Tag Archives: VC Community

Hyper-Mirror Videoconferencing

Experience HyperMirror Videoconferencing! Japan-LA-NJ Collaboration! Energize Hands-On Learning!
Agnes Zaorski, Eatontown Public Schools with Takanori Maesako, Osamu Morikawa and Cathy Timpone

I’m in a really cool session about HyperMirror….

Right now during introductions I’m amazed by the blue tarp on the wall and the presenters are in the screen with the remote site! You have to see this! I’ve linked to a picture – but look at the images on this page.

The curriculum focus is on using probes and doing water testing between NJ & Japan.

She’s using phrases like, “we’re sharing data in a HyperMirror with Japan…”

They started with a New Jersey pond study and sometimes an ocean study. In Japan they did a river study.

Hands-on is the best way for students to learn. Students took probes to the water, recorded the data, and brought it back to the classroom for analysis. Two scientists were available in the classroom and via online for the students to ask additional questions.

Any international project includes culture as part of the learning, even in this science collaboration.

HyperMirror makes magic so they look like they in the same room.

How did they solve the time zone! US EST classes came back to school at 6:30 p.m. The Japan kids started at 7:30 a.m. There was a 13 hour difference. Both sites were willing to adjust their learning time. This is THE MOST important part of doing international connections. Being flexible and both sides giving are really important.

They used Moodle as their online community for asynchronous discussion forums to bypass the email issues. They had forums for troubleshooting, ask the expert, general discussions, discussing the latest results, assessment and more. They also use the glossary tool in Moodle.

They went to their water sources and tested various places using litmus paper, probes and computers. “Technology was perceived as process, product and tool.”

The findings were recorded in Excel and DataStudio. Students generated questions about their data.

This is a great example of a higher level thinking project that I’ve been thinking about all week.

So, next, how does HyperMirror work?

Problems with current VC – participants in different spaces and display splits them into 2 worlds.

The development concept is that we can be in a new conversation space that is on screen in a new space together. Digital Mirror World or HyperWorld.

The inventor showed a real mirror in the PowerPoint, and then a HyperMirror. Electronic Mirror. He had a create set of short movies to explain the concept. We are in the same room. What I see is What You See. WISIWYS.

There’s a mixer in between that mixes the two together. You get a live feed where everyone is in the same room using chromakey mixing. Here’s the graphic from the page on how to make it that was in his PowerPoint.


The emergence of etiquette as if you were in the same room. People start to act as if they were in the same room.

This is just wild!!! Amazing!

They started in 2001 and have connected with China, Korea, Afghanistan, Kenya, Mongolia since then.

So now they are going to do water tests on from both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The students are doing the water tests side by side in HyperMirror.
I really wish I’d had a digital camera! Next year I’ll have to come to NECC (if I can come) with a digital camera!

Now we’re doing an origami lesson together. Everyone is folding to make a crab.

This was a really cool session. I see Dale Hilton from the Cleveland Museum of Art here in this session. They already have the chromakey, so it seems it wouldn’t take much for them to implement this. Maybe soon we’ll be “hypermirroring” with the Cleveland Museum of Art!!

Every year at NECC I see a “WOW” connection. This was it for this year!!

Oops. Nope. We might not be doing this. The unit that mixes is research at the Osaka University and isn’t a commerical product. So maybe we won’t be doing it soon.

Hmmm. this works with iChat too.

Other things: virtual dressups with other cultures. Very cool. Very fun. Bringing people together into the same room virtually. Awesome.

Ok one more thing. The switch only needs to be at one site. The blue screen is only at the room that has the mixer. Cool. So we can do this with them!!!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

IVC Showcases

I didn’t get to see as many of the IVC showcase sessions as I wanted to. But there were two that I wanted to mention.

I totally missed the Indianapolis Zoo session – but I heard that they have installed the chromakey or green screen technology. Very cool. Gotta go to the Indy Zoo again this year for sure!

I saw about 5 minutes about the Grossology session. It was highly interactive and the teachers were jammed in. They were laughing and chuckling… good signs of engagement in the learning. I haven’t connected to the Adventure Science Center, but it’s certainly on my list for next year!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Online Class Networking

Here’s another neat NECC story from talking to people.

At the fireworks party on the 4th of July I ran into Donna Farren, NY and Carol Scott, OK, who took my online class together a year or so ago – Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. It was great to hear how they had kept in touch with each other and done projects between their classes.

I knew in my head at least that the networking in the class was a huge value to the participants, but it was wonderful to hear much later how that networking was impacting students with quality projects. Go Donna & Carol!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Designing Quality Projects… Round Two

Just finished the one hour version of my 4th of July all day workshop – Designing Quality Interactive Projects for Videoconferencing. The room was packed again – standing room only. It was interesting to see the high level of interest! We connected to Jenny Homer (through Global Leap and JVCS) in the United Kingdom and she shared her experiences participating in the pilot international Read Across America (in this case, Read Across the Atlantic).

