Tellebration Celebration on Saturday, November 20

Saturday, November 20, is Tellabration Day -- A Day of of Storytelling Celebrated World-wide!

( www.tellabration.org , led by the USA's National Storytelling Network).

Eric Miller is based in Chennai (on India's southeast coast),where he directs the World Storytelling Institute, and they are just beginning the Chennai Storytelling Association there. In Mumbai, they are also starting a Storytelling Association.

The World Storytelling Institute is wondering if there are people (adults and/or children) at a videoconferencing site in the USA who might like to videoconference with people Chennai and Mumbai on Tellabration Day -- just to tell and listen to stories (fairytales and other folktales), in English. This would be for 60-90 minutes, in the early part of the day on that Saturday (USA time).

This 3-way videoconference would be facilitated by Reliance Communications, a large Indian telecom company.

If interested, please reply to , or if you are in the GST Region, please let us know if you're interested and we'll pass the word along.

I wanted to share this with all of you to see if we can get groups of interested people to respond to this request. It sounds like fun, but remember, it does take place on a Saturday and it is only a week and a half away!

Custom CILC Catalog

Have you ever tried to create a custom catalog in CILC? I'm betting that there are some smarties out there who already know how to do this, but for those who don't, I have created a brief handout to help you.

Why is this helpful? If teachers ask for video conferences on a specific topic, creating a custom catalog in CILC will allow you to gather content providers and collaborative projects on that topic into one place to share with that teacher. A teacher could create their own custom catalog and keep a copy in the folder with that unit of study...

Do you use a feature in the CILC database, or another video conferencing database, that might come in handy for others? Please share by commenting on this post!

Virtual Office Hours & Upcoming GST Trainings

It's been quite some time since I've been able to blog about distance learning and I've missed it!

I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone that we can schedule virtual office hours, so we can meet and talk about video conferencing strategies, and help you learn how the equipment works. Email us and let's set up a time to talk about ways video conferencing can enhance your curriculum, or get you started with the equipment!

We also have some trainings that are coming up in the near future:

Intro to Video Conferencing for Educators:

Date: 10/18/2010
Time: 8-11am OR 12-3pm
Location: GST Bush Campus #11, Large Conference Room


Effective IVC Meetings for Administrators:

Date: 11/4/2010
Time: 8:30-9:30am OR 3:30-4:30pm
Location: done by video conference
(We will send the IP address for the conference with your reminder email)


This year you can register for our courses by visiting the Classes page on our DL website. Check out the presentation at the top for descriptions of our classes. Then click the links next to the date and time to fill out the registration form.

If you have questions, please let us know!

DL@gstboces.org

Jazz Presentation: Teacher Testimonials

Yesterday, Rene and I facilitated a Teacher Testimonial session as part of a national video conference training called Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with Video Conferencing. "Jazz" is a 5-day training where teachers are immersed in video conferencing techniques, sessions, and strategies. Visit the link to learn more about it!

Three teachers from our region (Watkins, Spencer-Van Etten, Elmira Heights) and one from Lamar CISD in Texas were part of the panel of video conferencing experts who shared their knowledge with the participants in the Jazz training.

During the first 3 days of the training, teachers were encouraged to keep track of questions that they wanted answered during our session on Thursday afternoon. The questions the teachers prepared for our fine panel of experts were very thoughtful and our teacher-experts did an excellent job answering the them.

We hope that hearing how actual classroom teachers use IVC will encourage the participants to value and use this technology in their own areas of expertise. It's well worth the effort!

Thanks to the Jazz Facilitators for giving us the opportunity to facilitate this session in June and July! We're hoping to offer this awesome training in our region again in the future!

End of Year Meetings with Districts

We are getting ready to do end of the year meetings with our districts. It's been a busy year and we want to make sure we keep busy into the new school year. Mary Hutz and I sat down on Friday afternoon to brainstorm some questions to ask our districts, to help structure our meetings, so we can gather the information we need.

