing content with the other site having H.239 turned off. Just as expected, it did not allow sending content to Polycom MGC, Tandberg bridge, Codian bridge, Tandberg MXP endpoints all with H.239 turned off. The anomaly was my Polycom VSX 7000 (version 9.0.5.1) which accepted H.239 content whether or not H.239 was turned on, but that must be a fluke. So now I have to decide how critical desktop sharing is to my dream. I don’t want teachers to spend classroom time preparing a presentation and then find out the partner class can’t receive it. Note to Polycom, in a future version, when CMA Desktop detects the other site can’t receive content, could it just send the computer screen and not the webcam? Please!
  • So far that’s all I can think of for a con. What about you?

Hmm. If H.239 didn’t work with the partner school, what about taking the little webcam and facing it to the laptop screen? For that matter the webcam could serve as a document camera by moving it around too. I’ll have to think about this more.

Server Based VC

Initially in my interest in morphing desktop VC for the classroom, I wasn’t interested in server based videoconferencing. I keep thinking of the schools that install Polycom PVX and are up and running tolerably well. It is such a low cost entry starting place. How would they get started without that? Of course PVX is painful to get working through the firewall. But still, it’s an easy low cost starting place (read a success story here).

As I’ve learned more, though, I understand that Skype works so well because it too is using a “server” – a distributed system/server of course – but still it’s not stand alone. It’s the server that helps make the VC on the desktop so super easy.

So, now I’m thinking, educational service agencies or others could offer a service to schools to get access to Polycom CMA Desktop for less than the cost of the school/district getting their own server. This way tiny schools that want to start with H323 VC could get started without investing in a $8K cart or their own server. Then as they have funds they could upgrade to a full codec/cart once they saw the benefits of additional peripherals and quality.

Dr. Phil’s Choice

While I was thinking about this whole issue in March, I ran across this article on how Dr. Phil switched from Skype to Polycom CMA Desktop (and other endpoints/infastructure). Very very interesting!

Finally…

This post concludes (for now) my little journey into desktop VC. I realize some glaring omissions include LifeSize Desktop and Tandberg Movi. But I don’t know any K12 people who have an installation that I could play with and learn about in an unbiased fashion. Plus spring break is about over and I’m about to get sucked into the last 2 months of busy VCs for the school year. So feel free to comment if you have anything to add to this thread and I’ll try to add more to it later. Maybe at the ISTE playground in June I’ll get more info to share. I also was awarded a SmartBoard with all the trimmings with the MACUL Educator of the Year award, and once that is installed, I will be playing further to see what could possibly work. That’s a summer project too.

Thanks, everyone for your comments and questions as we all learn together!

Full disclosure: Polycom funds the Berrien RESA VC Content Provider Database. They also link to my blog. However, they do not dictate, edit, or pre-approve anything I write here.

Conflicting Thoughts About Desktop VC in the Classroom

I have to say that I’m still conflicted about this desktop VC thing – trying to get desktop videoconferencing to work on an interactive whiteboard installation.

HD Large Monitor
After the installation of the LifeSize cart last week, I keep thinking about the quality of HD videoconferencing on a 40-50 inch monitor. It looks so good! It caused such a stir of excitement among teachers and students! The quality is just great!

VS. Teachers Using VC on their Own
But then there’s the fact that Skype use in schools is growing fast. I can’t ignore that! Just last week I heard from a local teacher planning to connect to a niece in China via Skype – to share with her classroom.

I hear how easy it is for teachers to use Skype on their own. For example, this comment from the Read Around the Planet evaluation:

At the elementary level (where I work) skype is SO much easier to use than Polycom. The quality is not as good, but teachers can do it on their own. With Polycom we have to bring equipment and set it up. It involves IP addresses and other things that most teachers do not understand.

vs. Teachers Still Needing Help with Desktop VC

Yet, the teacher wanting to connect to China needed assistance with getting Skype to use the right camera. In addition, there are all the wire problems with length of the USB cable, the placement of the camera and microphone for ideal classroom use. All these things complicate the connection. Compare the comment above to this one (also from the RAP evaluation data:

I love my Polycom and am so glad that our principal approved buying one of our own so we didn’t have to share with a regional group. I am so proud that any technical difficulties have been primarily on the other end and our equipment has proven to be steady and reliable.

Cost

YET, what makes me keep coming back to it is my schools don’t have any money for carts! Cart installation of VC still tends to be grant driven. There must be a way to help new interested users in videoconferencing get started. Desktop VC is a way to get access when you can’t afford the full $5000-$9000 cart! It’s a great way to get started with videoconferencing and still be able to connect to all the content providers and other schools with H323 videoconferencing systems (desktop or room).

