read Saint Louis | Stefan Merrill Block Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Collaboration, VLC Programs, Videoconferencing.Tags: author visit, Cooperating School Districts, Distance Learning, read Saint Louis, St. Louis County Library
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Author Stefan Merrill Block will videoconference live from Cooperating School Districts on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1 o’clock central. This author visit videoconference is open for juniors and seniors in high school; participating classes are expected to have read all or part of The Story of Forgetting prior to the videoconference. This distance learning event is free, and there is some space left. If you are interested in signing your class up, contact CSD. On the evening of September 17, the author will be at St. Louis County Library for another free event- click on the flier for details.
Free Smithsonian American Art Museum Videoconferences Monday, July 13, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Internet safety, Videoconferencing.Tags: Creative Commons, Distance Learning, Flickr, Smithsonian American Art Museum, videoconferences
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Can't take your students to D.C. for a field trip? Try a VC!
Here is a list of recently updated videoconferences from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. All the videoconferences are free, and available upon request, though on certain days. Videoconference presenters guide your class on a tour of artworks in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. Visit www.cilc.org for more specific details on each program.
America’s Signs & Symbols
Availability: By Request/On Demand ONLY – specific days available
Audience: Education: Kindergarten, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Contemporary Craft: Clay, Fiber, Glass, Metal, Wood
Availability: By Request/On Demand ONLY – specific days available
Audience: Education: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Found Object Artwork
Availability: By Request/On Demand ONLY – specific days available
Audience: Education: Kindergarten, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Free Within Ourselves: African American Artists
Videoconference presenters guide your class on a tour of African American artworks in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. The lives of African American artists lend insight into the historical, social and cultural context of the artworks.
Availability: By Request/On Demand ONLY – specific days available
Audience: Education: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
To See Is To Think: Visual Literacy
Videoconference presenters guide your class on a tour of artworks in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. Students learn the literal language of art and consider the many choices artists make when creating art.
Availability: By Request/On Demand ONLY – specific days available
Audience: Education: Kindergarten, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Also, if you visit the museum’s education website, you’ll find student created podcasts.
New Videoconferences from Camden Children’s Garden Monday, June 29, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Distance Learning, Videoconferencing.Tags: Air Pollution, Camden Children's Garden, Distance Learning, DNA typing, Flickr Creative Commons, forensic science, videoconference
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Camden Children’s Garden has three new programs in their videoconference catalog. My schools enjoy their distance learning sessions a great deal, so I’m excited to share with them these new offerings!
A Leaf of a Different Color
Why do leaves change color in the fall? Follow a leaf from beneath the bud in winter to a much pile the following fall. For grades 1-4; available by request.
Air Pollution: Inside My House
When we think of air pollution, we usually think of the air outside our homes or buildings, but experts claim that indoor air pollution can be 5 times greater than outdoor air pollution. Explore the many sources of indoor air pollution, their health consequences, plus more. For grades 3-6 as well as library patrons; available by request.
DNA typing
How can the police discover which suspect is guilty of the crime committed with just a sample of saliva? Learn about DNA and how it can be used in forensic science. For grades 7-12 as well as library patrons; available by request.
Boundless Learning in the VLC! Monday, June 22, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Collaborations, Distance Learning, Tech PD, VLC Programs, Videoconferencing, Web 2.0.Tags: Center for Puppetry Arts, CILC, Cooperating School Districts, Distance Learning, New Links to New Learning, New York Hall of Science, Skype, TWICE, videoconference
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Last Friday I taught Boundless Learning with Videoconferencing to a great group of St. Louis area educators! Several districts, grades, subjects, positions and usage levels were represented, but all had a keen interest in interactive K-12 videoconferencing.
Participants learned how to find content providers (CILC and TWICE), how to schedule videoconferences, how to start collaborative projects, how to download and use Skype, and how to make marionette spider puppets (see right)! We had two videoconference demos during the day, one with the Center for Puppetry Arts, the other with the New York Hall of Science. Class attendees who had participated in videoconferences shared their experiences with those who had not yet connected over distance learning.
We will offer this class again in the fall!
Videoconferencing with Holocaust Survivors Friday, June 5, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Distance Learning, Videoconferencing.Tags: Distance Learning, The Holocaust Centre
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One of the winners of the Teacher’s Choice Awards is a content provider I had not heard about, or have worked with before- The Holocaust Centre in the United Kingdom. Here’s some information from their website:
The aim of the programme:
To provide the opportunity to as many schoolchildren in the UK and abroad to dialogue and listen to survivor’s testimony.
Objectives:
• The programme will replicate the process of finding out what the Holocaust is about, how it is relevant to them and then think of an action they will do as a result of listening to the survivor.
• To extend students experience to Rwanda and other genocide survivor’s stories.
• To encourage young people to learn more about the Holocaust and reflect on lessons learnt through History Speaks.
For full details, click on the icon above.
Record Videoconference Week for the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis Thursday, June 4, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Collaborations, Distance Learning, Videoconferencing.Tags: Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis, Cooperating School Districts, Distance Learning, Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Learning Center, videoconference
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Later today Robert Powell, Education Coordinator of the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis, will be wrapping up his eighth videoconference of the week! He participated in four on Tuesday, and is continuing with four more today. Their distance learning program just began in January, and this has been their most book week (thus far)!
Topic of discussion: The Body in Space, with a focus on microgravity, muscle atrophy, and fluid shift. Audience: Suffern Middle School in New York state. Next week, the students are going on a field trip to the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Learning Center, so this was a nice introduction for them. One great question they had on Tuesday, that actually temporarily stumped Robert, was if astronauts’ hair and nails grew while they were in space. He promised to look it up and let the Flight Commander know at the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Learning Center know the answer for when the kids arrived next week.
