Tag Archives: Collaborations

MusicPath VC Project over I2

Another session: Now I’m watching an amazing demo of a pianist in Calgary Alberta playing the beautiful grand piano in front of me. No one is at the piano in front of me – he is playig it remotely via videoconference and special software created by Acadia University, Nova Scotia! Karen Wilder from Acadia facilitated the demonstration, and MAGPI, Sunesys, and Yamaha sponsored the high speed connection.

Quoting from MusicPath‘s website:

MusicPath interconnects digital acoustic pianos, in this case a sophisticated Yamaha Disklavier, through advanced high-speed networks allowing one pianist to play several pianos in real-time, assisted by videoconferencing. This creates a new learning dimension for teachers, institutions and musicians.

Now a pianist here is playing the piano in front of us and also playing the piano in Alberta and Nova Scotia all at the same time!

Did you know there is a built in speed of light delay?! And a 400milisecond delay due to the network and the music software…. as well as a half second delay due to the actual piano mechanisms. But improvisation doesn’t mind a bit of delay like that! An exiquisite virtual duet!! It’s like two people playing the same piano – except one is here and one is there! It’s so weird to see the keys going up and down on the left beside our pianist on this end of the VC.

The piano only takes 56K while the videoconnection is using 768K and of course is actually smoother over I2.

This started with a 12 year old who had finished Grade 10 Royal Conservatory and took lessons via distance using this technology.

Now an audience encore! Of course, it would be Mark George from the Cleveland Institute of Music to volunteer!

This is even more intriguing to me because a few weeks ago I received an email regarding a research article on MusicGrid, another distance/videoconferencing music project from Canada. Check out the article for more details!

Another cool thing about this event is the presenter connected from Calgary is also at a convention, so in addition to this incredible demonstration, the videoconference technology allows us to connect both conferences together!

This event alone was worth the whole trip! These Canadians are amazingly creative with their distances, sparse population, and commitment to quality education!

VC Project Ideas from NECC

My first session here at was Increasing Student Collaboration Online by Harry Tuttle, Syracuse University. Much of the discussion centered around making online conversations work, but Dr. Tuttle shared some really interesting ideas for projects which can be applied to videoconferencing.

 

He talked about exchanges between classes, which we are familiar with in the Read Across America format. I really liked the idea of having small groups connect to small groups in another class. This format would require some online/email collaboration as well as the videoconference. The videoconference could be used to start and end the small group collaborations. I want to think more about how this could work with specific content.

 

How to find partner classes. An interesting idea Dr. Tuttle shared was to ask the students, how many of you have relatives in another country? Then the relative may know a teacher and from there the classes can work out what technology can be used to connect with each other for a project.

 

Another cool idea a participant shared was to ask new students about their previous school and then do a project with the teacher and class the new student came from. This way the new student knows students in the partner class.

 

Another intriguing idea was to do collaborative projects with another class (in another state, region, country) around a controversy WebQuest, Tom March’s preferred format. I’m still thinking about how this could look with a videoconference – maybe with 4 sites and the quad screen format – and each site presents/represents one of the perspectives addressing the controversy. This reminds me of the Decisions, Decisions format from Tom Snyder Productions. I’d love to see a project like this…

 

Other ideas included having several classes research various families on the underground railroad and follow the trail together with various experiences along the way; comparing schools in different areas with surveys and graphing and discussing the answers; comparing architecture in various locations; and 2nd grade sharing information on the 5 types of trees closest to the school. All intriguing possibilities! Now off to learn more!

Project Format

I’ve been reading the latest Edutopia magazine and the Go National article caught my eye as a potential project format for partner classes connecting via videoconference.

The students in each school read the same play produced by MTC, identifying major themes and analyzing scenes and characters. They can ask questions and discuss the work online with the playwright. Then they write original short plays based on themes in the work they’ve all read, subsequently posting their scripts on the Web site for comments. In the production phase, a play written at one school is produced by a partner school. Production requires constant intersite communication among partner schools and the MTC teacher/artist in New York who oversees the project. Students in each school select actors, directors, stage managers, and designers. The productions are videotaped, viewed on the Web site, and discussed by all participants.

Imagine the possibilities of two or more classses partnering for projects like this over a semester – connecting via videoconference, web, email, and other communication technologies! What new ideas do you get from this blurb?

How to find international partner classes

Today Neva Kelly, Horseheads Central School District, emailed me with a great question. How do I find a class in another country that wants to collaborate on such a project?

So I dug out the article I wrote for the upcoming fall MACUL journal. Here’s a summary/preview with links to the resources mentioned.

  1. Networking. Meet people where ever you can! Some places to start are the Keystone Conference, Megaconference and Megaconference Jr., and even NECC, especially the proposed SIG IVC meeting, June 28, 2005 4:45-6:15 EST. The more people you meet doing VC, the more connections you make and the more you share collaborations. I carefully save contact info for everyone who emails me and keep folders for states & countries where I know someone doing VC.
  2. Listservs. Both megaconference listservs have international classrooms on them. In fact on the megaconference websites you can find lists of participants. Just google their school, hunt around on their website, and you can usually find the VC contact person’s email address. I found the megaconference listservs more helpful for international contacts than the k12ivc and ed1vidconf listservs which seem to only have talkative US people on them. I’m sure there are others but they hardly ever say anything so you don’t get to meet them.
  3. My online class – Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. That’s how I was able to arrange the Guatemala connection. In my August session I have a few people signed up again from Central & South America – so that might be another opportunity to network and meet via VC. There’s still room! 🙂
  4. Global Leap. Sign up for this and participate in some of their programs. That way you’ll meet people and participate in programs with other classes. They have a good directory too.
  5. International programs. Did you ever notice the specialty search on the BCISD Field Trip Database on the TWICE site? Notice the pink box on the right. You can search international programs. Also when participating in global programs such as those from Global Nomads and Global Education Motivators, you often connect with classes from other countries and therefore can meet and collect contacts that way.
  6. Online directories. I’ve been collecting some of these on the TWICE projects page on the right side of the page.

