Videoconferencing Out on a Lim

For the last couple of years, I’ve been wishing I could pull together a program for our schools on Constitution Day. But the school year starts so quickly. It’s difficult to arrange something. However, this year, when I emailed Don Alsbro to schedule our veteran interviews, Lest We Forget, I asked him if he could do something for Constitution Day. And voila! He pulled together a panel of three veterans and a local lawyer to talk to the students about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the flag.  Here’s how the two sessions went today.

Ben Schwartz, a lawyer in St. Joseph, told the story of the how the Constitution came to be. He told stories and examples of how laws and government would apply in situations the students could understand, such as rules in the classroom and an imaginary island representing the 13 colonies working out how they would cooperate to survive.

Don Alsbro, a Vietnam veteran, described each of the amendments in the Bill of Rights.

Then Al Rosinski, Korean War Veteran, and Val Ripsco, World War II Veteran folded the flag as Don explained the meanings of each of the folds.

After this presentation, we spent about 30 minutes taking questions from the schools. Here are some of their questions:

• What do you think is the difference between rights & responsibilities?
• I have a question about courts & judges. What happens if someone does something wrong?
• If you could change anything in the Constitution, what would it be and why?
• Should there be limits on our freedoms?
• What do you do with the flag if it is torn or ripped?
• What, in your opinion, is the most important part of the Constitution?
• Why is it bad for the flag to touch the ground?
• Why can people burn or destroy the flag in protest?
• If a person isn’t a citizen, are they protected by the Constitution?
• What would life be like without the Constitution?
• Does the Federal Government have to follow the Constitution?

This program clearly hit the spot for our local 5th grade classes. We had 10 local classes participate, and most of the schools that participated brought all of their 5th grade students. It was definitely a success and the students asked some great questions. We’ll be doing it next year for sure!

This week I offered two afternoon workshops for my local coordinators: Scheduling Videoconferences. This is the first in a new series called Supporting Videoconferences that I’m offering to my schools. It’s part of the RUS Grant training, and part of my new strategy to help my buildings become more independent so that we can sustain the current growth.

We reviewed scheduling through the ISD and how to track progress of programs we’re scheduling.

Scheduling with Content Providers
Then we talked about tips for scheduling with the various content providers. Here are some of the tips:

• Always check your district VC calendar to make sure you don’t schedule on top of another one. We use Filemaker Pro for our scheduling & calendars.
• Check all your testing, event, and PD calendars.
• Have everything ready before you register online. (Use the “Register Now” link on the record after you’ve searched our database for the program. )
• If you are registering via email, send all the information in one email: teacher name, email, phone, school name, address, tech name, email, phone, IP address, billing information, and your range of availability.
• Some content providers have online calendars that makes it really easy to schedule (NASA & COSI Columbus for example).
• Some, like the Cleveland Zoo, have a register link for each program, and you can see right away if the program is full or not.
• Sometimes it’s a challenge to figure out from the provider’s online or paper form how to make sure all the right people get the correct information. We’ve had a few times where we’re scheduling for the school & we connect & pay the bills. But the confirmation goes to the teacher and not to us. That’s always frustrating.
• Most of the Indiana providers are in a habit of adding an extra 15 min. at the beginning for “network time” or connecting time. My schools are already in a habit of having kids ready 10 min. before and connecting 15 min. before the program start time. Sometimes we get confused on when the program actually starts and kids sit there for 30 minutes! Not good. So that’s another important detail to pay attention to.

Scheduling with Other Schools
Finally, we reviewed the various ways to find a partner school - via our local directory and the various listservs. We talked about ways to advertise the project so as to ensure success and less negotiation to arrange the videoconference.

Scheduling Test Calls
We also discussed tips for keeping sanity while doing test calls. Brandon Waggoner, district tech coordinator for Berrien Springs Public Schools, made this great suggestion to his building coordinators: Set aside one or two time slots a week for test calls, and if at all possible, schedule your test calls during that time. If you ask first, the other school or content provider usually can do the test call when you ask for it.

