Tag Archives: Change

Diffusion of Innovations

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: Free Press. Quoted in this article:

Rogers (1995) suggests that there are five factors related to the nature of innovations and their rate of adoption: relative advantage, the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supercedes; compatibility, the extent to which it is consistent with existing values, experiences, and needs of adopters; complexity, how difficult it is to use and understand; trialability, the degree to which it can be experimented with on a limited basis; and observability, the degree to which the results of the innovation are visible to others.

So, how do you think videoconferencing is doing?

  • Relative advantage: What idea does VC supercede? For course delivery, it’s the face to face instructor, right? For curriculum videoconferencing, it’s the field trip, right? Is that advantage strong enough? Do people perceive it as better?
  • Compatibility: Is VC compatible with our values and experiences? in what ways? how does it meet the needs to adopters?
  • Complexity: I think we have a ways to go yet on this one. Just read this blog post: “Does it have to be so formal and complicated?”
  • Trialability: Hmm. How would you experiment with VC on a limited basis before you decided??? You can watch some videos maybe, but it’s pretty hard to just try it out.
  • Observability: Certainly other teachers in the building know when you’re using it or not; but do others interested in educational technology know about it? I think we still have a way to go in this area as well.

I think this theory does show some of the challenges to videoconferencing becoming a mainstream technology. Do you agree? What do you think?

Using VC for Homebound Students

Here’s an interesting article published in Feb/March. Did you read it?

A Healthy Education

Videoconferencing allows a Florida boy with an immune system deficiency to attend school for the first time.

Kevin O’Connell is a typical third grader at Spring Hill Elementary. He jumps up from his chair and recites the Pledge of Allegiance with his classmates. He huddles with his small reading group and reads a story when it’s his turn. And when he knows an answer, he raises his hand and patiently waits for his teacher to notice him in the back of the classroom. The only difference is, he’s actually attending class at home.

Take a moment to read it. It’s a pretty cool example of using VC to bring full courses to students.

Repeat Teachers

Are you starting to see teachers who are doing more than one videoconference in a year? It’s not just a novelty one time thing? They are doing a bunch! For example….

  • I have a kindergarten teacher who has done 10 videoconferences this year (4 with content providers, rest collaborations & projects)
  • Another kindergarten teacher who did 12 (only 2 with content providers, the rest collaborations & projects)
  • a second grade teacher who did 18 (3 content providers, a couple ASK programs, mostly collaborations and projects)
  • I had an email from a teacher in TX who was doing MysteryQuest USA. She was confused on the preparation and her excuse was that her schedule was jammed with a bunch of videoconferences…. (teacher this is – not a media specialist coordinator)…
  • a middle school teacher who did 9 (all content providers who offer free programs)

Why are they doing so many? It can’t be “just for fun” or for the novelty’s sake. Multiple collaborative projects with the same teacher and/or different teachers. These videoconferences have become an integral part of their teaching. Why!? What made them use it so much? What value do they see in it? Clearly they’ve found that this technology makes an impact on student learning. I want to ask them more about it.

Are you seeing this in your area? What stories do you hear?

Scalability of Distance Learning Initatives

USLDA Conference: Scalability of Distance Learning Initiatives within Current School Models Resistant to Change by Daryl Diamond, Assistant Director, Enterprise Change Implementation, Broward County Public Schools, FL

6th largest school district in the country; first franchise of Florida Virtual School

She started with a “distance learning program attribute checklist” with keys for implementation. It has five categories:

Some of these ideas come from Comprehensive School Reform.

Scaling isn’t just the number of people using a technology or tool. It’s not just pockets of educational reform.

Coburn’s (2003) Dimensions of Scale

  • Spread – increased numbers
  • Depth – changes in teachers beliefs and practice
  • Sustainability – how does it sustain after reform funding ends
  • Shift in Reform Ownership

Think about scaling up vs. going to scale. Going to scale means that it’s integrated into regular practice and becomes the norm.

There are some ways that distance learning is better than face to face – where the online learning model meets multiple intelligences and authentic assessment is used. And face to face is just the lock step workbook page that everyone has to be on the same page by the mideterm.

Do you ever feel like you’re building an airplane in the sky?

Does the distance learning program change the pedagogical principles? Is the project able to continue if funding is pulled?

Broward has videoconferencing systems in all the high schools, used mostly for full courses. They also have VC in the elementary and middle schools. In addition they have a middle & high school level virtual school.

“going to scale” includes changing basic pedagogical practices.

“researchers have been looking at the wrong thing” – only how many teachers are using it? how many students are using it? Instead we should look at how teaching has changed?

We need to move past “it’s innovative, it’s fun, it’s viable, it’s enjoyable”.

Interesting idea she has: use VC to mentor teachers. Both teachers hook up their classes – the mentor teacher teaches both classes while the other teacher learns/observes. It’s implemented in face to face classes to meet the needs of new teachers.

