2008 April « Videoconferencing Out on a Lim

Archive for April, 2008

Mashup or Crashup?

April 21, 2008 · Filed under Techie Stuff, VC Community

USDLA The Intersection of Real-time Learning Tools with Learning Management Systems by Alan Greenberg from Wainhouse Research. Snippets of ideas and wisdom.

What’s a mashup? Media types, code, data sources, etc. from different sources.

Which of these do you use? vc, web conferencing, whiteboards, wikis/collaborative tools, LMS/CMS, other…

“videoconferencing was the hot technology in the 90s”

A crashup can be the blue screen of death or cars crashing together.

Alan has a great chart with the learning activity down the left and the tool (LMS, VC, streaming, web conferencing, interaction enables). Then whether or not that learning activity is possible in that tool.

Technology creates latency - it’s between you and the learners. You want that to diminish.

The crashup/mashup is happening because you need all those learning activities whenever you need them, not just in this tool or that tool.

A unified collaboration environment has a nice mix of synchronous and asynchronous tools. IM / Web conferencing / interactive writing tools / recording / streaming / classroom vc / web vc / virtual worlds / collaboration portals / audio threads / LMS CMS etc. All these things come together in one environment with infrastructure services.

Interestingly, he asked the audience if they have tried GoogleDocs. 15 people raised their hands. Then he asked, who is using it still? Only 3 raised their hands. I wonder how many people actually seriously collaborate for their work on documents with other people. And of those, how many stayed with GoogleDocs?

How can you take your content and make it for mobile devices? All these tools will converge onto mobile devices. The iPhone broke down the display tech and usability barriers for using mobile devices.

Comments from the audience about Second Life “I don’t have time for my first life”

mlearning - mobile learning. Convergence of educational, consumer, prosumer, enterprise markets based on the Smartphone.

The barrier of broadband and devices is melting away. I wonder about rural areas that don’t have the services offered with the cell phone plans that the more urban areas have. Is that barrier also melting away?

A report referred to: The Distance Education and eLearning Landscape

The silos of videoconference vs. online tools are breaking down. The VC has to connect to the LMS. Greenberg’s prediction: LMS platforms will include IM, presence and VC as a matter of course by 2012. This is interesting because it’s the best of both worlds - VC for the human interactivity and online for the reflection.

Context sensitivity is going to be more important - moods, polls, ways to know the context of the learner.

Check out WRPlatinum as well.

From an audience member - in Afghanistan, everyone has a phone but they can’t afford food. They aren’t learning on a computer, they can learn on a mobile phone.

The session ended with Q&A and sharing from the audience.

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Scalability of Distance Learning Initatives

April 21, 2008 · Filed under Implementation, VC Community

USLDA Conference: Scalability of Distance Learning Initiatives within Current School Models Resistant to Change by Daryl Diamond, Assistant Director, Enterprise Change Implementation, Broward County Public Schools, FL

6th largest school district in the country; first franchise of Florida Virtual School

She started with a “distance learning program attribute checklist” with keys for implementation. It has five categories:

Innovation design
Communication channels
Time
Effectiveness
Leadership capabilities “here’s to the crazy ones”

Some of these ideas come from Comprehensive School Reform.

Scaling isn’t just the number of people using a technology or tool. It’s not just pockets of educational reform.

Coburn’s (2003) Dimensions of Scale

Spread – increased numbers
Depth – changes in teachers beliefs and practice
Sustainability – how does it sustain after reform funding ends
Shift in Reform Ownership

Think about scaling up vs. going to scale. Going to scale means that it’s integrated into regular practice and becomes the norm.

There are some ways that distance learning is better than face to face - where the online learning model meets multiple intelligences and authentic assessment is used. And face to face is just the lock step workbook page that everyone has to be on the same page by the mideterm.

Do you ever feel like you’re building an airplane in the sky?

Does the distance learning program change the pedagogical principles? Is the project able to continue if funding is pulled?

Broward has videoconferencing systems in all the high schools, used mostly for full courses. They also have VC in the elementary and middle schools. In addition they have a middle & high school level virtual school.