I thought I'd share the questions to see what you think and if any of you have other questions you think we should ask:

1. How does the district encourage the use of video conferencing? How can we help?

2. Who are the advocates for video conferencing in your district? How do they spread the word about trainings, GST support, info from our team, etc.?

3. What goals would you like to set for video conferencing for your district next year?

4. What is your method for scheduling video conferences for your district? Is it working? If not, how can we help you streamline it?

5. What types of IVC training would you like to see us provide for your district? How will you encourage your teachers to attend?

6. Could we be part of curriculum planning in the district?

7. Do you have questions or suggestions to help us improve our service to your district?

-----------------

We are looking forward to wrapping up the school year and planning for the coming year. What do you think of these questions? Do you have suggestions for other questions that will help us gain the most useful information from each of our district visits? Please comment and let us know!

Planning Ahead for IVC

Nothing beats planning ahead when you're thinking about using video conferencing with your students.

If you've never used video conferencing, please schedule time to meet with us so we can help you learn the basics for using the equipment (muting the microphone, zooming the camera in and out, camera presets, etc.).

We are also available to help you locate excellent content providers and fun collaborative projects that integrate with your curriculum.

It is usually best to plan content provider sessions at LEAST 2 weeks in advance, but 3-4 weeks is even better. Some content providers are booked months in advance, such as MOTE Marine Lab. They are a fantastic content provider, but teachers often miss out on the opportunity to work with them because they did not plan far enough in advance.

When planning for collaborative projects, you must be willing to establish a system of frequent communication with teachers who are doing the project with you (email, meetings by video conference...). There is nothing more important than communicating with collaborative partners to make sure everything is planned thoroughly and will be as successful as possible.

If you don't know where to start, please contact us! DL@gstboces.org

Presenting by Video Conference

Janine Lim made a Twitter post recently that caught my attention:

@outonalim: "red writing on blue slides looks awful on VC #vctips - don't use red fonts!!"

She makes an excellent point, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about IVC best practices...

A. Wardrobe

Pay attention to the clothes you choose to wear during a video conference. Solid, darker colors work well. Avoid stripes and busy patterns because they can cause distractions and affect the quality of video you send to other locations.


------------------------------

B. Multimedia presentations

If you are showing a multimedia presentation by video conference, please make sure you do the following:

* Use fonts that are as large as possible (at least 36pt font)

* High contrast colors are best (white font on a dark blue or black background works very well)

* Keep it concise

* Try using a tool like Prezi.com to create your presentation instead of PowerPoint, for a little something different

* Use images or a short video, instead of words, to get your point across

* Employ the 5x5 rule: 5 (or fewer) words per line, 5 (or fewer) lines on a slide


-----------------------------

C. Other Visuals

If students make posters, remind them to write large enough so it is easy to read over the connection. Show them how their posters will look over a video conference connection by using Self-view on your VC system. Hold up the posters and see how they look on the screen. Are they easy to read?

A document camera is another way to show visuals. Students can write clues on paper and use the document camera to display them. Sharing objects with the document camera allows you to zoom in to get a better look.


-----------------------------

D. The Numbers

If you're looking for maximum interactivity during your video conferences, work with a regular class size and avoid including multiple classes at one IVC location.

Most content providers request class sizes of around 25-30 or fewer, unless you make other arrangements with them in advance. It's much more fun for the students if everyone has a chance or two to speak during a video conference. More kids = fewer chances to speak.

For collaborative projects, limit the number of classes that participate, so students can share their work more effectively and thoughtfully.


------------------------------
E. Variety

If you are doing a collaborative video conference project, be sure to plan a nice variety of activities to keep your video conference engaging and interactive.

Check out this awesome booklet called Planning Kid2Kid Video Conference Connections, by Janine Lim, Arnie Comer, and Roxanne Glaser for collaborative IVC ideas.

-----------------------------

Do you have other tips for presenting by video conference? Or do you have questions about curriculum-based video conferencing? Please let us know!

DL@gstboces.org