Then we talked about what VC is – the continuum of VC and shared lots of project stories. I did add three slides to my PowerPoint, so if you’ve downloaded it already you might want to get it again. I added them based on some of the questions people asked in the workshop on Tuesday.

I added these questions to ask before you start designing a project:

  • What is my required curriculum?
  • What can my students learn from connecting to another class?
  • How does it add value to the lesson?
  • What benefit is gained in greater curriculum understanding because the students collaborated with another class?

I added a reminder about ISTE NETS for Students Standard #4:

  • Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
  • Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

And I added Bernie Dodge’s “Five Words” that intrigued me so much yesterday. I had everyone pair-share really quickly some ideas on those 5 words, but didn’t give them enough time. But I encouraged everyone (and I encourage you too!) to keep thinking about these five words!

  • Design
  • Decide
  • Create
  • Predict
  • Analyze

We had a great time! Lots of people wanted to talk afterwards and I have a badge holder bulging with business cards. People were networking with each other too. Yeah! That’s what it’s all about!!!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Authors, Guest Speakers, and International Connections: Videoconferencing for Learning

Yesterday Elaine Shuck, Polycom, and I had a packed IVC showcase session. About 70 people attended. You can access the PowerPoint and links here.

We connected to Jim Stovall, blind author of the book, The Ultimate Gift. In just 10 minutes of interaction with Jim, the audience was hooked and enthralled with the interaction. We were able to take several questions from the audience.

One of the coolest moments occurred at the end. I’ll quote here my supervisor, Dennis’ comment on one of my blog entries yesterday:

Educators live for those “Aha!” moments. It is no less exciting to see that in educators. Such was the case in a session with Elaine, Jim and Janine presenting about the ASK program with author, Jim Stovall. At then end of that part of the session a teacher, in her Aha! monent, said “I really want to do this with my students – but what’s a Polycom?” – a wonderful, heartfelt Aha! moment. We do indeed touch people’s personal and professional hearts when we share the good thing we are doing with teachers and kids. Janine, Jim and Elaine are demonstrating visionary leadership.

Cool. It’s as awesome to impact teachers as impacting kids with great VCs!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Networking with Another VC Queen

After my workshop on the 4th I had a wonderful conversation with Marycay Densmore, another VC Queen from California. Marycay has done over 100 videoconferences in the last few years. She’s a 7th grade language arts and social studies classroom teacher who is extremely enthusiastic about videoconferencing and its impact on her students learning.

She shared several stories with me about the videoconferences she has done. We had a fairly in depth conversation about the WHY of videoconferencing. The global reasons are big – global learning, global understanding, raising a generation of more globally empathetic young people…. We talked about how kids will use this technology in business in the future and they need to be aware of it and comfortable selling themselves and their products via videoconferencing. Marycay is a former speech teacher, so she also emphasized the speech, communication, and presentation skills that student learn and practice in videoconferences.

We also talked about the ISTE standards – especially standard four.

4. Technology communications tools

* Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.

* Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

Thanks Marycay for a great conversation about VC!

Conference Tags: necc necc06

Keynote Inspirations

I didn’t get to stay through the whole Wednesday keynote because I was presenting in the Polycom booth at 1:00 about the database we do with Polycom. But here are my notes, snippets & inspirations from what I heard….

By Dewitt Jones, Photographer and Creativity Expert, National Geography

He quoted this poem incredibly…. and I googled it to read as he was reciting….

“But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes. “
http://www.themediadrome.com/content/poetry/frost_two_tramps.htm

In college Dewitt head Robert Frost recite this. Incredibly moving story…

National Geographic “celebrates what’s right with the world.”

Dewitt asked, “what are the 6 words that are your vision statement” that are your reason for getting up in the morning… Why you are doing what you are doing?

My quick off the top of my head answer sitting in the session: “bringing the world to the classroom”. What are your six words?

Not only is Dewitt Jones an incredible photography, he is also a master of words.

“connection & beauty graced by light”

“the more I celebrated the best in humankind the more I could see it”

“rivers drenched in light”

“the more I believed it, the more I could see it”

“nature was showing me incredible beauty standing just beyond the rat race”

“imagination to imaginaction”

Consider a world based on scarcity and fear vs. world based on possibility. Nature shows a perspective that transforms the ordinary to the extraordinary.

There is more than one right answer. That is the key to creativity. (showing multiple photographs of the same thing)

What are the “more than one right answers” for videoconferencing? What is the next right answer?

Everyday we should ask for the next right answer – “not in terror but comfortably”.

