Videoconferencing Out on a Lim

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to either take my research survey or forward/promote it with your local videoconference coordinators/site managers. After the first week of the survey being open, I thought I’d share the status of responses. I’m hoping for at least 400 responses to achieve statistical significance. We’re about 40% of the way there. Here’s who has responded so far:

Countries

• 11 from Canada; 1 Ontario, 10 Alberta
• 1 from Greece
• 1 from Honduras
• 1 from Pakistan
• 2 from the United Kingdom
• 140 from the United States

States

• 1 Alaska
• 1 Alabama
• 2 Arizona
• 3 California
• 1 Connecticut
• 1 Florida
• 1 Georgia
• 10 Indiana
• 2 Kansas
• 1 Kentucky
• 1 Maryland
• 23 Michigan
• 4 Minnesota
• 1 Missouri
• 2 North Carolina
• 7 New Jersey
• 14 New York
• 4 Ohio
• 1 Oklahoma
• 5 Pennsylvania
• 2 South Carolina
• 2 Tennessee
• 38 Texas!!!
• 5 Virginia
• 3 Washington
• 5 Wisconsin

Thank you again! My target audience is school level videoconference coordinators who support one videoconference unit. So please take the survey if you haven’t already, or share the information with your school level coordinators.

Several of you have asked me about results. I definitely plan to share as soon as I can. However it won’t be really quick because this is for my dissertation and I have to defend it before I can share results. But you’ll hear about it for sure!!

Dear blog readers! I know you have probably been able to learn and use resources from my posts and projects. I hope now that you can do me a return favor and promote my research survey in your service area.

Note for regional coordinators: There is one question that asks if they are supported by an educational service agency and if so, what is the name of it. I can use this to pull just your region’s data if you are interested in it. If so, when you send it out, please encourage your coordinators to name your educational service agency in the survey (question 13). Send me an email to let you know you’re interested and then give me over the summer months to pull it together for you. Also, if you want to look through the survey, write “delete” in all the open ended fields so I’ll know to delete your entry since it won’t be valid. Thanks!!

Here’s the official announcement:

Dear Videoconferencing Colleague,

Please take a moment to complete this anonymous web based survey for videoconference coordinators at the district or school level and are responsible for one videoconference unit. If you coordinate videoconferencing at a regional level, please forward this notice to your local videoconference coordinators.

The focus of this study is the videoconference coordinator and their influence on the utilization of videoconferencing in the school. The purpose of this research is to investigate the coordinator’s support of videoconferencing, and the technical and administrative issues that may affect the school’s use of videoconferencing. This study will analyze how these factors may predict the utilization videoconferencing in the school and will assist in providing knowledge on the most effective ways to support the implementation of videoconferencing in schools.

The survey is anonymous and your answers are confidential. Completion of the survey serves as a form of implied consent. Participation is voluntary, and refusal to participate involves no penalty. You may discontinue participation at any time without penalty.

Please click here to take the survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227RTY7Y6M7

I appreciate your time and support of this research. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Janine Lim
Instructional Technology Consultant
Read Around the Planet Coordinator 2006-2008
Berrien County ISD
(269) 471-7725×101
jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us
Graduate Student in the Leadership Program in the School of Education at Andrews University

If you have questions you wish to address to an impartial third party, you may contact the advisor for this research, Erich Baumgartner, baumgart@andrews.edu or (269) 471-2523.

Unbelievably, I’ve been thinking about how we could get videoconferencing into every classroom. We’re still in the days of trying to get it into every school in our county (about 3/4 there). But in my districts where every school has it, now they want it in every classroom.

Why VC in Every Classroom?
First, here are the catalysts from the last few weeks that have set my brain spinning:

• One of our local superintendents wanted to know if it was possible to buy cheaper cameras and have videoconferencing in all the classrooms, preferably connected to the projectors installed with the Promethean boards in all the classrooms. It’s not easily done nor seems to make sense cabling-wise with the current options out there.
• I know of at least two of my local districts who are setting up “model classrooms,” and are including videoconferencing as part of the technologies featured.
• My teachers are starting to say they want it in their classroom. Not just a mobile cart rolled into the classroom, but they want it there all the time. Here’s a sample comment from the current session of my online class, Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections. Of course this description assumes the need for fiber so any teacher could VC any time they want as well.

