Linda also modeled how to engage students (even summer school students!) and how to use technology with a high-quality lesson. I continue to learn from Linda’s curriculum expertise and echo Janine’s comments about the challenges of IVC in a conference setting.

@Anonymous I would love to see what your students are doing or anything you would share about the work of IVC in your organization. I think that it is important for us to share so that we can all improve and to be supportive to each other as we work toward utilizing technology to support higher-level thinking in education. Anything that you could share to move us toward that goal would be appreciated.

It’s always interesting to hear what someone else got out of the session. You see things from such a different viewpoint.

It was my intention to stage examples of high-level thinking. I’m sorry you didn’t see what I saw. It’s the part of video conferencing that makes me continue to do what I do….

Even though there were plenty of issues – we were able to engage kids in thinking on the LAST DAY of summer school. I was truly amazed at the level of engagement of kids who HAD to attend summer school because they have opted to disengage during the regular school year.

I hope that you get to experience that engagement with your students and projects!

Just my two cents worth…

Thanks for your comment. It’s a fair question for sure. Here’s why I didn’t mention the things you did. I know Linda McDonald and her work, and I know the situations behind the scenes that contributed to what you mentioned. I’ve also seen lots of VCs, and I wanted to learn the formats that Linda modeled so we can do them with our classes. So the parts you mentioned were insignificant to me, which is why I didn’t mention them.

From my perspective, it’s really difficult to teach on equipment set up by vendors in a way that doesn’t match what you have back in your classroom. There are so many different set ups with VC that it’s not an easy transition. So I’m more than willing to cut Linda and even the vendors some slack on the equipment part! It’s not easy to make VC work in a conference center and I’ve been involved in setting it up. So I’m really tolerant and understanding there.

On the preparation of the students and teacher, I know Linda had a very hard time getting a live class to do this with. I sent it to 6 of my schools having summer school to see if we could help and couldn’t. So I think everyone did very well considering the circumstances.

As for the person running equipment on the other side – I’m very patient with that too. We do lots of VCs with people who are just starting to run their equipment. This technology isn’t exactly easy and can be threatening to teachers. So I feel pretty strongly that we have to be patient with each other and be willing to work out the quirks. It’s not broadcast quality TV and never will be. It’s a couple of teachers connecting with each other for a lesson involving students at both sides. I saw some very powerful snippets of what can be done modeled with rigorous instruction and I plan to implement these formats with our schools.

Thanks again for your comment and sharing your perspective.

Janine

It was apparent that the students had never been in a VC before They acted up, the made faces, they goofed around, especially when the mic was muted.

The person running the unit on the remote site was unfamiliar with the equipment.

It was very irritating to see this “head with big hair” bounce across the screen whenever the remote presenter gave a command.

Actually, I thought this was a very poor example of how to VC. The equipment did not work properly, the children and the teacher were unprepared, as if they had not been given any instruction prior to the event, and the presenter got flustered when the equipment failed to work, which was about the first 15 minutes of the presentaiton.

I wonder why you failed to mention that in your blog entry?

I’ll bet she doesn’t even realize she is now even more famous because she has “made” the Janine Lim blog.

Having been a new technologist this year, Linda has acted as my unofficial mentor. She helps push my thinking even further outside the box than it began!