Tag Archives: Collaborations

Videoconferencing Adjectives

I’m continuing this little mini-series with some of the results from a recent survey of my top VC-using teachers. Read more about it in the first post of this series. Remember, they are using videoconferencing to support curriculum instruction (not full length courses).

The question featured in this post is the following:

If your principal or superintendent walked into your classroom during a videoconference, give five adjectives to describe what they would see happening.

Videoconferencing Adjectives

Now isn’t this a nice set of words!

Notice the motivation adjectives: excited, smiles, amazed, happy, laughter, interesting, interested.

Notice the learning adjectives: learning, engaged reflective, involvement/involved, attentive, cooperative, active, interactive/interacting, communication, higher-level, knowledge, perform, reinforcement.

I did take out the word students – as many teachers wrote “students” after each adjective – and so it was huge again like the first wordle I did in this series. But I wanted you to see the adjectives larger and clearer.

See if you can find the one word that isn’t so positive. 🙂 Yes, I’ve seen a few kids do this in a VC. Have you?

Are these good reasons to use videoconferencing in your curriculum? Why or why not? Please comment.

Negative Things About Using VC in the Classroom

Yesterday we began this little journey of examining results from a little survey I did last May. Review the previous post for more information on the survey.

Today, let’s look at the companion question:

Please identify three to five negative things about using videoconferencing in your classroom.

Negative Things About Using VC in the Classroom

What words jump out at you this time? TIME! What ways are time challenging for videoconferencing?

  • Time zones
  • Time to schedule a videoconference
  • Time to prepare the students (and yourself) for a videoconference
  • Time to get all the classes at the level/grade to participate
  • What else can you think of?

Scheduling and technical problems stand out in this list too. While these teachers tend to be in my schools with better bandwidth and infrastructure, they still have done enough VCs to run into glitches.

I’ll share a couple full answers with you. This one is from Lacy Payne, F.C.Reed Middle School, in Bridgman, Michigan, (RUS grant school) whose students have done ASK programs, MysteryQuest, The Cleveland Museum of Art (to name a few), and has also participated in the Jazz workshop.

I have a couple of experiences where I had to reschedule because of technology problems, scheduling problems sometimes occur, time availability, and cost. I have two sessions of classes I teach and in order to get them both in I have to have them at the same time which creates a large number of students upwards of 50-60 kids. If money wasn’t an issue it would be much easier to do one conference per class.

From Peggy Clore, Coloma Middle School, (RUS grant school) 6th/7th grade language arts teacher:

1) Preparation takes time out of other lessons I’ve planned, so I have to make sure I’m covering as many of the GLCE’s as I can. Editor’s note: GLCEs are Michigan’s Grade Level Content Expectations.
2) Snow days cancel programs:)
3) Hearing may be difficult due to the other classes’ facilities.

And of course, this one is my favorite answer from a teacher who preferred to be anonymous in the survey results.

I don’t consider any part to be a negative worth griping about. If forced to nit-pick, the time frame is sometimes out of classwork sequence.

Are these negative things a barrier for these teachers? Read yesterday’s post!

So, please comment – either with your own list of negative things about using VC in the classroom, or with your own interpretation of the data represented above, or your own ideas of how to address these challenges.

Positive Things Abut Using VC in the Classroom

Last May (2008), I asked twenty of my teachers who used VC most often to complete a little survey. This is the beginning of sharing the results. Each teacher had used videoconferencing at least 6 times in the school year, and the teacher using it the most had done 12 videoconferences in the 2007-2008 school year. All of these were “curriculum videoconferencing” or using VC to support curriculum instruction.

In this post, I’ll share the answers to one of the questions. I decided to use Wordle to represent the data visually. Interestingly, it’s quantitative data (counting the number of times the word is using) represented in a more qualitative way.

Please identify three to five positive things about using videoconferencing in your classroom.