If you are interested in connecting to the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis for a videoconference, contact Rebecca Morrison at Cooperating School Districts (www.csd.org).
Staging Shakespeare Videoconference from RoundTrips Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Collaboration, Distance Learning, Videoconferencing.Tags: Distance Learning, Forest Park, HEC-TV Live!, RoundTrips, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, The Merry Wives of Windsor, videoconference, William Shakespeare
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As part of its ongoing collaboration with HEC-TV Live!, RoundTrips is very pleased to announce two free videoconference programs next week on Thursday, May 14 with the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. Each year the Shakespeare Festival provides a wonderful, free, public theater experience under the stars in the beautiful urban oasis of Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri. This year, they are producing The Merry Wives of Windsor and these two videoconferences will take you live to their outdoor performance space to see how the production comes together. As you’ll note in the descriptions, the morning program will focus on production elements while the afternoon program examines acting.
Program 1: Staging Shakespeare Outdoors: The Production Elements
Date: May 14, 2009 | Time: 10:00 a.m. CDT | Grade Level: Grades 7-12
Live from the outdoor performance space of the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, program participants will interact with the director, designers and technical production staff for the Festival’s upcomingoutdoor production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Audience members will tour the set and go both backstage and onstage as they find out what it’s like to design and stage a production outdoors. How do you handle lighting for the show? What about costumes and props? What happens if it rains? Where does the audience sit? Find out how all the front of house, onstage, and backstage production elements come together to create an exciting and enriching experience for the audience .
Program 2: Staging Shakespeare Outdoors: The Actors’ Perspective
Date: May 14, 2009 | Time: 1:00 p.m. CDT | Grade Level: Grades 7-12
Live from the outdoor performance space of the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, interactive videoconference participants will talk with actors involved in the Festival’s upcoming outdoor production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Audience members will tour the set and go both backstage and onstage as they find out what it’s like to perform a play under the stars. How does it change the characterization created by the actor? What about projection and gestures? Does it change how actors use costumes and props? What happens if it rains? What’s it like to interact with an audience in an outdoor setting? Find the answers to these questions plus more as you meet the actors working together to create an exciting & enriching experience for the audience.
Berrien RESA hosting Teacher’s Choice Awards! Thursday, April 30, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Distance Learning, VLC Programs, Videoconferencing.Tags: videoconference, Distance Learning, Polycom, content provider, Berrien RESA
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Berrien RESA is hosting Teacher’s Choice Awards to select the Best Content Providers for the 2008-2009 school year. Results will be shared via the Berrien RESA VC Content Providers Database and the videoconferencing listservs.
Many of you use the BCISD Videoconference Program Database from one of these websites: http://www.VCContentProviders.org | TWICE: http://www.twice.cc/fieldtrips.html | 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 selecting the winners randomly.
Click this link to take the short survey (or copy the address into your browser):
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22952VSCJBR
You must complete the survey by May 18, 2009 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!
Janine Lim
Instructional Technology Consultant
janine.lim@berrienresa.org
(269) 471-7725×1101
Why Videoconference? Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Classroom Technology, Collaboration, Conferences, Distance Learning, Tech PD, Videoconferencing.Tags: CILC, curriculum, Distance Learning, interactive videoconferencing, NASA, Virtual Fieldtrips
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The best answer to why videoconference is that it brings in a subject matter expert to classroom fills in curriculum gaps! Classroom teachers cannot be experts in every field.
The final session I attended today at USDLA was presented by Dawn Colavita of CILC. (Between NASA and CILC, I attended the www.thinkfinity.org presentation). Her presentation, Getting Optimum Mileage from Virtual Fieldtrips, explained why K-12 educators choose interactive videoconferencing, and how to find programs that work within curriculum. She highlighted the importance of virtual fieldtrip prepartion- communication between teachers and content providers is a critical element for a successful program (see NASA post below). Dawn discussed that teachers should review the videoconference objectives with students.
Other tips/tricks:
- allow participants an experience on camera prior to a videoconference
- remind students they are representing their classroom and school to others
- have students fill out evaluations on the videoconference, plus continue the lesson from the vc in the classroom (a larger project)
- teachers should also fill out evaluations- did it cover objectives? student learning covered? what did the teacher learn- any new strategies for their instruction?
- share vc successes with administrators- superintendents, principals; other teachers; parents & community
About Network Nebraska Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Posted by Rebecca Morrison in Uncategorized.Tags: Distance Learning, Flickr, Nebraska Distance Education Council, Nebraska Information Technology Commision, Network Nebraska, Polycom, Renovo Software, Tandberg, USDLA
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The second USDLA session I attended was full of information on Network Nebraska. Network Nebraska was actually recently featured in Distance Learning … A Magazine for Leaders and the article is reprinted, with persmission, on the Network Nebraska website. The website also has very complete list of information on how the project was implemented.
For me, as a K-12 videoconferencing coordinator, listening to the fourth, and final presenter speak was the most interesting. Dr. Dan Hoesing is superintendent of four Nebraska school districts and is a big proponent of distance learning. Hoesing is all about personal communication: he emphasized more than once that students learn as a group, yet interact as individuals. A perfect combination of the two a desirable place for kids to learn. He also feels that education is about developing relationships and that high tech and high touch are important to keeping kids engaged. Hoesing enthusiasm for education- and distance learning- was very exciting. Network Nebraska anticipates have mobile vc carts in every high school in the state by next school year! (They use Polycom and TANDBERG).
Other speakers on Network Nebraska (setting all this up took lots of time, energy and people!) included:
- Tom Rolfes, Education I.T. Manager, Office of the Chief Information Officer and Nebraska Information Technology Commision
- Gordon Roethemeyer, Executive Director, Nebraska Distance Education Council
- Ted Nafzger, Sales Manager, Renovo Software, Inc.
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