Anyone else have a suggestion for finding partner classes in other countries?

Pics from Read Across America 2005

Alpena
I just finished posting the pictures from Read Across America 2005 to the TWICE website. They are sure fun to see! Notice all the ways that vc rooms are set up around the country and all the creative ways students presented to their partner classes. Check them out and enjoy!

New VC Projects Online

Just finished up another successful session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. You may be interested in all the new projects created by participants in the final week of the class.

You are also invited to join the next class, August 1-26, 2005. You’ll have a wonderful experience connecting and learning with other participants from all over the U.S.! In the words of one participant checking out this week,

“It has been a wonderful class, more than I could have ever expected. And to all my classmates, you are icicing on the cake. While expecting to learn something about videoconferencing I never expected how much I would gain by learning about the greatest part of all — getting to know the partners who would be at the far end of the vc. Thanks for all your thoughtful comments on each of our topics, the great solutions and suggestions for making this technology a success for our students.”

5th Grade Goes to Guatemala

Today Hollywood Elementary connected to four children in Guatemala. Students on both side shared what they like to do, their age and grade level, and their favorite activities. One student at Hollywood showed his pet guinea pig, Squeaks, which caused many giggles on both sides of the connection! After taking turns introducing themselves, kids at each side asked each other questions such as what is your favorite music, favorite sports, and favorite holidays.

One of the things that was hard for the Hollywood students to understand was how two of the kids in Guatemala don’t go to school. One boy works in the field with his father growing spinach, and the another girl works with her mother sewing and baking tortillas to sell. They asked several questions to understand the poverty. They also learned about the dresses that are worn to represent the various communities in Guatemala. Each town/community has it’s own special style of dress.

Students in Guatemala asked, What do you eat? What are your favorite colors? What kinds of jobs do people do there?

Students also planned to continue the conversation via email after the connection.

So… why should we connect to students in other places….? How else can students really understand cultures and how people live in different areas? How else will they gain an understanding of the world around them and realize the responsibilities that come with privilege?

A Twist on Simple Machines

I’m sitting in our distance learning room with the 5th and 6th grade class from Trinity Luthern just across the street from our ISD. They are busily working on a hypothesis for the chattering teeth sent by COSI Columbus for the Gadget Works program. It’s these kids first videoconference and they are awed by the whole thing! Of course, as I’ve said before, Gadget Works is one of my all time favorite videoconferences.

I’m also reading through the posts in my online class, Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. Eileen Smith, from Marysville, MI, shared another way to do simple machines with videoconferencing. A neat idea to get kids involved in teaching too!

Another connection that we made was between two fifth grade classes that were studying Simple Machines. The classes had to create a simple machine. They then wrote down their directions (without pictures) on how to re-build the machine. The directions were sent to the other classes. Once the other class received the directions, they built the simple machine without any further assistance for the creators.

The conference was to show the class the simple machines that were built from the written instructions. The students were demonstrate the simple machines and explain what machines were included. The creators were evaluate the simple machine and tell the team builders if they got it correct or if they did something wrong. It was a very fun project. The students have a good time. It was time consuming and we had limited materials are our end, but it fit nicely with our curriculum.

I love this idea! It could be used with many other topics besides simple machines too. What could your students teach another class?

Worm Farms in MI & NY

Today we had a really fun connection between Mr. Heppler’s 2nd grade class at Hollywood Elementary, Stevensville, MI and Ms. Daugherty’s 4th grade classat Spencer Van Etten Elementary, Van Etten, NY.

The two classes shared their worm farms with each other via videoconferencing! Both classes had the equipment moved into their classroom, so this was trulya classroom-to-classroom connection.

The teachers had emailed each other ahead of time to plan the videoconference,and had shared information about their classes ahead of time.

The videoconference began with a song from Michigan, Nobody Likes Me, followed by each class sharing their worms on the document cameras at both locations.


Worms in Michigan.
Worms in New York.

The students at both ends shared how they feed their worms, how they keep track of them, how they grow flowers with the composted dirt, and types of worms. The students at both ends shared the knowledge they’d gained throughout theyear, and asked thoughtful questions of the class at the other school, comparing their experiments.

Each class also shared the books they were reading. The New York students shared a few scenes from the book How to Eat Fried Worms. The Michigan class shared some favorite pages from the book Diary of a Worm. The Michigan class also shared a chant they learned from their student teacher in the fall, Herman the Worm.
One of the benefits of bringing videoconferencing into the classroom was quickly evident during the videoconference. The New York class shared their worm bulletin board, which had interesting facts about worms they had found on the Internet. The students read the facts from their bulletin board display. If you look carefully you can see the ground, the grass, and the worm tunnels in the bulletin board display.

The Michigan students learned that the longest worm in the world is 22 feet long. Their class is studying measurement, so now they are going to try measuring out 22 feet within their classroom. Oh the connections made in a teachable moment!

Clearly there are important benefits to having videoconferencing in the classroom. The kids are in their environment. They make connections quickly with what they have been learning. It seemed to take less time for the students to adapt to the technology. It’s just like the laptop programs going on around the country – in Michigan -the Freedom to Learn project. Getting access to technology in the classroom, where the students are, makes a huge difference in the curriculum integration process.