My hopes and ideas for using videoconferencing is to enhance my curriculum. I would love to have the equipment in my classroom, so I don’t have to mess with scheduling and compromising with others in my building. Since our students are growing up in a global community I would like for them to see more of the rest of the world and meet people from other cultures.

• At the USDLA Conference last week, I heard several K12 educators describe dreams for VC: many more content providers (about 250-300 ish now if you count the local ones not ready to offer content nationally), and VC in every school.
• I downloaded the latest version of XMeeting on my Mac and got up & running in two minutes with no NAT messiness due to a new cool little thing called a stun server. I’ll write more about that later.

Is It Possible to Have VC in Every Classroom?
I believe that VC cannot become mainstream until the cost is below $1000, even below $700 or $800. A school needs to be able to buy VC equipment without a grant. I don’t know very many places that have acquired their equipment without grant funding, and big grant funding at that. They should be able to get it with the district tech budget, or with little local grants like the MACUL grant (up to $2000 per grant).

A Paradigm Shift is Required
I also think that VC cannot become mainstream in schools until the vendors are selling it not just for teaching or for meetings or for traditional uses of VC. Schools need to see the value of curriculum videoconferencing - experts, authors, content providers, collaborations, projects, backyard content, the whole works! We need great VC experiences published in the popular edtech magazines. Schools need to know they can do a ton of videoconferences for minimal cost - i.e. lots of free ones in addition to the paid quality content from our favorite providers.

A Dream Curriculum Videoconferencing VC Kit
I’m hearing the term “VC kit” from my friends in Wales, England, and Scotland more often these days. I really like it. I think we need a “kit,” not a box that has to be rack mounted in a specially designed cart. If I were an engineer, here’s how I’d try to design it.

• Runs on the computer already in the classroom (a high end one of course). Can be Mac or PC. Could it be built on XMeeting for the Mac? That would solve the Mac challenge easily.
• Has classroom quality audio. I prefer the Polycom mic, not just because Polycom funds many of my ideas, but because it is so well suited to placement anywhere in the classroom: desk, stool, floor, chair, etc. We need something that is just above desktop videoconferencing. We need the echo cancellation for the classroom audio.
• Can show slides etc. from the computer it’s installed on. Curriculum videoconferencing is primarily receiving content, but also collaborations and projects. Students need to be able to present clues and information about their town, among other things. This would eliminate the need for any inputs, hooking up VCR, document camera, etc. etc. Presentations could be shared from the computer. Also, preferably, not just H.239! Yikes, that’s driving me crazy. Hopefully the engineers could think of a way to make that work no matter what you connected to on the other end.
• A simple camera with presets. A camera a little higher end than a webcam. We need presets for ASK programs, for collaborations, for presentations in projects. But not so high end that the cost is too much.
• Hooks up to the projector already in the classroom. A kit that integrated well with the major interactive boards would be awesome. Certainly there must a way to do this. I think installing with the computer that’s hooked up to the board seems best to me.
• Can do Skype and iChat too. Ok, now I’m really dreaming. But think about it. We really need a way to do VC - either Skype or iChat with our international buddies, or H.323 with content providers, colleagues, universities, other H323 sites etc. If it could work with Skype, why not iChat? If it was basically just a camera and a great mic with software for H.323, couldn’t the camera and mic be used for those too? Why not?! Since I’m dreaming! Schools need an all-in-one solution for all the curriculum videoconferencing opportunities out there.
• EASY firewall solutions. I am so intrigued by the stun server that comes with XMeeting. Couldn’t it be this easy to make H323 work on school network? It has to be if we’re going to increase the use of curriculum videoconferencing.

What do YOU think? Is it a worthy goal? Do we need it? How would you design a less than $1000 unit for all classrooms? Please comment.

