Internship--Entry 7.75

I just have to share this! My students' broadcast has been added to the Baseball Hall of Fame website. Just scroll to the end of the Presentation section.
http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/comm_arts.html#iv

Also, here's a slideshow of the session. There are about fifteen students in this single-gender class, and they loved it. I played their clip on the morning news show today, and saw several of them in the hall, today. They mentioned their project and just beamed.

Internship--Post 7.5

We'll I'm sold on videoconferences now! Even though it took me forever to finally get one scheduled, I'd say videoconferences are a future tool we all could use. My internship supervisor told me that EdTech had a videoconference keynote speaker with an astronaut!

Anyway, about today. Since this was my first videoconference, I wanted to start with a conference for one class--not four (each core teacher teaches four blocks because the teacher is on a four-person team; one teaches language arts, one teaches math, one teaches science, and one teaches social studies.) I selected this language arts class for a couple of reasons: 1. the teacher was willing, 2. the class was covering content that I could match with a potential content provider, and 3. the content provider was easy to work with, 4. this single gender class includes some students who often struggle with making connections between what they read and the world around them. This was a perfect choice. The all boy class loves sports, they'd just read Maniac Magee, a Newbery award-winning book about a boy who befriends a former MLB player, and the guys are extremely motivated by technology.

This morning, the students came in and were so exicted. When they say the big flat screen tv that was in the classroom, they got excited. And when we called the Hall of Fame and someone on the other end responded, they were impressed. Their goal for today was to record a broadcast of a baseball game in the old style of radio where sound effects had to be used. We recorded the broadcast using Audacity, and the Hall of Fame plans to host the file on their own site. I'll share it here, too, since I'm so proud of this group. The teacher even said he wished his other all-boy class could have experienced the conference. I invited our school's literacy coach and MYP instructional coach, and both want to share the outcomes with other teachers. I'd like to write a grant to fund more conferences throughout the rest of the school year now that I have the equipment at my school.

Internship--Entry 7

Things are really rolling now. My first videoconference will be held Monday, November 24th. Last week was all about finalizing details...my internship supervisor met with me the first time to first rearrange the room to accept the portable Tandberg cart. We had to call Video Systems (the vendor for Tandberg) to ask about why our internal camera view wasn’t working and why we weren’t able to connect to sites outside of the district. The suggested changing the input view on the equipment, and it worked!. We then tried test calling the Baseball Hall of Fame but had problems. After talking to our network technician, we realized we needed a public IP address (the reason we weren’t able to call out). A cell phone here was a life saver because all these calls were done in a classroom while trying to get the equipment to work. By the time all this was done, we needed to reschedule our test call, so today, we called them again around 10:15. It worked! What a relief! The Hall of Fame operator had suggestions for the room layout, and I know we're ready.

The teacher whose class will benefit from the videoconference prepared the class today. We showed them a scene from the movie Annie so they could see how radio programs used sound effects. The students then read through a script they'll use Monday during the conference. Here's a link to the program we're planning. http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/comm_arts.html

I'll post again Monday evening to describe how the conference went!

Internship--Post 6.5

After my meeting with my site supervisor today, we have a site created for the tutorials. Unfortunately, that site is restricted to teachers within our district. Here are direct links to the tutorials, though. You'll need Windows Media Player to view them.

EMAIL:

Archiving messages (client)

Creating an Address Book (client)

Adding a Signature (client)

Adding a Signature (webaccess)

eChalk:

Logging Into eChalk

Email

My Account Space

My School

Using the Homework Drop Box

Destiny:

Logging Into Destiny

Internship--Post 6

I feel like I've done lots of waiting lately. The Baseball Hall of Fame has responded to my original request about scheduling a video conference. The teacher and I have selected a program from their list. It's called "Going, Going, Gone" and is about how baseball games used to be broadcast on the radio. We've read the description of the program and are eager to see how the description will look in the classroom.

Unfortunately, we're waiting on the museum to get back to us with a great date. The collaborating teacher's wife is having a baby around Thanksgiving, so I'd like to finish before then if possible. Plus, the deadline for this class is quickly approaching.

My site supervisor and I will talk tomorrow about linking to the video tutorials I've created and hosted on the district server. I just want to make sure that the people can find them now that they are done. The wait continues...

