Tag Archives: Content Providers

The Pardon of Richard Nixon

This morning Brandywine High School connected to the for their program on Gerald Ford MuseumThe Pardon of Richard Nixon. (It’s free!) The preparation materials includes primary source documents and information for the students to read to prepare for the videoconference. Students are divided into 5 groups for the program and each group focuses on a different aspect.

The presentation comes from a replica of the cabinet room. The program started with a tour of the cabinet room and the various features & paintings.

Then the students discussed various in depth questions with the presenter, including reaction of the public and if the pardon was constitutional. Students used background knowledge of government, U.S. history, the amendments, etc. to answer the questions.

Then they participated in a simulation that included voted and a choose-your-own-ending type scenario with different video clips shown based on the students’ choices.

The program was well done and the students were engaged. This was our first time with this program and I think we probably will have some other classes connect for this program next year!

Geography

This morning a third grade class from E. P. Clarke Elementary connected to the for their Intrepid Sea.Air.Space MuseumGeography program. The museum is actually an aircraft crarrier and the presentation comes from inside the ship.

The program started with an overview of how the aircraft carrier happens and an introduction to geography. Then students start working with a black-line master map of the U.S. and adding geographical features to the map.

After an introduction, the class divided into two teams for an activity moving across the U.S. The classes are looking for treasure in the different states and they practice using the cardinal points. Along the way they learn about resources in the different states as well. 3rd graders really enjoyed the game show format, and ended up with a map labelled with many features of the U.S.

What do you see at the zoo?

This afternoon I had a conversation with a local media specialist regarding a teacher’s expectations for a videoconference with the zoo. I realizd that many teachers have unrealistic expectations for what they will see when they connect to the zoo. Their ideas are based on their own visits of the zoo – walking around and seeing all the animals. That is not usually what happens in a videoconference with the zoo. I think that the zoos fit into three types of categories.

I’ll list the zoos I’ve connected to. But please remember that content providers are often upgrading their equipment and updating programming, so this may not necessarily be true in a year or two.

Zoos that present from the classroom
Many of the zoos present their videoconference programs from a classroom (or sometimes a tiny room/closet) in the zoo. They will bring in live animals and show archived video footage of the animals in their zoo. These lessons are often highly focused on teaching a “concept” such as adaptations or conservation. (Which is much better instruction than just focusing on one animal – see Classroom Instruction That Works)

  • Bronx Zoo
  • Cincinnati Zoo was like this when they were offering programming.

Zoo that present from an exhibit
Then there are the zoos that have mobile equipment and can present from exhibits within the zoo. For these programs, you may be learning about a specific “concept” in the context of an exhibit (Columbus Zoo), or you might be learning about a specific animal at that exhibit (Indianapolis Zoo).

Zoos that have remote cameras
Some zoos present from a classroom but can jump to several wireless cameras located throughout the zoo. This setup is really the best of both worlds, but obviously expensive for the zoo to put in place.

There are other zoos that offer programming, but I haven’t seen their programs.

Awesome Adaptations

Today & tomorrow three middle school classes from Bridgman Middle School are connecting to the Bronx Zoo for their Awesome Adaptations program. The science classes have been studying adaptations and this program fits nicely into the curriculum. In the session, students are learning about various types of adaptations and related scientific names such as plantigrade, digitigrade, etc.
During the program, Erin, the presenter, asks the students many questions and pushes them to clarify, explain their answer, and give more details in their answer. She definitely makes them think!

The program includes demonstration of three live animals, as well as full screen text of scientific names, video clips, and still pictures. These visuals enhance students’ understanding of adaptations.

The students were able to ask many questions during the program as well. This was a great program and I’m sure we’ll be connecting to the Bronx Zoo again!

Magnificent Manatees

Today Village Adventist Elementary School is doing my all time favorite videoconference: Magnificent Manatees from the Columbus Zoo. I love this program because of all the hands-on activities students do during the videoconference.

The class measures a paper cutout of the manatee (mailed ahead of time to the class) to help them understand the full size of the manatee. You can see it on the wall in the back of the classroom.

The students also all get on a bathroom scale until they have enough students add up to the weight of a manatee at the zoo. You can see the students lined up at the scale in the picture. This is a group of 1st and 2nd graders, so they aren’t adding all the numbers. However I’ve seen this program with older students where the presenter asks all the students to add the weights of all the students.

Next the partners work with a set of pictures showing the types of food that the manatee eats. The students have to pick out the foods they eat from the pictures.

