USDLA 2009 Winners in K-12 Videoconferencing

The United States Distance Learning Association 2009 Winners received their awards last week. Some of our friends were featured!

Best Practices Awards for Distance Learning Programming
Platinum
COSI Columbus Electronic Education Program
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 12

Bronze
The CenterNET2 Project-Center for Rural Development, Somerset, Kentucky
Videoconferencing ~ Prek-12/Higher Education

Best Practices Awards for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching
Platinum
Floyd Gary Walton, “Mr. G”, BECON Distance Learning Teacher
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 1 (Florida)

Bronze
Frances vandenHeuvel – Ode Instructor, AR(Google helped me find those links.)
Videoconferencing ~ Pre K – 12

Congratulations to each of you!!

Marzano: Reinforcing Effort

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Reinforcing Effort: Generalizations

  1. Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort.
  2. Students can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Explicitly teach students about the importance of effort.
  2. Have students keep track of their effort and achievement (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 155-156).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

This strategy is very sparse for applications to any communications technology. The ideas in the book are for using spreadsheets to help students track their own effort and achievement; and to use data collection (web-based surveys) to help students see how others also put in effort to achieve.

Maybe, the focus should be on what effort students put into preparing for a videoconference. The rubrics and charts on effort and achievement could be applied in this way.

What student effort do we want to reinforce in a videoconference?

  • Asking good questions
  • Effective presentations – speaking slowly & clearly
  • Listening

I’m on a MysteryQuest / MQ USA / HistoryQuest8 week, so that format is in my head. Have you noticed that you don’t have to get students to put forth effort when they are racing to find the answer to the clues presented by the other schools? They are EAGER to figure it out! Is there a way to reinforce that effort?

Celebrating Effort?

One of the examples in the original Marzano book is of a math teacher assigning homework to watch the Olympics and make a note of the stories of how the athletes kept going when it was hard. Could classes share stories (The Little Engine That Could) or examples of effort that they see? Classes could create and share illustrations and results of effort in every day life.

What do you think?

Can you think of another angle to apply this strategy to videoconferencing? Or do you think this one is already too much of a stretch? Please comment! Let’s think out loud together.

References: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works : research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Cooperative Learning

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Cooperative Learning: Generalizations

  1. Organizing groups based on ability levels should be done sparingly.
  2. Cooperative learning groups should be rather small in size.
  3. Cooperative learning should be used consistently and systematically but should not be overused.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use a variety of criteria to group students.
  2. Use informal, formal, and base groups.
  3. Keep the groups to a manageable size.
  4. Combine cooperative learning with other classroom structures (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 139-140).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

What current ways do you use cooperative learning in videoconferencing?

How can we improve our current practice?

New Ideas

  • Keypals. Interestingly, the technology book includes keypals as part of the examples of using technology with cooperative learning. Two students, paired to email each other. Some of the Read Around the Planet partners continue on with e-pals and follow up connections. One of my teachers did Animal Riddles with TX in March and they are still communicating as e-pals. A focused, structured pen pal program can tie in nicely with videoconferencing to meet each other. Here’s a little clip of our very first pen pal VC in 2000. What should be included to make this a stronger interaction?
  • Videoconference plus multiplayer game?! I wouldn’t have thought this would be practical or possible until I read about Heather’s project of Virtual Reality plus Videoconference. The technology book gives the example of Revolution, a game about the American Revolution. What if students played in groups of 7, with 3 of the students from one class and 3 from the other class? This would be another project to do only with high speed Internet and a 1-to-1 laptop program. The videoconference would be used for real time communication that might be needed between the groups, and also for teacher led processing.

What other ideas do you have? How do you already use cooperative learning in your videoconferences? How can you improve your practice? Please comment!

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Summarizing and Note Taking

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Summarizing: Generalizations

  1. To effectively summarize, students must delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information.
  2. To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level.
  3. Being aware of the explicit structure of information is an aid to summarizing information.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Teach students the rule-based summarizing strategy.
  2. Use summary frames.
  3. Teach students the reciprocal teaching strategy (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 119-120).

Notetaking: Generalizations

  1. Verbatim note taking is perhaps the least effective way to take notes.
  2. Notes should be considered a work in progress.
  3. Notes should be used as study guides for tests.
  4. The more notes that are taken, the better.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Give students teacher-prepared notes.
  2. Teach students a variety of note-taking formats.
  3. Use combination notes (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 120).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Do your students ever take notes in a videoconference?