Last night I was honored to receive the 2008 USDLA International Distance Learning Award for Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning. Since many deserving people also received awards last night, there was not time to thank those who have contributed to my growth and learning.

First I’d like to thank Polycom, especially Russ Colbert and Elaine Shuck for nominating me for this award. Not only that, but for funding some of my projects and ideas: our VC Program Database linked on TWICE and Polycom., TWICE’s Read Around the Planet, and the new TWICE Collaborations Around the Planet site. I appreciate very much the support and promotion of my ideas and projects by Polycom.

Thank you especially to Jim Bembenek, who hired me at the Berrien County ISD in 1997 as an Instructional Technologist. He saw potential in me and provided so many opportunities for growth and learning. I remember when he said I should go to a meeting to “increase my statewide presence.” I didn’t even know what that meant! Then Jim had this vision for a videoconferencing network for our service area. I didn’t understand what it meant, but he convinced me to move into a newly created position to support videoconferencing. That first year he did the technical connections and I worked on the curriculum side. I remember watching with heart pounding as each ISDN line connected. We had this joke that the videoconference would connect if we ate chocolate while we were connecting. Thank you to Jim and the ISD for providing a work environment where I can excel and make my ideas happen.

It was Jim Bembenek, Sue Porter, and Connie Solis who thought we should have a videoconferencing organization in Michigan. We met in a restaurant and discussed how we could start TWICE. Just a few months later Sue and I started the videoconference celebration of Read Across America for TWICE. Sue taught me so much as we started our distance learning program, including the paper towel demonstration of how video and audio are compressed! Thank you, Sue, for all that you’ve taught me and shared with me!

When TWICE got started, I met Arnie Comer, distance learning manager at Macomb ISD. Arnie taught me about the ASK program started by Jim Wenzloff at their ISD. Arnie shared a few ASK programs with me and then he and Jim helped me get my own ASK programs going. Thank you, Arnie, for bridging connections for me that I couldn’t get to work on my bridge, and teaching me so much about best practice in videoconferencing!

Thank you to everyone who has taken my online classes (PICC & K2K), then created great projects and shared them back with me to benefit my schools.

Thank you to Bennie Tschoerner and Ken Conn, who took PICC, dreamed up Jazz, and “dragged” me into it. I wasn’t sure at all about the project at the first, but it’s been an incredible annual experience and provided opportunities for networking with so many people.

Thank you to Roxanne Glaser, for teaching me so much about best practice and underlying theory of our projects! You’ve contributed so much to my understanding of best practice and the constructivist principles underlying great videoconferences.

Thank you to Danny Maas, who wrote one of the supporting documents for my nomination. I really appreciate the opportunities and connections that came from presenting at the Broadband Summer Institute. Thank you to all the Albertans who have participated in videoconferences with my schools!

Thank you to all my local coordinators and teachers, without whom we wouldn’t have a successful videoconferencing program. Each of you have worked so hard to bring engaging learning experiences to our students in Berrien and Cass counties. I appreciate your time and effort!

Thank you to Congressman Fred Upton, for his support of our distance learning program and advocacy of the USDA DLT RUS grant and the e-rate program. Your vision for students in our area has helped create great learning experiences and opportunities. I appreciate your support of distance learning in our counties and nationally.

Finally, I thank God for providing opportunities and blessings so that I can do my work. I give Him the glory for what I’ve accomplished, for without Him I can do nothing.

USDLA Guerilla Session: At lunch time today, I talked to the people at my table about the fact that the 1:30 timeslot didn’t have any good options for K12 videoconferencing folks. So I started asking a few VC buddies if they wanted to meet and have a conversation. When I asked Ken Conn, he offered to ask the USDLA program committee if we could have a room and make an announcement. Ken and I both thought that we would only have a 5 or 6 people, but we ended up with 30 people. It was pretty funny to see what someone referred to as the pied piper with a trail of people following to a room that the hotel graciously opened up for us.

After we did introductions, it was clear we had a group of online folks and a group of videoconference folks. So we split in two and just started to chat. Of course, I was in the videoconference group.