Several great activities, lots of information for the students, and wonderful live footage of the manatees swimming in their tank. These features make this program an excellent choice. The Columbus Zoo is VERY popular. This school year (2005-2006) they filled the whole year schedule by mid September. They open registration for the 2006-2007 school year on June 1. So plan ahead!

Visiting Snowy Alaska

Note: This event happened April 4. I waited to post it, hoping I’d get some pictures from the class. Here it is without the pictures.

Snow. Snow. Everywhere. White snow covered trees. This afternoon a group of students from Niles Adventist School are connected to Kiglauit Adventures participating in the Mushing Alaska program. We almost didn’t have the program because Alaska has had a big spring snowstorm and some of the mushers were snowed in.

The program started with a live dog run around the area. The dogs were so excited to run they were jumping straight up in the air. The students watched the run so intently, realizing they were watching the run live. The dogs were barking because it was so hard to pull. After one time around, Christina asked the students if they wanted to go again. The second time around the kids yelled “gee” to tell the dogs to turn right several times. (And the dogs actually heard them!) The students loved it!

Next we had a chance to ask a few questions. One of the mushers came in with one of the dogs to explain more. We learned about the fur, muscles, and the deep chest. Then the students asked many more questions. We saw pictures of puppies and the Iditarod, maps, and a live dog modeling the harness.

We ended with some interactive activities to help the students understand how the musher gets along with the dogs. It was great to get all the kids up and moving about.

It’s not too often any more that I get to watch kids new to videoconferencing participate in a videoconference. Today I realized afresh the importance of interaction. When the first student answered the first question correctly, he was ecstatic with joy! He said, “I feel so important!” Kids get a lot of affirmation from the interaction in these videoconferences! That makes it all worth it for me!

In Depth: Autopsy

On Monday, one of our new teachers from Bridgman High School participated COSI Columbus’ In Depth: Autopsy program. It was a health-science class. I didn’t blog it because I’ve blogged that session before. Plus it’s really hard for me to watch since it’s so graphic! But I just had to share with you (with permission) my teacher’s comments on the program:

It was such a wonderful experience.  They learned a ton in a very short period of time.  They did prepare and do the prework and autopsy plan.  Also, afterward, (today to be exact) they did solve for cause of death.  It was a heated debate, which was wonderful!  5 out of 8 students came to a correct conclusion. *Snipped a comment about the correct answer.*

Overall, it was a fabulous experience.  I highly recommend it and want to thank all of you who made this possible.

GNG: Mozambique

Today Global Nomads connected three schools from the United States, Texas, New York and Missouri to students in Mozambique. Polycom helped to sponsor this incredible connection.

This videoconference series in March and April of 2006 brings the world’s youth face-to-face with their peers in Mozambique to discuss and learn about their respective cultures. Here are some of the topics that will be discussed during the March and April connections:

  • We are as one (breaking the ice)
  • What are our similarities and differences?
  • Independence and Civil War
  • Gender Issues I
  • Gender Issues II
  • A Wild Elephant
  • What we have Learned

A series of classroom-to-classroom and remote broadcast conferences (with experts speaking from remote onsite locations) provides a collaborative global education experience.

Here are questions asked by students in today’s videoconference:

  1. What is unique about your town, city or country?
  2. What do you do for fun and what are your three (3) favorite bands?
  3. What is your favorite class in school?
  4. Is there a lot of tourism in Mozambique?
  5. Do you have a traditional food?
  6. What kinds of sports do you play in Mozambique?
  7. Who do you think is going to win the World Cup?
  8. What are your favorite movies?
  9. What are your thoughts on child abuse in the US?
  10. What do you think about HIV Aids? (Interesting fact – there are 1 million people in Mozambique with Aids).
  11. What is the one thing you could not live without? Mozambique answer: FAMILY
  12. If you could take a trip anywhere in the world where would you go? Mozambique answer Brazil – Why to see all the pretty girls.
  13. Mozambique asks: What do you think about the show “American Idol” and “Jerry Springer” – Interesting answers.
  14. How is the educational system in the US?
  15. What are your aspirations for the future?
  16. What holiday do you celebrate in Mozambique?
  17. Who are your role models?
  18. What do you think of the legalization of prostitution and drugs in the US?

It was interesting to learn that most of the students in Mozambique can speak at least 4 languages. United States students were entertained by singing and dancing from Mozambique students.

-by Elaine Shuck, Guest Blogger

Video Ad from Manhattan School of Music

Did you get this cool email? The Manhattan School of Music sent me a video email with examples of their distance learning emails. We haven’t connected to them yet, but after getting this email, I want to find a class to connect to them. Enjoy the video. It’s nice to see a blurb from the program ahead of time!