“going to scale” includes changing basic pedagogical practices.

“researchers have been looking at the wrong thing” - only how many teachers are using it? how many students are using it? Instead we should look at how teaching has changed?

We need to move past “it’s innovative, it’s fun, it’s viable, it’s enjoyable”.

Interesting idea she has: use VC to mentor teachers. Both teachers hook up their classes - the mentor teacher teaches both classes while the other teacher learns/observes. It’s implemented in face to face classes to meet the needs of new teachers.

“How many of your programs started with a grant?” What happens when the grant funding dries up?

She sees distance learning as a critical tool to address the mandates for all students to have access to quality learning.

There’s a nice intro to their VC programs here. Their VC courses are supported by web resources.

Then we looked at the checklist again to consider how our programs are going to scale based on the checklist. The checklist isn’t online that I could find, but you can email Daryl - her contact information is on the link at the top.

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Ellen Wagner Opening Keynote

April 21, 2008 · Filed under VC Community

I’m at the USDLA Annual Conference listening to Ellen Wagner’s opening keynote. She’s the Senior Director of Worldwide E-Learning Solutions with Adobe Systems, Inc. Here are some snippets of wisdom and ideas.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein

Shift Happens - watch the presentation if you have a moment. Check out the wiki and the follow-up questions.

“We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problem yet.” From the Shift Happens presentation.

Question: what are you doing to prepare yourself for life in the learning metaverse?

“If no one’s been there before, no one will know you’re wrong.”

How do you collaborate with someone 12.5 hours away? How do you work and collaborate with co-workers 12.5 hours away? Ellen experiences this. She accidentally scheduled a major event during a major holiday in India. Oops! I’ve been thinking it’s time to have a calendar with the holidays in the countries I want to collaborate with via VC.

Wayfinding - a method used by travelers to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes. This is the metaphor she offers as a way to make sense of the rapid change and insane schedule of global learners and workers.

Prepare for the quest. Gamers prepare for the quest.
Stay the course… but keep an eye on where you’re going. The only way out is through.
Leave that extra baggage behind. old practices, old ways of doing things… “but we can’t do that”
Engage with your fellow wayfinders. Use your Facebook pages to find colleagues to help you. When confronted with an overload of information, we turn to our friends.
“Be excellent to each other” Allusions to patent disputes and issues with proprietary code.

Are you using the technologies for YOU? A thought provoking presentation to consider further….

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Pics from the MysteryQuest Classroom

April 21, 2008 · Filed under MysteryQuests

If you aren’t subscribed to the comments on my blog, then you should check out the MysteryQuest USA pictures posted online by Pine River Elementary. They give a great flavor of what the research portion is like in the classroom.

I especially like the picture of this strategy of having a wall or whiteboard or place to write the guesses for all the schools. It gives a focal point to the research. See how the students are working there:

I still have a few spots left I want to fill. If you can’t pay the $50 for the remaining slots, sign up and put “free for blog readers” in the notes field when you register. Hope you can participate!

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Holding Posters Still

April 18, 2008 · Filed under MysteryQuests

First session of MysteryQuest USA today! We had a lot of posters in the presentations today, so I thought I’d share some of what worked and what we worked on improving even during the conference!

A couple of the classes were holding posters. As you can see, once they held it still, it came through very clearly. Notice the nice large font, and in the population case, the really thick marker with the important info to write down.

Another class used a document camera. They modeled the best practice of stacking the papers and then pulling them off one by one. It came through so clear that I wasn’t able to grab a screenshot of pulling it off. But this gives you the idea:

Another class taped their posted to the chalkboard. As you can see that definitely held it still. A little hard to read in this picture, but from what I could tell, all the classes could read it.

Then one of my favorite clues from today was this clue for a very small state. Takes a bit of math to figure this one out. Great work, St. Thomas Aquinas, in Waterford, WI!

Finally, one of the classes did so well on research time that they had time to make posters to ask their clarifying questions! I have never seen this before and it worked out really well. They had several questions that made the other class look it up, and it was easier to do with the question written out!