Positive Things About Using VC in the Classroom

Isn’t it interesting that the word students is so huge?! Learning, experiences, and opportunity jump out at me. It’s all about the students, isn’t it! Click the graphic to see the words much larger. Think about each of those other descriptive words.

And, I selected one full answer to share with you. This answer is by Peggy Clore, 6th and 7th grade language arts teacher at the Coloma Middle School, Coloma, Michigan (one of our RUS grant schools). She took the Jazz workshop a couple years ago and has been hooked on VC since. One of her more memorable VCs was the Around the World project in April 2008. She has also participated in the ASK interview with Jim Stovall and Read Around the Planet.

1) Students have an authentic audience, causing them to take greater care with their work.
2) Students learn to create valid questions through the ASK kit.
3) Students reflect upon what they learn and sometimes change their thinking or make connections to what they know.
4) Some of our challenging students’ behavior is so much better because they’re interested in what we’re doing.
5) When we connect to another part of the country or a foreign country, we open our students’ world to ideas they may not learn through a text book. Most of our students do not have opportunity to travel or see areas outside of our rural community and county.

So, how would you answer this question? Please comment – either with your own list of positive things about using VC in the classroom, or with your own interpretation of the data represented above.

The More You Share, The More Power You Have

I was intrigued by Will Richardson’s post from this week – “the less you share, the less power you have.” I’d like to state it more positively – the more you share, the more power you have.

I’m thinking in particular of Monster Match and its spin offs and the spin offs from the spin offs. My teacher who posted the “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing” project was so excited to see the class that used her idea for More Descriptive Writing… Her partner teacher noticed the Snowman one that was posted. She found it so affirming that others were using the ideas.

So, you could say, how is that more power? Well, how do you define power?

  • If it’s greater self-confidence to influence others, then this is an example of greater power.
  • If its a realization that one can make a difference not only in one’s own classroom but for other teachers too, then this is an example of greater power.

It empowers teachers to realize that others are using their ideas. Do you agree?

Need partners for Eco-Conversations

I need two more partners for our EcoConversations project. We’ll take classes in the US if we can’t get Canada or UK partners.

Description: Students connect internationally to discuss current environmental issues and their impact locally. Students present their research and the local perspectives and then discuss the issues with the partner class.

Please check the project website for which times are still available. Registration is online there too.

At the time of posting this, I need two classes.

Fresh Water: Dec. 9 9:20 – 10:05 US EST / 2:20-3:05 UK
Carbon Emissions: Dec. 11 8:50-9:50 US EST / 1:50-2:50 UK

In the Words of Teachers

I have a session of Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections finishing up this week and next. The participants have been reflecting on the preparation for their collaborative project. Here are some comments from Shellie Jaques, Watervliet North Elementary, who is doing a project called “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing.” It’s a spin off of Monster Match, using turkeys, with each student making a turkey and actually mailing the turkeys to the partner class.

Here’s a comment on how the project inspired reluctant writers:

A few of my reluctant writers shocked me with the quality of their writing and enthusiasm for the project.  I think having an audience that goes beyond the building’s walls helps too.  It makes the project seem more important.

And a very detailed description of the preparation. Note the use of the rubric to increase the quality of the writing, and the classroom management tips.

All 23 students in my Lang. Arts class are still working on their descriptive drafts they started last Friday.  They made their turkeys last week and they look great.  I’m very impressed with their creativity.  After seeing the dry, boring rough drafts written last week I decided to make a rubric that includes many writing skills we have learned so far this year and grammar skills we are currently practicing.  I am pleased that the “My turkey has . . . ” papers are no longer in existence.  Instead we have some “Wanted Turkey” posters, missing turkey stories, etc.  Much more interesting.

Everyone will be on camera when reading his/her own paragraph.  When the partner class is reading their descriptions, my class will take turns guessing the turkey that matches the description read.  My students are seated in 8 groups of 3, so each group will have about 3 different turns guessing.  This will keep more people actively listening and limit the temptation to blurt out an answer. The group will reach a consensus and each person in the group will have a turn to be the group spokesperson.