“reframe problems into opportunities”

He told about taking pictures in British Columbia. Seeing a field of dandelions. Seemed like nothing. Intended to come back but not in time. Came back to just “puffballs”. Lots of puffballs. Started taking pictures from all angles. An incredible photo from under a dandelion “puffball” looking directly into the sun & the sun sparkles through the “puffs”.

400 rolls of film for the average NG article.

He shows sequences of photos – good ones to my eye – but then the “wow” photo at the end….

Don’t ask ‘how many good ones did you get in a roll of 36?” ask “did you get it?”

How will I look for the possibilities and the next right answers? How will I look for “what’s right” in the midst of sometimes challenging experiences with annoying technologies?

Conference Tags: necc necc06

TV Production Goes the Distance

Presenters: Jay Moody, Canton Local Digital Academy with Drew Clark, Greg Fach and Dale Rush.

Another gold nugget I found today was also in the Student Showcase posters. In a nutshell, a high school teacher created lessons for elementary and middle school to go along with a trip to a location (Disney and National Everglades) with the digital iMovie class high school students. The high school students videotaped programs and the elementary students back in the home county consortium watched them and did the lessons to go with them. In addition, they have a wonderful Polycom satellite truck, identical to the one that Bob Dixon put together for Ohio State University, and that Stark Parks uses for their videoconferencing. From the satellite truck, they bring experts and interviews from wherever they went (National Everglades for example) and connect back to their classes & share with each other. Very cool stuff.

This website has the archived video and lesson plans etc. (wrap around materials as CILC calls them) to go with the videoconferences.

Conference Tags: necc necc06

VC Stories from NECC

One of my favorite things about these conferences is getting together with VC colleagues that I’ve connected with during the school year – and sometimes haven’t seen face to face ever. It’s pretty cool to swap stories and share the student impact we’ve seen over the school year. Here’s one of my favorite stories so far.

Howie DiBlasi, IT Director for Durango School District, Colorado is on the IVC ops team – behind the scenes networking and technical support for the videoconferencing sessions here at NECC. On Monday we chatted while sitting around waiting for a test call to work.

He told me about a project where kids in Colorado and Linden, New Jersey shared presentations with each other, and then turned to the Q&A time. This is one of my favorite parts of videoconferencing – students really connecting and understanding each other and realizing they are so similar. During this particular connection, one of the students from New Jersey asked a startling question.

Do you have bullies in your school?

Howie and the teacher looked at each other and wondered what to do.  Sometimes, though, you just let it play out. So they did!
One student in Colorado started to name the bullies in their school! But after that, the classes spent several minutes together discussing how they handle bullying in each of their schools. Turned out to be a very educational discussion.

Sometimes learning is hiding behind the unexpected! Are you ready for it?Conference Tags: necc necc06

Birds of a Feather: Searching for Mr. Goodware

I just came in late to Scott Merrick and Joan Roehre‘s birds of a feather session on desktop videoconferencing.

Here’s some of the tools mentioned.

  • iVisit – PC & Mac. iVisit to iVisit connections. Has a push to talk button to help reduce echo. They have a server for education – for schools and for higher ed. They also have regular rooms.
  • Sightspeed. PC & Mac. Sightspeed to Sightspeed connections. Multiparty calls.
  • Skype PC only for video. Audio works on both PC & Mac.
  • Xmeeting for Mac. H.323 desktop videoconferencing. Among the group we had tested it with Tandberg, Polycom, and another bridge – I didn’t catch which one it was. Possibly Codian by the sound of it.
  • Ekiga – H323 desktop videoconferencing.
  • iChat AV is the Mac to Mac videoconferencing tool. Awesome quality but can’t connect to PCs.

Hardware
Polycom Communicator. You can do an audio conference with anyone (Skype plus other stuff) and be able to have a roomful of kids talking with someone and not have the echo issues. We talked about how the Polycom Communicator makes the lag go away. Read Scott’s blog entry about it. How does it do that???? It’s so cool! Also Scott’s entry about his connection with kids.

On the side, netvibes is what Scott uses for his RSS agreggator.

Joan: Kids are resilient and accepting of whatever technology you use for collaborative projects over VC. Kenosha is using Breeze to do in district cross platform collaboration.

Joan & Scott meet in this education site for videoconferencing rooms from Illinois. But you can use it if you’re outside IL.

Joan shared a video of Kenosha teachers sharing their use of web cams and teacher mentoring and using iSight cameras. The new teacher could see the mentor teachers class to learn how she was doing discipline, daily schedule, etc. The mentor teacher was in a different building. The two of them talked daily about how their daily work was going. Joan is getting several more iSight cameras for professional development like this. And she’s going to put this movie on her blog soon!

A great informal sharing session!
Conference Tags: necc necc06