Internship--Entry 5

Just when I take one step forward, I end up taking two steps back. In my last post, I was so happy that I had a potential content provider and collaborative teacher matched up for a videoconference. Now, the content provider says they're booked through the end of the semester (at least until Dec. 15--past the end of this course). I'm back to the drawing board:( I did go to the SCRI Literacy coach in my school as a sounding board (we grew up up living next door to each other and love bouncing ideas off each other). She mentioned that one of the our single gender boys classes was getting ready to start reading the novel Maniac Magee. I LOVE that book, and it's about a boy who's a natural at baseball. His ability to play the sport helps unite a town racially divided. That reminded me of the videoconferences provided by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Information about it had appeared in one of the articles I read while preparing my Annotated Bibliography. I talked with the teacher during his planning time today, and he was stoked. He's looking at all the possible sessions the Hall of Fame offers, and said he'll let me know which one he likes the best. We're hoping to use the session with his last block of the day--some of them struggle as readers, so this would be a real-world connection to the book! My video conference equipment has also arrived, and the principal has given me a classroom to store it in (I'm not calling it the distance education classroom).

In other news, my supervisor has set me on the district server so I can know upload some of the video tutorials I'm creating about email, echalk, and our online catalog. I've created close seven or eight and have them hosted right now. I don't have a direct link to them yet, though, so I won't post them yet.

Internship--Week 4

Because of time constraints, working with the Cleveland Museum of Art on the African artwork unit with the art teacher didn't work out this 12-weeks. Instead, the music teacher has agreed to collaborate with me to host the video conferencing event. We're planning to use the Hip-Hop Technology: From Turntables to Computers program offered by the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. I'm excited about the possiblity plus the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame has been voted one of the best content providers by members of CILC.

I've also created three different video tutorials on using different features of email. I'm meeting with my supervisor tomorrow to talk about the content/format of the programs before proceeding with more tutorials. Finding appropriate articles for the annotated bibliography has been somewhat difficult.

Internship--Week 3

Making Progress. I'm knee deep in articles and books about video conferencing and am enjoying it immensely. I've completed the first draft of the annotated bibliography and have also started using some of the resources I uncovered to begin identifying possible video conferencing resources. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration will likely be the most comprehensive resource.

I'm a little unsure how to approach the subject with some teachers, partly because I'm unsure how providers feel about conducting multiple events on the same day. If I work with a core academic teacher who has four classes, the program would work best if the teacher could bring all four classes at their regulary scheduled time to the event. At the same time, exploratory teachers meet with students on an A/B schedule, so an event for 6th grade art would need to be arranged for two consecutive days. All the what ifs are giving me a headache.

I consulted our school's curriculum map for the year have a general idea of the topics teachers will be covering the next few weeks. I used those topics to begin searching the catalog, but haven't find anything perfect yet. I'm still looking though and hope to be able to approach a teacher some time next week with a possible program event.

Internship--Week 2

I would call this week my research week. I spent a good portion of time researching on USC's website to find articles to begin my annotated bibliography. I did have some setbacks as I searched. After my first session, I thought had identified 10 different articles using the search term video-conferencing. After I printed them, though, (I like to read and highlight articles) I realized most of the articles were about teaching a distance education course. It turned out only three of the articles were along the lines of scheduling with an expert group like a museum or organization for some kind of video conference event with students.

I decided to change my search term to virtual field trip. Turns out that term can mean exactly what I was looking for, but it can also mean just a website with links/photos about a location. While helpful, those vft's lack the interactivity of an live expert responding to students' questions. After all this, I decided to combine the two phrases, and ended up with a good number articles that included both search terms. I even started compiling my annotated bibliography. I'm assuming we're using APA for this, right?

Internship--Week 1

This week has been full of decisions--I'm finally glad to start working toward some goals. It was so difficult developing my own goals and having to put them down on paper. I really struggled with where to begin. After looking at some examples from other semesters, I like the idea of creating video tutorials about different topics. In my job, I get asked lots of repeat questions, so it will be nice to be able to direct students and teachers to video resources that are available 24/7.

When I starting thinking about potential supervisors, I chose one of the district's instructional specialists in charge of technology. She has helped the media specialists with a recent changeover in circulation systems, has pushed for smartboard integration, and assists teachers with designing school-based webpage. When we met, she liked the tutorial ideas, but also mentioned that the district has some video-conferencing equipment that isn't being used. I agreed to take that on as a part of my internship! So there we are--video tutorials for students in using our circulation system, for teachers using email, and both groups using our website. I'll also be researching the possibilities for video-conferencing and then collaborating with a classroom teacher for some conferencing event. It will be a busy semester!

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