Did you know you can open a Polycom Trouble Ticket online? You can also login and see the status of your tickets as well. Pretty cool. I know many of you have Polycom systems and maybe you know this already. I just learned it today and thought you’d want to know too!
Archive for May, 2007
Megaconference, Nov. 8, 2007
Mark your calendar for Megaconference on November 8, 2007. The date was just sent out yesterday on the Megaconference listserv. This is the higher education, adult facilitated, original Megaconference that Megaconference Jr. (student facilitated) is modeled after. If you haven’t experienced a Megaconference, it’s an incredible experience.
Here are a few good strategies for bringing a Megaconference to your school.
- Have the event running in a central location so that classes can pop in and out.
- Print the schedule and share with teachers. However, realize that Megaconference is live and sometimes it gets off schedule a bit. So be flexible!
- Encourage students to study and celebrate the geography of the event. Have them map out the participants list. Keep a world map close to the videoconference system so students can look up the locations represented by the presentations.
Anyone else have some good strategies for making a Megaconference a successful learning event in your school?
2007 Best Content Providers
Thanks to all 302 of you from 30 U.S. states & Canadian provinces who voted in this year’s Best Content Providers Survey. You can find all the results, best providers, best new providers, and the prize winners online.
How to Fund VC for your Classroom
Here’s an interesting article from the IVCi Newsletter on How to Fund Videoconferencing for Your Classroom. You can get this newsletter via email too.
Also in this newsletter was a feature on TANDBERG’s new FieldView product. It looks like a digital camera - but brings VC to the field. Very intriguing. I wonder how easy it is to get on a network. And would it work via a cable modem? Bandwidth and connectivity seem to be the big challenge of connecting on location.
New Programs
Here are the updates from this week to our VC Program Database linked on TWICE and Polycom.
Providers with New Programs
May 24 End of the Year Wrap Up
This afternoon I hosted four one hour VC sessions with my schools to wrap up the year, reflect on how it went, and talk about next year. About 20 of my 70 buildings attended. I’ve never done any type of wrap-up before, but several of my new RUS Grant buildings wanted to hear from each other.
We used a very simple format: 20 minutes of sharing what went well; 20 minutes of sharing challenges; and 20 minutes of sharing ideas for next year. Here are some of my notes:
What Went Well
- Author interviews, ASK programs, Center for Puppetry Arts, Columbus Zoo, St. Louis Zoo, Read Around the Planet, MysteryQuest, etc.
Challenges
- Scheduling and logistics within the school
- Bandwidth and picture quality
- Getting teachers interested in VC
- Technical issues related to test calls, and what to do when problems happen
Ideas for Next Year
- More provider showcases via vc
- A workshop for teachers via vc on how to use the ISD website
- More classroom to classroom projects
- Mock job interviews for high school
- Pen pals
- News teams connecting to each other
- More free things!
- Directory of the other building coordinators in the county
- Middle and high school science - something on the environment
- Refresher sessions for staff meetings in the fall
We had a good conversation. They enjoyed hearing from each other and realizing that other districts have the same challenges as they do. They picked up new ideas from each other as well. And my todo list is growing with new ideas of ways to provide support, training, and programming.
Other VC coordinators (Roxanne, Paul, and Andrea) have blogged about their end of the year celebrations. You’ll find them inspiring and more exciting than mine. 
So check them out too. What have YOU done to celebrate the successes of this year?
Students Thank Veterans
Today we have the second day of interviews with our Vietnam Veterans. Today’s Lest We Forget session is for high school students and students have prepared by studying the Vietnam War and in most cases watched our Lest We Forget video and prepared questions. The high school students have more in depth historical questions in addition to the questions about what it was like on a daily basis.
Yesterday and today we had some classes who prepared special expressions of appreciation for our veterans. These were very appreciated. At lunch today they were still talking about the kids yesterday who said, “thank you for your service.” One of the classes yesterday prepared this thank you poster.
This afternoon, Allendale High School and Methacton High School, PA, had students express their appreciation before they asked their question. The high school students were able to share their thanks in their own words vs. reading it off the card with their question. It was very moving for the veterans to hear these expressions of thanks.
Thank you to all the teachers who encourage students to express their appreciation via posters, comments, and thanks to all of our veterans!
Distancelearningville
If you didn’t catch this on Roxanne and Arnie’s blogs, check out this little video clip of Distancelearningville. It’s a must-see experience! If YouTube is blocked at school, then watch it at home. Very funny! :) Enjoy the fruits of this Michigan-Texas collaboration!
Signs to Identify Your Location
One of the beauties of collaborating with other distance learning coordinators is that you learn new things to improve your practice! This year we’ve had several VCs with Roxanne’s schools in ESC Region 12. Roxanne works hard to have her schools display a sign showing their location. Here’s an example from our ASK: The Wall sessions today. It sure makes it easy to facilitate. I definitely want to work with my schools on this next year.
ASK: The Wall
Today we are doing our first day of ASK sessions on the book The Wall. Middle school students are interviewing a panel of our local Vietnam veterans. Here is a sampling of their questions from today.
- How did you adjust to the different climate and culture in Vietnam?
- What was a typical day like for you?
- What encouraged you to be in the military?
- What did you excel in?
- Would you rather fight in Iraq today or back then in Vietnam?
- How and where did you sleep when you were in battle?
- What did you eat while you were there?
Some of the classes started their questions with, “Thank you for your service to our country. My question is….” The panel of veterans very much appreciated this little gesture from the students. You should have seen them beam as students started asking their questions. Even at lunch they were still talking about those respectful, well-prepared students!
