Today in a MysteryQuest presentation, I saw the most creative “document camera” I’ve seen yet! A class from Kenosha Wisconsin shared their clues in a “PowerPoint like” presentation. I suspect it wasn’t PowerPoint since it was on a Mac. And they had set a camera preset on their laptop screen. Amazingly, it came through very [...]
Filed under: MysteryQuests, Techie Stuff | 1 Comment »
Is anyone other than me have a weird year with video protocols? It used to be that you just had to think about… is this call H.323 (IP) or H.320 (ISDN)? and connect accordingly. Now sometimes two video protocols (H.261, 263, 264) get in a call and have a fight with each other! This year [...]
Filed under: Techie Stuff | 10 Comments »
Another MysteryQuest day. One of the best presentations today came from Wessendorf Middle School, Texas. I loved their use of backgrounds in their news show. Look at the artwork on the left and the wonderful wall map on the right. These add visual interest to the presentation. This class also had posters that worked! [...]
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Today six classes from Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, and Virginia interviewed local World War II veterans in our Lest We Forget ASK program. It was a wonderful experience. We started each session with introductions from each of the veterans participating in that session. Then Betty Bennett, who was part of the code-breakers, shared her experience [...]
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Organizational skills are probably the most essential skills needed for a distance learning coordinator at any level. Do you agree? There are so many details to keep track of! Program requests from the teachers, scheduling procedures for each place you want to connect with, IP addresses or ISDN numbers, trouble numbers, dates & times, etc. [...]
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What’s the craziest way you’ve used videoconferencing? How about cropping (scrapbooking, scrapping) with a friend in another state? Elaine Shuck and I connected with Festoon and Skype on Saturday night for a couple hours to scrapbook together and share ideas. Scott Merrick popped in for a few minutes to see what we were doing. This [...]
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Lately we’ve been updating and checking everything in the BCISD-Polycom VC Program Database. Here are two recent updates. Many of you know one of our favorite providers, the Lake County Waste Management District, lost Rita, the great storyteller, as their distance learning coordinator. Lara Gonzalez, the new person, has been reorganizing and updating their program [...]
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Today we piloted an ASK program on the book Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. Students read the book, journalled, and prepared quality questions following the ASK process. Then they interviewed a panel of former migrant workers at the Region 20 Education Service Center in San Antonio, Texas. We had local classes here and [...]
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I just received a package from Andrews Academy, the school that participated at my location in the Ben Carson videoconference on Monday. It included a picture of the event along with thank you notes from all of the students who participated! Here’s a sampling of their comments: It was an awesome experience. And now I [...]
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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 [...]
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