“How many of your programs started with a grant?” What happens when the grant funding dries up?

She sees distance learning as a critical tool to address the mandates for all students to have access to quality learning.

There’s a nice intro to their VC programs here. Their VC courses are supported by web resources.

Then we looked at the checklist again to consider how our programs are going to scale based on the checklist. The checklist isn’t online that I could find, but you can email Daryl – her contact information is on the link at the top.

Listening to Teachers

Listening
On a slightly off-videoconferencing topic…. I’ve been teaching an online class, Technology in the Early Elementary Classroom, the last 8 weeks. I love listening to the teachers discuss, create projects, and sharing great ideas with each other. This week there was a discussion of the use of the overhead projector. Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers talked about how students went crazy over it when they first saw it. New to them! And how it helped them follow along in using their math books, etc.

I thought about the tech coordinators I’ve heard wanting to get rid of all the overhead projectors in their school and replace with [insert preferred technology here].

And I wondered, how often do we really stop and listen to the teachers? How often do we observe how they are actually using the tools in their classroom (without judging teaching philosophy or strategy)? How often do we think carefully about how teachers will still do their great work minus a tool we’re tired of? Do we really listen and hear the potential impact of technology decisions on teachers?

——

One of the ways I want to listen to my teachers this year is to do a little end of the year survey. Actually two surveys. I’ll send the Zoomerang links to my regular VC listserv for my teachers, with a link for if you did a VC this year, and if you didn’t. I want to ask them some questions. To see how we can serve them better.

How are you listening to the teachers you serve?

Talking to tech coordinators

At the MACUL 08 Conference this year, I ran into some of our local tech coordinators and we chatted about the progress of videoconferencing in their districts.

We commiserated about the great fact that the school level videoconference coordinators are doing fine on their own, and the sad fact that we don’t get to see the videoconferences as much anymore. We miss “running the show” for our teachers, but the increased usage is a testament to the fact that the new model of a school level champion, with district and educational service agency level support for that person, is a successful model. The support tree structure makes it easy for teachers to participate, and hence we have greater use of videoconferencing.

Gary Stager Makes Me Think…

After listening to Gary Stager at the MACUL 08 Conference, I went up to ask him about the handouts from his session yesterday that I missed.  In the course of the conversation, he said to me,

“Why do people identify themselves with just one technology?”

He was referring to some of the ideas in the Web 2.0 session he did yesterday that I had missed. He didn’t mean to, but he challenged my own practice.

It made me think! (Which I think is the point of listening to Gary Stager.)

I like to refer to myself as a “one technology girl”, referring to videoconferencing. I try to keep my blog focused on videoconferencing. Every time I go somewhere or see something or learn something, I’m trying to see how it ties to videoconferencing.

I want to say, how can we make our videoconferences more constructive? But I feel like I’m coming at it from the wrong angle, by starting with the technology. On the other hand, it seems that videoconferencing is a perfect fit for social constructivist learning because it’s a communication technology. I need to keep thinking about this….

One of Gary’s points was “less us, more them.”

Some beginning thoughts are:

  • what if the kids picked who they wanted to connect to instead of the teacher?
  • what if the kids researched to find and request an expert to connect with them via videoconferencing?
  • how often do we have the kids generate the activities and interaction?
  • with the KC3 programs, do the kids decide how to represent the topic? do they decide the topic?
  • what structures like MysteryQuest or Holiday Challenges could we create that are based on even more constructivist principles?

Gary also emphasized the importance of good prompts. We need more good prompts for teachers and students using videoconferencing. What tough questions could help them head down to a path of interaction with experts and/or peers?

These are just a few beginning random thoughts stirred up after listening to Gary today.  Off to the next session, but these ideas will keep simmering….

Motivating Teachers

One of the questions I hear all the time is, “How do you motivate teachers to use videoconferencing?”

Here’s an answer from one of my veteran RUS Grant videoconference coordinators. Linda Johnson is the librarian at Mars Elementary, a K-2 school with 361 students and 25 teachers. At this moment they have 43 student events scheduled for the 2007-2008 school year and I know that several more are in the works. So this school is quite successful.

That said, here is a comment from Linda in my class, Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections.

While trying to get my teachers interested in having VC Pals, I had to make a point to let them know I only wanted them to share things they already do. Many times when the students do their writings they share as a classroom but that’s it. By sharing during a vc, maybe the work will become more meaningful because they are sharing it with another group of students.

Linda is planning multiple pen pal connections with a school in Ontario, Canada, and so far they are going very well.

So, keep this in mind. Teachers are really busy! The curriculum is really jam packed! So whatever teachers do with videoconferencing, it has to meet curriculum goals and fit tightly into what they are doing.

How do you encourage teachers to use videoconferencing? and what strategies do you use to help them find and create VCs that fit their curriculum?

Lit Review: Site facilitator roles in videoconferencing: Implications for training

Lit Review: This is a post in a series focusing on the research studies on videoconferencing.