So, are you scheduling programs for your school? Or, educational service agency coordinators, are you letting your schools do their own scheduling yet? What tips do you have for scheduling? How are you training others to do scheduling?

This afternoon we had our first high profile videoconference of the year. (Last week’s first student VC was with the Camden Children’s Garden. ) Juniors and seniors around the state videoconferenced with Governor Granholm to learn about the Michigan Promise program which provides a $4000 scholarship to encourage Michigan students to go to college. The 30 minute program consisted of a brief introduction of the program by Governor Granholm followed by a question and answer time with the participating schools. The event was bridged by St. Clair County RESA and Mike Maison reminded everyone of the etiquette before the program started.

The conversation was very friendly and interactive and the students asked quality questions. It made for a great start to the school year!

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9/14 addition. I see I need to add a few more details based on the questions. For some reason I can’t currently comment on my blog at work; so I’m adding my responses here. Roxanne & Ashton wanted to know how this VC got started.

This was on the Governor’s office’s initiative. Two weeks ago they emailed to see who had VC. They wanted to connect to urban schools & the U.P. (Upper Pennisula).  I emailed to see if one of our larger schools, Benton Harbor, would be considered urban, and we got in. The other schools were mostly in the Detroit through Flint area. So that’s how it happened!

If you haven’t subscribed to the TWICE blog yet, then you may have missed this announcement: Collaborations Around the Planet. Check it out!

Here are the some recent updates to our VC Program Database linked on TWICE and Polycom.

Providers With New Programs

• Vanderbuilt
• Canadian Space Agency
• Cooperating School Districts: New Links to New Learning
• NASA

TWICE has started a blog, so subscribe right away! Keep up with various TWICE initiatives, including Read Around the Planet. You won’t want to miss this way to keep up with the latest news on all the details and procedures for Read Around the Planet!

Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections starts on Monday, Sept. 10! We still have room if you want to participate. Read here for details and how to sign up. This class covers an introduction to videoconferencing equipment; content providers, guest speakers and other sources of curriculum content; preparing for videoconferences; and creating projects and/or creating a plan for supporting VCs in your service area. We usually have a wide range of participants, and this time we have a participant from Hawaii. You can still sign up today or Monday. Click here for more details or email me if you have any questions.

Comments from past participants:

• “I feel like I really got my money’s worth from this class! Thanks for offering it!”
• “As a media specialist, I think this course would be extremely useful for my teachers and staff.”
• “This is actually the first on-line course I’ve taken, and I am quite impressed. Obviously you’ve put much time and thought into these materials and methods. I got a number of good ideas and insights from the other participants postings and replies to posts. Discussion of this type is a key to understanding and internalizing new information.”

Hope you can join us!

Yesterday an AverMedia QuickPlay came in the mail from Troxell Communications. We ordered one to see if it would work for our RUS Grant building carts. This will allow the teachers to hook up a computer to share their presentations for the project VCs with other classes.

I’m really pleased with the little unit. It’s so easy. I tested a Mac and a PC and they worked great connecting S-Video into the document camera input on our Polycom VSX 7000s.

Now I know some of you are thinking, why aren’t you using H.239? Because my experience with it has been less than ideal. I’ve seen it fail most of the time it’s used. Most of our connections are with everyone under the sun, and so we never know what type of unit we’re connecting to or if they can receive H.239. I’ve seen the following points of failure:

• The endpoint can’t receive H.239
• H.239 is turned off on the endpoint
• The firewall is blocking H.239 traffic
• The bridge/MCU in the conference path is blocking H.239 or doesn’t have the feature turned on

So, I’m sticking with the tried & true scan converter method of hooking up a computer. Of course the easiest method is to zoom the camera in on a laptop screen. No wires! Call me old-fashioned, but hey, it works consistently with whoever you connect to!