First we talked quite a bit about professional development. We discussed the difference between PD to teach about videoconferencing (technical assistance was the term suggested by Ruth Blankenbaker) and actual professional development about relevant teaching topics that just happen to be shared via videoconference. We talked about quality issues, possible topics, issues around training the presenter etc.

We also spent some time discussing bringing content, specifically experts to the classroom. We shared stories of experiences we had with various experts and content providers.

I heard from several people afterwards that they loved the conversation and were glad to network with each other. I didn’t have my laptop open so I didn’t catch all the great ideas, but it was wonderful to network and share with everyone. Many of us exchanged cards afterwards.

USDLA: KC3 by Jan Zanetis

Showing the Stamford High School programs…

History of KC3 – Jan’s conversation with Alan November inspired it the start of the program.

15 schools signed up to create content; 100 schools indicated interested in being the test audiences for the contest.

The classes signed up and the KC3 team worked with them to prepare their presentations for the contest.

Then they did the program with a test audience and it was recorded on a TANDBERG Content Server in TN. The judges then accessed the programs afterwards and completed an online rubric to judge the program.

The project has snowballed where the classes are presenting their programs to other classes, and even generating additional projects and videoconferences with each other.

There were some great little clips of the students. It’s always fun to see kids present. We all laughed and enjoyed the students’ creativity!

Another clip showed the Q&A after the field trip was over. The classes brainstormed other VCs they could do with each other and what else they could teach each other about their communities. These are the same kind of amazing conversations that happen after Read Around the Planet and similar events.

In preparing their presentations, the students addressed a lot of NETS standards.

Jan has a pyramid of VC with distance classes at the bottom, then accessing content providers, then collaborative student projects, and at the top content creation in the classroom.

Comment from a student – “I didn’t realize that teaching was so hard.” That’s a great quote!!

The teachers said that it was hard work, but that the level of student engagement was incredible. Students had to dig deeper to really understand the in depth content to share it with the other class.

The teachers also said it was really eye-opening to see their students present the content – they saw their students engaging with the content at a different level than they usually see.

USDLA Session: Don’t Make Me Collaborate by Kat Bailey and Samantha Penney

Some snippets from this session…

A lot of 30 second ideas of things you can do with your cell phone. What can you learn or do in 30 seconds…. well some of them you could post in 30 seconds, but if you were going to think reflectively about them, you couldn’t do it in 30 seconds.

Wikinomics by Tapscott covers these areas:

• sharing
• acting globally
• openness
• peering

Collaborative culture

• ceding some control
• sharing responsibility
• embracing transparency
• managing conflict
• projects take on a life of their own

These are described in this session in the context of teaching online - letting your students experience a collaborative culture. Suggestions for managing group learning online like having student contracts for their work in it.

Vision of Students Today - digital ethnography. When I searched that, there’s a K-12 version of it. Did you know? I’m surprised how many of the participants here haven’t seen this video. Does that mean I’m going to too many conferences?? or reading too many blogs?

Suggestions include - create an infrastructure for collaboration in your class. I think this is what Jazz does - creates an infrastructure for collaboration. I can think of some other groups I’m in where we use collaborative tools to create the infrastructure for collaboration.

The conversations about cell phones at this conference is really intriguing. There was a Marc Prensky quote about learning anything on a cell phone.

There were some hints at constructivist learning - “leave out the piece you want the students to learn” and let them find it.

It seems like the new “must have” for conference presenters is a clip from YouTube. Hmm. There was a cool one with flowers and poetry that was a sample of student work.

Reference to Classroom20Wiki - with a recommendation of using these ideas in the classroom. It’s really about integrating technology in the curriculum, but with a Web 2.0 twist, a distance learning twist, and focusing on higher ed classrooms. Interesting perspective

Engaging your “waiting collaborators”: use the collaborative tools to create surmountable challenges and let them have fun with it.

I think we’re doing well with using the Web 2.0 tools to support our collaborative projects, as well as training such as Jazz. How are you using collaborative tools to support your work?

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.

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.

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….