Principal Support of VC

Posted on October 31, 2006 by Janine Lim

Last night when testing with one of my new RUS grant buildings, I found out an interesting way one principal is encouraging VC. At the school board meeting, each principal shared their 3 goals for their building. This particular principal set one building goal that each teacher would do a videoconference! Imagine the support and encouragement those teachers get from that principal!

In another of our successful buildings, the principal encourages teachers who don’t use VC to write it into their professional development plan for the school year.

So there are two ways principals strongly encourage VC in their buildings: setting PD goals with individual teachers, and setting building goals.

What did it take for these two principals to decide to require use of VC for all teachers? In one building, the principal came with a teacher to our week-long summer workshop 123 Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with VC. This experience cleared up the concerns about VC from past bad experiences in the building/district. Now she’s requiring VC. In the other building, a history of teachers using VC often for clear curriculum goals and having successful experiences convinced her that each teacher should be using it, especially after they acquired the equipment in the building.

So, how do your principals support VC? What experiences and training help them get to the point where they are highly supportive? Share a comment please!

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Monsters Monsters Monsters

Posted on October 30, 2006 by Janine Lim

This morning two more RUS grant buildings (Washington El and Three Oaks El) are doing their first videoconference. We’re lucky enough to have a couple of classes participating in Monster Match, a project coordinated by Roxanne Glaser, ESC 12, TX.

Before the videoconference, the classes made monsters and then emailed each other descriptions of their monsters. Then they tried to make the same monster. Roxanne facilitated the videoconference as the students checked their monsters to see if they matched.

I learned a new idea from Roxanne today! As the classes were connected waiting to start, Roxanne had a PowerPoint playing monster jokes. Cool idea!

Roxanne was appropriately dressed to facilitate too. Nice hair Roxanne!

As a first connection, this one is simple and low key. The connection is short — 20-25 minutes — and the classes get to talk to each other and practice zooming in on their camera. A great start for these buildings.

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First RUS Grant Videoconference

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Janine Lim

This morning Marcellus Elementary is participating in the first videoconference with students at one of our RUS Grant Buildings. They are participating in the very fine LAPS programs offered by EDCO and Macomb ISD. This one is about Mitchell State Park.

Each of the classes introduce themselves. Then there are video clips of the park, presentations from each of the classes, a drawing activity and more. LAPS programs are highly interactive and require preparation on the part of teachers. But they tightly fit the 4th grade Michigan curriculum, so teachers love them. Thanks, Macomb ISD, for offering this program to our students!

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How Your Students Will Work

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Janine Lim

So, why should you videoconference? One reason is that students will use this in business in the future. Check out the Cisco Telepresence tool – thanks to Scott Merrick for pointing this out!

On the tech side, it’s going to be a while before we get this kind of quality down to the K12 level – at least in my county! I want to know how much bandwidth it takes to make the meeting rooms look that good!! It probably is a Cisco end to end solution too – which ain’t gonna happen with VC anytime soon the way I use it (connecting to everyone under the sun).

Still. It’s interesting to see how business is using VC and the ways our kids will be working when they graduate…

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Indispensable Media Specialists

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Janine Lim

Yesterday I team presented an all day pre-conference workshop at MAME with Diane Nye, media specialist at E. P. Clarke Elementary, our local building who consistently uses videoconferencing most often every year. We did much of the content from my RUS grant training, with extra emphasis on the Voices project, and quite a bit of time on the role of the media specialist in supporting the videoconferencing.

We had great discussions on managing the equipment location / cart, supporting teachers, knowing how the connections work, etc.

I know a big part of the success of our implementation in our area is due to the building level coordinators who make it happen.

They are the ones who help take the edge of disappointment when a content provider cancels a program due to technical difficulties. (Happened to us yesterday.)

They are the ones who help a teacher adjust to the frustration caused by what their partner teacher did for their project. (Happened to us this week.) Calming the teacher & helping them model flexibility and resourcefulness, and respect for the other site.

Media specialists already have a relationship with their teachers and often have a good grasp of their curriculum as well. They are already well skilled in helping teachers find resources to meet their curriculum.

I realize that this is a position that is getting cut in many places, but from my point of view, media specialists are an indispensible piece of successful videoconferencing!

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I Want to Work at the Zoo

Posted on October 20, 2006 by Janine Lim

Today we have a high school class connecting to the Columbus Zoo for their program I Want to Work at a Zoo.

This is one of my favorite career programs because of the diversity of careers presented & the interesting way they are presented. For advertising careers, they have a wonderful set of clips of very funny ads for zoos around the U.S. Students also talk to one of the animal trainers and get to ask questions about their work at the zoo. Next the students learn about exhibit design and what needs to be considered when creating an exhibit for an animal. Then they see video from an exhibit and hear about how that exhibit was designed.