  • MysteryQuest. Kids take notes in the MysteryQuests and all the spin offs. They have a note-taking sheet and try to write down all the clues. However, the way some of the clues come, it’s hard to write down the right information. If students had practice with summarizing, they would be better note-takers in the MysteryQuest. This page on integrating tech in the summarizing and notetaking strategy has a great little handout on the four rules for summarizing.
  • Lest We Forget. This year, I decided to beef up the learning in the Lest We Forget programs. I created a little note-taking worksheet to guide the students listening process. I haven’t seen any classes using it though. Maybe this needs a little more polishing.
  • Content Providers. Every time one of our classes connects to the Columbus Zoo, I see them taking notes. The presenter shows the sheet on the document camera, and students fill in information throughout the program. What a great example of structured note-taking. The instructor has provided a scaffold for the notes, and the students are given opportunity and time to process their new knowledge. What other content providers give students a structured way to take notes? Comment and share some others.

New Ideas

  • Combination Notes. What if students took notes on the other class’ presentation, instead of just listening? They could use the Combination Notes strategy to document facts, a drawing, and their summary. This page has a great sample template. I’m thinking, in particular, of our upper level projects like Eco-Conversations.
  • Sharing and Creating Summary Frames. I’ve always thought it would be neat to get 1-to-1 laptop classes together via videoconference. But what could they do that would be a logical way to use the laptops during the VC? What if, again, students were presenting to each other, but the other class was taking notes. They could use one of the Summary Frames formats. After one class presented, a couple students could volunteer to bring up their laptop and show the summary frame they created. What a great way to review and also check for understanding! More summary frame templates on this page.

Today my brain is excited about the possibilities of professional development and improved teaching practice that can happen in classroom-to-classroom collaborations. Just imagine how two teachers could improve their practice working together!

Did this post inspire any new ideas or thoughts for you? Please comment.

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Nonlinguistic Representation

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Nonlinguistic Representation: Generalizations

  1. A variety of activities produce nonlinguistic representation.
  2. The purpose of nonlinguistic representation is to elaborate on knowledge.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use graphic organizers to represent knowledge.
  2. Have students create physical models of the knowledge.
  3. Have students generate mental pictures of the knowledge they are learning.
  4. Use pictures or pictographs to represent knowledge.
  5. Have students engage in kinesthetic activities representing the knowledge (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 86-87).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

This is the fun strategy, because it fits most easily with a visual communication medium. It also fits a progression of levels of interaction.

  • Share student nonlinguistic representations of data. We tried this out for the first time this school year with the TWICE We the Kids project. Students share drawings or skits representing the phrases of the constitution preamble. So classes can share/present to each other: graphic organizers, physical models, pictures, pictographs, and kinesthetic activities such as dance (watch the video on irregular verbs) and many more listed here such as acting out the states of matter. See also this musical drama on convection & hailstorms and Dance of the Water Molecule. See also Interdisciplinary Learning Through Dance and Canadian Learning Through the Arts lesson plans.
  • Mystery-Motions! What if kids could act out different concepts and the other class tried to guess? i.e. the states of matter. Weather patterns. Obviously the classes would need shared vocabulary and knowledge. Wouldn’t this be a great activity in a language exchange?
  • Creating Nonlinguistic Representations Together. How could the classes create a non-linguistic representation together? We already talked about creating online before the videoconference. But what about during the VC? Could the classes take a survey and make a pictograph by lining up for favorite pets – and easily see each other’s graphs right away? This would certainly add a new twist to the traditional Q&A at the end of a classroom collaboration.

More Sharing Ideas

  • Graphs & Data. A good chunk of the technology book is spent on graphing data, collecting it with probes, digital microscopes, etc. The current projects booklet has a data collection idea, but I have rarely seen it used. Do we just not collect and process data very often in schools?
  • Creating Videos. Having students create a video of their knowledge is also a nonlinguistic representation. @roxanneglaser has modeled this for us with Texas Twisted Weather and Imagine It!.
  • Sharing Animations. Students could create and share animations with their partner class. Reminds me of Animationish, Sketchy and Frames. Are your students creating these? Why not share them and inspire another class?

Beyond Just Sharing
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of presenting/sharing what has been done in class. How else can we interact with the partner class?

  • Ask the other class to draw something in response to what you taught/shared with them.
  • Ask the other class to move in response to your class movements.
  • Ask the other class to do a simple movement (stand up, clap) as you quiz them. Try to make the movements represent the knowledge. @sparky1fan, surely you have a good idea or two here!

