123vc: Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Interactive VC 2009

Wow, what a week! It is hard to believe that this 5-day training is over all ready... Our participants and the projects they completed were FABULOUS!!

What a dedicated group of teachers we worked with this week! I'm proud to know that they are part of our region. We're lucky to have such dedicated educators teaching our students.

So, you might be asking yourself, "What went on during this Jazz training?" And I might reply, "What didn't go on??"

Our participants were immersed in a variety of educational video conference strategies throughout the 5 day training. We learned about and participated in Academic Challenges, Exchange Projects, connected with various content providers, and so much more.

They also worked in small groups throughout the week with participants from other sites around the nation to complete a small group project. One of our participants remarked that even though the small groups might have participants from different sites, the video conference technology allowed for relationship-building.

Participants left with a completed project and are looking forward to video conferencing with Jazz participants from other locations and their classes this school year. Read some of their comments from the last session from today.

Roxanne Glaser, one of the lead facilitators for Jazz from the great state of Texas, summed up the experience today with a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, "One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. " That's very true. This is the second time GST has participated in this training and I enjoy it more and more each time. This training is intense, but once you complete it, you feel as if you can conquer anything video conferencing has to throw at you!

Looking forward to next year already... But I need a nap first!

GST DL Website

Hey there! Check out the changes I made on our GST Distance Learning Website.

On our Calendar page, I embedded a collaborative Google calendar that I set up to use with video conference colleagues around New York State. We are working together to list collaborative video conference projects offered around our state for the coming school year. You'll also find video conference training dates on the calendar, as well.

Please email us if you would like more information about any projects listed on that calendar, or if you need support getting started: DL@gstboces.org

I've updated some of the resources on our Resources page by adding online articles about video conferencing and links to some different content providers for you to investigate, so make sure to check that out, too!

Do you have suggestions for improving our website to make it more useful to you? Please feel free to leave us a comment using the link at the end of this post.

Helpful Feeds from iTunes

@russeltarr tweeted about a website called iLearn Technology listing "20 iTunes Feeds for the 2.0 Teacher." Looks like something I should share with all of you!

Check it out. If you would like to form your own professional learning network (PLN), get a Twitter account at http://twitter.com!