The participants have been reading Wesley Fryer’s Tech4Learning article, “the future of collaborative videoconferencing”. Several participants picked out his comment that teachers see this as “fluff”.

If it’s tied tightly to the curriculum, and research based instructional strategies, is it fluff?! Shellie’s project doesn’t sound like fluff to me. What do you think?!

Subscribe to the TWICE Blog

RAP HatJust a reminder to everyone who is subscribed to my blog, to make sure you’re subscribed to the TWICE blog as well. Particularly if you plan to participate in Read Around the Planet this year. It’s time to start thinking about this big project, and you’ll want to know about the updates and tweaks to CAPspace for Read Around the Planet…..

Final Monster Match Thoughts

Are you subscribed to Roxanne Glaser’s blog? If not, be sure to check out these two informative reflective posts on last week’s Monster Match sessions:

You may as well take a moment to subscribe to her blog too if you haven’t already!

So, what’s next? I have two days of ASK Stellaluna, more November and December ASK programs, starting to prep for Mrs. Claus in December, and getting some Eco-Conversation projects for December off the ground. Also getting ready to get to work on verification for Read Around the Planet.

What are YOU working on next?

Monster Match "Horror" Stories and Last Pairs

Last day of Monster Match. Whew! We made it. I had 37 classes participate, which doesn’t sound like too many compared to a few other VC friends. But I’m still pleased with the results.

I thought you’d enjoy some “horror” stories from the week. These are some of the interesting things that went on behind the scenes. Any project of this size is going to have some little “issues” along that way the need resolving.

  • A fire in the room across the hall. Yes, can you believe it? And that connection only started 10 min. late. Not too bad!
  • Partner conflict over the depiction of a knife on the monster. This was resolved by removing the offending item.
  • Partner conflict/frustration over the use of “approved materials.” It seems a few teachers who did it last year didn’t think they needed to read the instructions this year. Oops!
  • Having to bus or walk to another location due to VC not working. Now that’s dedication to students!
  • A teacher on her own because everyone who runs the equipment left the building. With a little scrambling we got through it and everyone was happy.
  • A couple classes with such high excitement and poor classroom management skills that all the kids were talking and yelling at the same time. VC does tend to accentuate classroom management issues.
  • Hooked up the wrong building in a district. Oops! This is easily solvable too.
  • Custodian recycled the monster. Bummer. It made it impossible to compare, but they were still able to say how close it was.

Still, we had some great conversations about similarities and differences, and got to know each other a little more. I even heard a class this morning comparing who they were “rooting for” in the election.

Finally, a few more Monster Pairs for your viewing pleasure…

Lakeshore and Coloma Middle Schools, MI (6th grade)

This was one of the better matches I saw at the middle school level. Pretty close!

Doesn’t the head look a bit like a chocolate bar?

Coloma Elementary, MI and Groesbeck, TX (4th grade)

And here’s the monster that matched the one that got recycled. Check out the guitar!

Hope the stories this week inspired you to do similar projects. I’ve seen a few on CAPspace: Elves Exchange, Turkey Time, etc. You too can do this kind of project!

Monster Pairs Part 4

Another day of Monster Matches and some more pairs for you.

This monster’s name was “Mr. Cranky.” It’s fun to hear what the kids name their monsters. One class today said, “what is your monster’s name?” to a class that hadn’t named their monster. They had to think quick!

And the other pair….

Also, I caught some pictures of Ms. Purple Haired Facilitator herself!

“Who’s listening?! Are you thinking about the similarities and differences?”

“Now, children, it’s time to dance to Monster Mash!”

Ms. Purple Haired Monster was so kind to drop in on a connection this afternoon where the partner class was late and confused. Quick thinking “on her feet” to entertain our kids. Thank you!