Wakefield, C. K. (1999). Site facilitator roles in videoconferencing: Implications for training. Unpublished Ed.D., University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH.

Author: Wakefield, Carman Kay
Title of dissertation: Site facilitator roles in videoconferencing: Implications for training.
Publication year: 1999
Database source: ProQuest Dissertation Abstracts
My Codes: VCImplementation, VCCourseDelivery

Main Point: Site facilitators are critical to successful videoconferencing of all kinds. They need specific traits and skills, and they need on-the-job training or job-shadowing as the ideal form of training.

Definitions: “The site facilitator, for the purpose of this study, is the support person that is in the videoconferencing room along with the main speaker.”

Methods & Findings: The study compares site facilitators’ views of their role with that of the “larger distance learning community” and finds the implications for site facilitator training.

The researcher interviewed via email 27 site facilitators to learn about their responsibilities, their position, their routine, required skills, training, and how they would train someone else for the same position.

The five major roles that emerged from the first part of the study were technical expert, instructional assistant, liaison, scheduler, and trainer/consultant.

There is some evidence that the study included site facilitators who use vc for more than traditional course delivery. “I look for ways to make use of our facility through electronic field trips, meeting other schools, etc.” p. 33. Also p. 39, the main purpose for the use of the room ranged from meetings (top) and guest speakers (next) to courses in the middle to research at the bottom. Definitely a broad set of purposes and uses in this research.

They felt the best way to learn the job was “by job shadowing and on-the-job training.” p. 35.

The follow up questionnaire was sent to a group of distance learning professionals who were “in charge” of their ITV systems. They came from public, private, government, higher education, K12, medical fields, vendors, conference centers,the military and more. 83 responses were collected from the listserv.

There’s a nice set of trait words ranked in this order for what would be important: reliable, problem solver, technology literate, not easily panicked, organized, friendly, great communicator, flexible. Those are the top 8.

Literature Referenced
Many studies are referenced as to the critical role of the site facilitator and the lack of administrative/funding support of this position.

Author/Audience:

Cross References:

Questions/Thoughts:

Site facilitators thought it was important to be patient and not easily panicked! “This  is, for all practical purposes, a customer service position.” p. 58.

There is need for “follow-up support when learning this position.” p. 59. It can’t be just a one-shot vendor training.

Key components for training & support of the site facilitator:

  • manuals / reference for problems
  • videoconference etiquette
  • someone to call if they have trouble
  • informed of instructional resources and how to use them
  • registration and policies and procedures
  • emphasis on communication skills, patience, a positive attitude and politeness
  • scheduling procedures and all the limitations etc. of the room/equipment
  • access to the calendar
  • preferably some knowledge of VC literature
  • ability to train the instructor

Relevance: This study is about site facilitators for all areas, not specifically on K12. However many of the principles seem to apply to the K12 videoconference coordinator supporting mainly curriculum videoconferencing.

Where should you install new VC equipment?

Since reading the last dissertation, and since conversations with colleagues at the CILC Symposium, I’ve been thinking about the purpose of videoconferencing and the location of equipment. How does this sound for a few straightforward guidelines:

  • If you want to do curriculum videoconferencing, start in the elementary schools.
  • If you want to do shared classes, start at the high school.
  • If you want to do meetings, put it in a board/meeting room, and forget about ever using it with kids.

In our county we have used videoconferencing predominantly for curriculum videoconferencing. We do state wide meetings often, we’re starting to do more PD for VC over VC, and 3-5 times a year we might offer some PD that isn’t VC-related. Early on we had a couple shared classes, but the districts involved ended up hiring teachers for those subject areas. Our county has a really strong Career Technical Education program where students spend half their day in usually an onsite CTE program. These programs are shared among the districts in the county, and usually the students are driving to their program. Because this model is so successful, there is little need for shared classes. So we sold our districts on curriculum videoconferencing and we support it that way too, with support, training, funding, and programming directed to that end.

In other service areas, such as ISD B & C in the study I just read, shared classes are the focus of videoconferencing and are highly successful with all of the districts participating. The purpose in many ways defines the usage, installation, and implementation of the equipment.

I don’t know very many places that install videoconferencing in administration buildings and/or board rooms. I have heard several rumblings from Ontario that many school boards are using VC predominantly for meetings. It’s intriguing to me. How is it that these schools haven’t heard of or experienced curriculum videoconferencing? How is it that they aren’t seeing the vision? Do vendors explain other possibilities of VC when they sell schools equipment? Or do they just tell what they know only? How did these schools find out about VC to only envision it for meetings? Maybe local businesses? How can we spread the word of curriculum videoconferencing in a way that spreads the vision to schools who have VC but don’t realize the amazing engaging experiences they could offer to their students? We need more articles published in technology magazines! I guess our work is cut out for us!

What do you think? Do you agree with these guidelines? Can you think of other purposes?