What other ideas do you have? Did you get any new ideas with this post? Please comment!

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers: Generalizations

  1. Cues, questions, and advance organizers should focus on what is important rather than what is unusual.
  2. “Higher-level” questions and advance organizers produce deeper learning than “lower-level” questions and advance organizers.
  3. Advance organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized.
  4. Different types of advance organizers produce different results.
  5. Waiting briefly before accepting responses from students has the effect of increasing the depth of students’ answers.
  6. Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use expository advance organizers.
  2. Use narrative advance organizers.
  3. Teach students skimming as a form of advance organizer.
  4. Teach students how to use graphic advance organizers.
  5. Use explicit cues.
  6. Ask questions that elicit inferences.
  7. Ask analytic questions (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 74).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers are primarily again about accessing prior knowledge. Cues and questions help students see what’s coming next so they can begin connecting it to their current knowledge. These are asked by the teacher. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about getting student questions to a higher level quality (in ASK & other programs). But that is not what the research on cues & questions is about.

Cues and questions can be used by content providers during the program, and by teachers before & after a program or project. The questions & cues need to tie into the main point of what’s important in the unit.

Cues & Questions Before a VC

  • Giving students an overview of the important content in the upcoming lesson.
  • Using wait time (double the wait time in a VC) to give time for quality answers.
  • Asking higher level questions. I can think of providers who do this well, and others who ask questions that elicit only one-word answers. The Handbook has a nice list of examples of generic inferential questions that can be adapted to your content (p. 270-271).

Possible New Format

Another section is about Analytic Questions. These are questions that analyze errors, construct support, and analyze perspectives. I’m thinking of Eco-Conversations and similar projects that address current issues. What if both classes attempted to answer questions such as:

  • What are the errors in reasoning in this information?
  • How is this information misleading?
  • What is an argument that would support the following claim?
  • Why would someone consider this to be good (or bad or neutral)?
  • What is the reasoning behind his or her perspective?
  • What is an alternative perspective, and what is the reasoning behind it? (Marzano, 2001, CITW, p. 116)

Share Advance Organizers?

I think it would be so interesting and beneficial for students to share their own advance organizers on a topic, but could they be made clearly enough that the other class could read them?

Or what if two classes worked together to create an advance organizer on a topic. It could be created in GoogleDocs as a spreadsheet or table, or an artistic advance organizer in an online collaborative brainstorming or drawing too. Imagine classes with interactive white boards working on the document as a class, and then sharing to see what the other class adds to it. During the videoconference they could discuss the topic or present new information to each other and then add more new knowledge to their organizer.

What do you think? Too much of a stretch? Doable? Please comment.

References: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Norford, J. S., Paynter, D. E., Pickering, D. J., & Gaddy, B. B. (2001). A handbook for classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works : research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Providing Recognition

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Providing Recognition: Generalizations

  1. Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation.
  2. Reward is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance.
  3. Abstract symbolic recognition (e.g., praise) is more effective than tangible rewards (e.g., candy, money).

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Personalize recognition.
  2. Use the Pause, Prompt, and Praise strategy.
  3. Use concrete symbols of recognition (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 59-60).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing

Most of the ideas in this area are on giving students certificates (printed and online), posting exemplary work online, using response systems to give recognition, and giving students recorded audio messages.

Interestingly, videoconferencing is included again as a way to have students communicate with professionals and peers as authentic audiences. The Global WRITeS project was featured as a way for students to perform and judge poetry. I’ve blogged about this project when it was presented at NECC last year. Andrea Israeli blogs about this project too. Students receive both authentic feedback from the poet and peers, as well as getting recognition for work well done.

Other ways that students receive recognition in current programs we do are:

  • Students hearing their names in a videoconference. When the author or expert listens to a student question and then uses their name back, students LOVE it!
  • Complimenting classes. When the facilitator in a project such as MysteryQuest or Monster Match congratulates the class on their monster match or their good note-taking, classes receive recognition.
  • Can you think of any others?

New Ideas

  • Performance Judging. This idea of having students perform and then be judged (using agreed upon criterion) can be used beyond poetry. What else? Dance, music, and speech. How about student created videos on multiple topics, as organized so efficiently by @roxanneglaser with Texas Twisted Weather and Imagine It!
  • Goal sharing. What if students could share, say towards the end of the year, some of their goals and how they accomplished them? Could sharing with another class (authentic audience) how they achieved the goal provide recognition? They could be motivated and inspired by the other class too. Is that too crazy of an idea? What do you think?