Two Extraordinary Videoconferences

I’m watching two videoconferences at the same time this afternoon (on two different Polycoms of course!) and both are sponsored by Polycom.

Roosevelt Elementary is connecting to Mt. Rushmore for another session (continuing yesterday’s series). Today the students are hearing the story of a man who worked on the mountain and how he carved, what tools he used, etc. Mt. Rushmore does a good job of showing visuals along with the interview to add interest. Some of the student questions included:

  • Where you ever afraid you would fall?
  • What keeps the rocks from eroding? (Great answer on this one. The rocks will erode about 1/4 of an inch in 10,000 years. Mr. Borglum (designer of the monument) said that he took care of that by making the faces 1/4 of an inch larger. )
  • What inspired you to write your book?
  • Did you drop any tools when you were working on the mountain?

One neat thing about this videoconference was the class connecting from Texas had Mr. Borglum’s granddaughter in the class. That was a neat connection.

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Also New Buffalo High School is connecting to Global Nobads Group in a discussion on Islam led by David Macquart. He asked the students the following questions – and each school had a chance to give answers. One of the classes participating has 6 Muslim students, so this is definitely enriching the conversation.

  • Do you think the media portrayal of Islam is positive or negative?
  • Are the demonstrations against the cartoons justified?
  • What are the limits to freedom of expression?
  • How can we diminish the clash between the two cultures?
  • Each class also had a chance to ask specific questions directly to the Muslim students. The Muslim students were clear in expressing that the extremists are not following Islam. An analogy was shared by one class – Islamic extremism is to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity. The students participating all agreed that was a good analogy.
  • How do you think that polygamy affects the treatment of women? Out of this conversation came several comments from the Muslim girls in New York that they didn’t want to share a husband with any of each other. Everyone had a great laugh at this. Another great comment that came from this conversation was that the Muslims think we in the U.S. don’t respect our women by how we treat them or how we let them dress or allowing prostitution.

David did a good job of facilitating the conversation. Sometimes you could hear the tension and nervousness in the students’ voices as they commented. David helped the students temper their views and understand the perspectives of others.

This was the first student videoconference I’ve seen with the “extended continuous presence” layout with the speaker in the top left larger box, and the other classes around the right and bottom. We use this layout for the TWICE board meeting all the time and it’s great for conversations. It was definitely the best layout for the conversation today.

On a lighter note, we had a class in Buffalo, New York participating, as well as our local class, New Buffalo, Michigan, which was pretty neat knowing the history of the towns.

These were two great conferences. I wish I could have duplicated myself and watched all of both of them!

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March 1, 2006 Addition. Tina Keller, the New Buffalo High School teacher who participated in the Global Nomads videoconference is also taking my Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections class. I am sharing her reflection on the videoconference here with her permission.

The videoconference that I completed for the month of February was sponsored by the Global Nomads Group out of New York City.  The title of the program that my high school world studies class participated in was “Bringing the World Into the Classroom”. 

The conference had a moderator/ David Macquart from the Global Nomads Group.  Four schools participated:  2 from New York, one from Indiana, and us (New Buffalo HIgh School/ Michigan).

I found that this video conference for me was a reflection on one of the articles that I read for January regarding connecting the classroom to the global community.  As a group we were able to discuss the topic of Islam/ particularly the Political Caroons published by many European newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

All schools had the opportunity to answer the questions and reflect on the following topics: Muslims in the media, Political Cartoons, justified violence?, generalizations of groups of Muslims, the clash between Western values and other religions / proposed solutions to the clash, pologamy, and the Quoran.

It was beneficial for all students to address the above-mentioned topics and answer questions posed to them.  Of particular interest for our school was that one of the New York schools who participated had a Muslim population. It was an awesome global connection for students in Michigan to hear what Muslims thought and believed from a primary source.  My students left this conference with greater understanding of the Muslim faith and of the culture of Islam.

As a teacher I am greatful to have an opportunity such as this. We were able to accomplish more curriculum in one class period on Feb. 15th than I could have in 3-4 days on a block schedule.  I had my students complete an evaluation regarding this program, and they had tons of compliments.  One remark made by a non-Muslim student from another school really stood out to my class.  The individual made a remark that “they” meaning the Muslims from the New York school “must be idiots”. Unfortunately, this individual didn’t understand that the school in New York was simply having audiory interference and thus they couldn’t hear well at some points.  Several of my students commented that racism and prejudice is alive among their generation!

For my students at New Buffalo this was “case and point” that racism is alive.  The topic of generalization that the conference addressed “all/ they” was made on this day, and my class learned from it. (as well did I)