What do you think? Am I crazy to keep thinking about this?

Thinking Again About Vidyo

This post continues the journey to figure out how to get videoconferencing in the 21st century classrooms in our county. I’ve been learning about Vidyo over the last several months. Here are some early posts: first learning about Vidyo, and Craig’s comments about the future of VC in schools, and the results of the fall experiment with Vidyo hosted by Craig.

Pros

  • Quality. Everytime I see Vidyo I am amazed at the quality. I’ve seen it under a variety of conditions, including the pretty low quality of conference bandwidth at our MACUL workshop and it has been excellent.
  • Easy Link. More like a webinar, when you want to participate, the host sends you a link to click and after a little download you are up & running. It’s really easy. Imagine sending this link to an author or expert to talk to your students.
  • Mac and PC. It works on both the Mac and the PC, which is an essential feature for our use.
  • H323 connectivity through a gateway. This is both a pro and a con, but at least it includes H323 connectivity! That is also a must for us!

Cons

  • CPU intensive. It requires a newer computer and in some cases you may have to close all the other applications in order for Vidyo to run well.
  • Echo-cancellation. The echo-cancellation isn’t totally there yet, but I know they are working on it and it keeps getting better.
  • Cost structure. The more I learn about other server based videoconference tools, the less I’m excited about Vidyo. If you have your own server, there is an annual license for the software, as well as the cost per download. However, you could also access Vidyo through a reseller and depending on their plans, just pay for the use you have. However, this scenario seems to be designed for much less frequent use of VC than we have.
  • H323 connectivity through a gateway. This is also a con because the gateway is limited in the number of connections it can do. It’s really designed for you to use for mostly Vidyo to Vidyo calls, with a few calls to H323 here and there. Whereas 95% of our calls are off our network via H323. So this solution would drastically limit the number of calls we can do at at time. In addition, a “Hollywood squares” layout within Vidyo doesn’t connect well to a “Hollywood squares” layout on an H323 bridge (the same problem you have with connecting this layout between two H323 bridges).
  • Pet Peeve: Legacy. I do have one little pet peeve about how Vidyo refers to H323. They call anything that is H323 “legacy”. Legacy is a term used in the videoconferencing industry to mean a videoconference system that is no longer supported. For example, our Polycom Viewstations are legacy because there are no more software updates coming out for them. But to call ALL H323 legacy is offensive to me. As if no one else is making anything new in H323. Which obviously isn’t true at all. Calling all H323 stuff legacy is really annoying to me! Just my little quirk I guess!

Conclusion. For our area at least, Vidyo does not seem to be the ideal solution. We do too many calls off our network. However, for meetings or professional development or scenarios where most calls are within a district or region, it may be a potential solution. I just prefer to invest in VC that we can use for all applications: content providers, student projects and collaborations, meetings, professional development, classes, etc.

A Couple Places to Get a Demo

If you want to try it out, you could contact one of these places. I’m sure there are more, so feel free to comment if you want to add to this list.

So what do YOU think? Please comment if you have any additional insights or comments on using Vidyo in K12 education.

GNG and Haiti: Results of the VC

It’s always nice to know the results of a videoconference. Last week I got this email from the teacher at St. Joseph High School who participated in the GNG videoconference with students in Haiti. What an amazing experience that was!

Videoconference was good, some technical difficulties because Haiti is having power issues but that only happened once.  Overall, I know the kids enjoyed it.  Now we are selling the wristbands at lunch.  Next week Joe Rommel’s kids are going to be selling them too.  We hope to raise about $300 to buy tents for the school.  That was what they said they wanted most because their rainy season is fast approaching and they have nowhere to hold classes.

Here is an example of the real power of videoconferencing to give students an experience and empathy not possible otherwise, which motivates them to service and action!

World War II Veterans Picture

On Wednesday, March 31, we had a videoconference with our World War II veterans. I didn’t get to blog it then because I was having problems with two other VCs at the same time as I was facilitating this one. But I just got the photographers pictures in my email this morning, and this picture is so good I have to share it!

The veterans from left to right are: Captain Jimmy Butt, Sgt Arden Pridgeon, Sgt Val Ripsco, and Captain Frank Smith.

In this picture, Captain Smith was just explaining to the students the difference between American weapons and the enemy’s weapons (in his case, Germany). He was mimicking the sound of each, so loudly, that it made Sgt Ripsco jump! And then everyone laughed. It was a great session!

By the way, we still have room in the April Korean War Veteran interview, and the Vietnam War interviews in May. ($50 each; high school; everyone is welcome). Hope you can join us!!