We have a few spots left in the MysteryQuest USA sessions in mid-May. Still time to sign up and participate. Hope you can join us!

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New Programs

April 17, 2008 · Filed under Content Providers, VC Database Updates

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

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One Videoconference System per Child

April 16, 2008 · Filed under Collaborations, Techie Stuff

Did you see this in the Wainhouse Research Bulletin a few weeks ago? Be sure to click the link to see the picture!

MIT Launches One Videoconferencing System per Child (OVPC) Nicholas Nery of The Manchurian Institute of Technology thinks everyone in the world should have a videoconferencing system.
The world famous professor, author, researcher, and diplomat has launched the non-profit OVPC organization to design, manufacture, and distribute the world’s most affordable videoconferencing system, priced at less than $100 and aimed at youngsters in the developing world. With moisture-resistant seals and a crash-proof hard drive, combined with built-in WiFi, colorful cables and connectors, solar panels for mobility and power generation in remote areas, and a high definition camera, this hardly-no-frills system supports 720p video and Siren-14 stereo audio. Prototypes of the SIP-based, H.264-compliant device are due to ship in Q4-08.
The company is concentrating on serving populations in underdeveloped and/or war-torn regions of Western Africa, South East Asia, and Texas.

Texas at the end of the paragraph surprised me. If any of you are involved, please comment and tell us more about it!

There’s also an interesting commentary on this development on the OLPC News site. I hope that those involved can imagine more instructional educationally engaging experiences besides just this:

Imagine entire country’s classrooms, full of children, in a massive multiplayer online conference.

Good that someone’s thinking about the bandwidth implications too:

I just hope that SES Global can handle all that data traffic on its donated bandwidth or there will be a lot of disappointed children (and adults).

So far, we’re still working on access to videoconferencing in each school. One of my superintendents wanted to know how to get VC in all the classrooms, even though it’s highly unlikely (at their present use rate) that they’ll ever do more than one VC at a time. Do you see a time in the future when every classroom at least has VC? Do you think the vendors will ever make desktop VC low cost that has audio designed for a classroom and maybe camera presets too? is that too much to ask for a low cost desktop system? What do you think?

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Vote for Best Content Providers by April 25

April 11, 2008 · Filed under Content Providers

Just sent the announcement below to the listservs. Hope you can vote. We have new categories this year, including best UK providers and best Canadian providers. It’s a little early this year because I have another research survey to send to you all in May. Thanks for taking the survey!

The Berrien County ISD is hosting Teacher’s Choice Awards to select the Best Content Providers for the 2007-2008 school year. Results will be shared via the BCISD Videoconference Program
Database and the videoconferencing listservs.

Many of you use the BCISD Videoconference Program Database from one of these websites:
TWICE: http://www.twice.cc/fieldtrips.html
Polycom: http://www.polycom.com/education/content/
BCISD Distance Learning: http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl/
or from search boxes on your local distance learning website.

Polycom has chosen to do a drawing for prizes to random participants of the survey to encourage participation. If you wish to be included in the drawing, add your contact information at the end of the survey. Polycom will select the winners randomly.

Click this link to take the short survey

You must complete the survey by April 25, 2008 to be included in the drawing.

Please share this announcement with your local videoconferencing colleagues. We welcome entries from teachers, even if they vote in only one category/subject area.

Thank you for your time!

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A is for Animal

April 9, 2008 · Filed under Content Providers

It’s tough to find a good program for young children, but one of the great choices is A is for Animal from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The program builds on the sculptures and paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. At first the presenter asks the students if they’ve done a VC and lets them wave to break the ice.

The program consists of lots of questions and asking questions about what they are looking at. The students comment on what they see and also identify different objects in the paintings or on the sculptures. For example:

What sound do you think the dog is making?
What does it look like the dog is doing?
What would the dog feel like if we could pet him?
What do you think the dog is looking at?

Baby polar bear The students see a sculpture of a cat, a bear, along with pictures of the live animals as part of the lesson. Some of the pictures and sculptures are of imaginary animals. Students identify which animals they see in the imaginary animals.