What other ideas pop into your head?

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano: Providing Feedback

This post is part of a series on integrating the McREL research on classroom instruction that works with videoconferencing.

Providing Feedback: Generalizations

  1. Feedback should be corrective in nature.
  2. Feedback should be timely.
  3. Feedback should be specific to a criterion.
  4. Students can effectively provide some of their own feedback.

Recommendations

Use these to improve your practice.

  1. Use criterion-referenced feedback.
  2. Focus feedback on specific types of knowledge.
  3. Use student-led feedback (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 41-42).

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing: Current Practice

Predictably, the technology examples give include comments in Word, classroom response systems, grading software, using web rubrics for criterion referenced feedback, and using games and simulations that provide instant feedback.

What I found surprising was the inclusion of communication software in this section, including “blogs, wikis, email, instant messaging, and videoconferencing” (p. 53). As I read the examples in the book, I thought of these current videoconference programs:

  • “ASK Deluxe“, where students blogged two chapters of The Ultimate Gift and gave feedback to each other before the videoconference with the author.
  • Monster Match and all it’s variations are in some ways “feedback” to the students on how well they wrote their description.
  • The instant message example in the book is of students asking questions of their government representative, which we do on a regular basis with our Senator, Representative, as well as veterans and authors in the ASK program.
  • The videoconference example in the book has Spanish students talking to students in Spain, similar to the videoconferences we’ve done with Frank Garcia. In a twist, after the videoconference, students use a blog to give feedback to each other using the other class’ native language.
  • MysteryQuest and all its spin-offs is another way that students get feedback from an audience. They get immediate feedback on the quality of their presentation (how well the other classes can take notes). They get immediate feedback on their research skills as they find out the correct answer.

The main point in this section was the feedback from authentic audiences.

Brainstorming for Videoconferencing: New Ideas

So, how can we beef up the feedback in our videoconferences?

  • Emphasize talking to experts and authors. First, I think we need to continue to emphasize the value of real-time interaction with student-generated questions to authors and experts. I had a long discussion with one of our veterans who wanted to script the videoconference. The value is in the INTERACTION! There is major value to the students in hearing the answer to a question THEY wrote! We can’t forget this. We must continue to make time for it. To plan deliberately for feedback.
  • “Poetry Idol”. I can’t find a blogged entry, but we have had a couple high school poetry performance videoconferences that were stunning. The students performed (not just recited) a favorite poem (theirs or not). The other class rated them, with scores, acting as judges. In another exchange, both classes shared essays with each other, and after each essay, the other class gave specific helpful feedback to the student who just read their essay. Incredibly powerful. If this format could be polished a little more, and both classes used the same criterion-referenced rubric for evaluating work and giving feedback, the students could gain even more from the experience. Students could practice and learn ways to effectively give feedback to their peers.
  • Language Exchange. After watching my classes interact with classes in other languages (primarily Spanish), I believe we can beef up the quality of those interactions. With a little more preparation we can get more than just laughing, giggling, and a little bit of language practice. Students should prepare something to present/share in the language (a story, a skit, a song, their own writing, statements about themselves). As students tend to be nervous and self-conscious, visual cards to read and remind them of their lines would reinforce the vocabulary and usage. Students could also prepare their questions on cards as well. Have you experienced cross-language exchanges? What made them go well? What made them effective?

What do you think? Do any new ideas pop into your brain? Share them and I’ll add them, giving you credit, to the next iteration of the Projects Booklet.

Reference: Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Understanding and Troubleshooting Videoconference Networks

Need to understand more about what VC is doing on your network and how it works? Just saw this announcement on the Megaconference Listserv:

This workshop is available again May 7-8th.  You can attend on site in Madison, Wisconsin.  This time, the program director is also allowing participants at a limited number of H.323 videoconference sites, I think that includes HD.  Contact Prof. Thomas Smith as listed in the brochure at http://epdweb.engr.wisc.edu/Courses/Course.lasso?myCourseChoice=K438

I went to this workshop a while back when I thought I didn’t know enough to learn anything from it, but surprisingly I did! You can read my past blog posts about this workshop here and here.

They don’t pay me, or even ask me, to advertise this workshop. I’m just sharing it with you because it was such a benefit to me.