Next they learn how Columbus Zoo field researchers work out in the wild. There’s a great hands-on activity where students look at pictures of gorillas snapped by a field camera to try to figure out how many gorillas are in that area in the wild. It’s a tough task for the students.

This is a great program for an overview of careers in all areas, not just animals!

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Visiting Three Content Providers

Posted on October 19, 2006 by Janine Lim

Tonight Macomb ISD has again shared with us the successful Virtual Providers Showcase after school workshop. We’re focusing on language arts and social studies related programs. Here’s where we went.

Holocaust Memorial & Education Center
Another way to connect to holocaust survivors. For east coast schools a way to get a connection for morning classes (Museum of Tolerance). There are some mostly talking programs that are still incredibly powerful. Hearing a story live and realizing that the person telling their story is actually in front of them really impacts kids. It makes the reality of the Holocaust incredibly real to the students.

Discovery Center of Springfield
This provider has several programs, not just on science! We learned about the programs on various areas of the world, and how social studies and language arts are included in the science programs as well. The Discover Center sends a kit of materials for all their programs (which have to be sent back when you’re finished). These are used for hands-on activities during the programs. The presenter researches the school ahead of time so she can tailor the program and explain to students the population differences compared to their own town.

Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum
We were wondering when we connected, where this place is in Oregon. Well, it’s the end of the Oregon Trail. They also have a lot of information, exhibits, etc. on Lewis and Clark. They have online web activities, as well as the videoconference programs they offer. The programs have a packet of teacher materials and pre and post activities. They are hoping to develop some new programs in the future on the Oregon Trail, since most of the programs right now are about Lewis & Clark. We really liked these programs. Lots of great visuals – both photographs and artifacts. This is a hidden treasure you probably haven’t visited and should plan to!

Also, since I just learned about Roxanne’s Content Provider Note Taking Sheet, we tried that out in the workshop tonight. Love it! Will definitely keep using this great handout!

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Jazz Presentation Yesterday

Posted on October 19, 2006 by Janine Lim

I wanted to blog about the 123 Jazz presentation yesterday but haven’t had time. Roxanne did a great job. So if you want to read about an amazing VC PD workshop, read The Jazz Project Presentation at ESC 11 Distance Learning Conference.

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First TX VC Blogger

Posted on October 18, 2006 by Janine Lim

I was delighted this morning to receive an email from Roxanne Glaser, ESC 12, in Waco, Texas. She is the first videoconference blogger from Texas (that I know of!).

Roxanne is doing some really cool things, including running a big Monster Match program within her region. She also has a neat idea of a content provider demo note taking guide. I know we’ll all be learning great ideas from Roxanne!

Love the play on words in your title, Roxanne (VC Rox)!!

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The New CILC

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Janine Lim

Today I attended the first webinar on “The New CILC.” If you’re really into VC and you use the CILC site, you really ought to attend. There are a bunch scheduled in the next two weeks, and I’m sure CILC will schedule more if needed. Here are some initial thoughts & comments about the new format.

Communities of Interest (COI)
One feature of the new Premium membership is communities of interest. This has serious potential for networking and sharing with each other. But only if you come share! I’ve been asked to assist with moderation of the K12 Education COI. Two of my other good VC buddies who also blog, Paul Hieronymous and Scott Merrick, are also moderators for the new COIs. I’ve just posted a bunch of interesting questions based on conversations we’ve had here, on the phone with many of you, and from my online classes. I think we can get a really good profitable conversation going. So there’s one benefit of Premium membership. ($25 introductory pricing).

Learning Times
I was really curious about the new online community tool CILC is using: Learning Times. I’ve looked at this before & dabbled in online conferences, so I was interested to see what that was like. I haven’t decided yet what I think of it as I haven’t used it enough.

Other Premium Services

  • There’s a calendar of events. Members can post events that are free to share with everyone else in the community.
  • There are spotlight session webinars for premium members.
  • There will be discounts on the conferences CILC will be offering – including Keystone coming back next fall after a year’s hiatus.
  • Access to CILC research and literature reviews, etc.
  • The collaboration center will become a premium service only starting in January. Hmmm.

The COIs are the main attraction for me. You can subscribe to get the interactive discussions in your email or in RSS. I’m still working on figuring out the RSS feeds. This is a huge feature though. Online communities die out quickly (or never get off the ground) if you have to go to the website to read them. With this one, you can get it daily in your email, by message in your email, or weekly digests. Plus the RSS that I’m still working on getting working for me.

So I hope that gives you some info to help you decide if you will “upgrade” your CILC membership.

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