K20 Inter@ctions

Getting Started with Videoconferencing

2011-03-22T15:00:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow, I'll be working with social studies teachers at Cape Henlopen High School in Delaware. Cape Henlopen just received grant funding to obtain an HD videoconferencing unit, and this is a precursor to the kick-off of that program!

Training Overview

Welcome/Introductions
Introduction to Videoconferencing: What is it? How can it change teaching and learning in your classroom?
LIVE Connection to Elephant Communication & Collaboration from MONROE #1 BOCES in New York (part of the Global Summit Project

Do Elephants talk? What are they trying to say? Students are joining scientists to learn about these questions. Through the use of information that these High School Junior and Senior students have gathered and partnerships which are forming, they are capturing what might be Elephant communication. By analyzing the sound waves both the scientists and the students are attempting to create an Elephant dictionary. This project uses the resources of Internet2 to share large media files and interact with experts. Students are joining the research community and making a difference. During the this interactive presentation, the students will present their process and then will develop a plan for the work to be done in the coming year. Participating sites will be those locations which are interested in both learning about this phenomenal, authentic scientific project and potential adding to it. Come hear what can be heard and learn more about the Elephant world.

LIVE Connection to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, GA

The Center for Puppetry Arts offers Distance Learning programs for PreK-12. Students are briefly introduced to different styles of puppets from around the world (1st grade and up). Students participate in learning activities about a topic and create a working puppet of their very own to use in the classroom. A comprehensive study guide and materials list is provided for each program. All puppet materials are easy to find and of little, if any, cost. Middle and High School programs are designed to encourage dialogue between the presenter and participating students. Teacher workshops and demos are also available.
What's next? How to find content providers, MAGPI's website, MUSE and more.

Helpful Links/Handouts

Presentation

Cape Henlopen Professional Development Event

View more presentations from Heather Weisse Walsh

Adding the WOW Factor to Your Lessons with Streaming Media and Digital Collections

2011-03-10T13:14:00.002-05:00

Looking for a video snippet to show students during a lesson tomorrow? Need an animation to illustrate a scientific technique? Want to take students live to the Congressional Floor? There are tons of video streaming, virtual media collections and digital learning objects available over advanced networks that you can access instantly from your classroom computer!

WGBH Teacher's Domain (http://www.teachersdomain.org/): Teachers' Domain is a free digital media service for educational use from public broadcasting and its partners. You’ll find thousands of media resources, support materials, and tools for classroom lessons, individualized learning programs, and teacher professional learning communities.

The Exploratorium's I2 Gateway (http://www.exploratorium.edu/i2/): The Exploratorium’s Internet2® gateway, where you’ll find a collection of Web resources that take advantage of cutting-edge Internet2 technology. See and hear DVD quality video. Listen to high fidelity radio. View 3D imagery

The Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/index.html): Online access to print, pictorial and audio-visual collections and other digital services. You can chat with librarians LIVE and we love the map collection. Little known fact? If a map you need isn't available, you can contact LOC and have them digitize it for you.

The National Science Digital Library (http://nsdl.org/): NSDL is the Nation's online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.

The CSPAN Archives (http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/): C-SPAN has digitized its entire holdings from 1998 to the present and allows educators and researchers to access this collection via the Internet2 Network. The video library is searchable using a extensive number of fields such as topic, speaker, organization, committee, keywords and has an optimized word searching tool that includes abstracts and closed captioning text. The Flash Player permits clipping and posting of clips taken from longer programs. Text searching is available for many programs. The House and Senate are indexed in detail by speaker, bill, and time allowing one to find any speaker on the House and Senate floor, play that speech, and to read the text in the Congressional Record that accompanies the speech. Internet2 provides the highest access speed for faculty, students, and researchers at participating institutions to search and play video clips for teaching and research. Installing high-speed connectivity to the Internet2 access point. Upgrading the last mile of connectivity and expanding our server capability.

Planning Interactive Collaborations

2011-01-13T07:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of speaking with several Bucks County educators via Elluminate about planning interactive videoconference collaborations - - despite schools being closed because of the snowstorm. The lucky participants have all received LifeSize videoconference gear through a grant initiative at their IU, and are looking forward to breaking it out of the box to provide meaningful exchanges for their students.

Not only did these educators ask some wonderful, thought-provoking questions about using interactive videoconferencing in the classroom, they started brainstorming some very exciting projects! I'm looking forward to seeing some virtual stock market game exchanges and others.

Here are a few links that we discussed yesterday:

And here's the power point presentation I put together. Hope it's helpful!

Increasing Interactivity - Planning Videoconference Collaborations

View more presentations from Heather Weisse Walsh.

Resources for Berks County Innovation Workshop

2010-10-20T21:10:00.007-04:00

A collection of resources and links for the Berks County Innovation Workshop participants. Thanks for having MAGPI visit!
Links/Resources

MAGPI Website
Internet2 K20 Initiative
Virtual Reality Development Lab
Augmented Reality Development Lab
Increasing Interactivity Web Hunt
Ultra VNC (networked interactive whiteboards)
Linq for SmartBoard
Poll Everywhere Question

Sled Dog Virtual Field Trip Resources

Power Point Presentations
MAGPI/Internet2 Applications Virtual Tour PPT

(Berks iu) innovation workshop applications virtual tour

Increasing Inter@ctivity in Your Classroom Presentation

Innovation workshop increasing interactivity

Seeking Schools for IVC Collaborative Veteran's Oral History Project

2010-10-12T07:38:00.002-04:00

INFOhio, OARnet and MAGPI are seeking 5 Ohio Schools and 2 MAGPI Member Schools for this exciting month-long What Does Freedom Mean to You? A Veterans’ Oral History Project, kicking off on November 8th. The project is being developed in cooperation with eTech Ohio, The Library of Congress and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Interested but not a school in those areas? We’ll be webstreaming the final videoconference so that everyone can get involved! (So mark your calendars!)

Please see more information below.

_ _ _

What Does Freedom Mean to You? A Veterans’ Oral History Project

Target Audience: Students in Grades 10-12, particularly those in American History or Video Production Classes.

Cost: FREE!

Requirements for Participation:
Each participating school needs H.323 videoconference gear plus equipment to create a multimedia oral history project (i.e. video camera, microphone, computer with editing software). Each school will need to identify a veteran in their community that is willing to be profiled as part of this program. We also ask that the veteran be present during the live student interactive videoconference event on 12/10/2010. Participation in the project is contingent upon the teacher’s ability to attend the professional development event, being present at the dress rehearsal and students’ participation in the final videoconference event. There are 2 spaces available for MAGPI Members in this program and 5 spaces available for Ohio Schools.

Project Dates/Timeline:

Teacher Professional Development Event: Monday, November 8th from 3-5 PM EST
Student Collaborative Oral History Project Work: November 9th - December 4th
Deadline to Upload Video Project: December 5th
Videoconference Dress Rehearsal: Date/Time TBD
What Does Freedom Mean to You LIVE Videoconference and Webcast: December 10th from 10-11 AM EST

Project Description:
How do YOU define freedom? Through exploration of veterans’ stories, students from up to eight high schools will compile original multimedia productions that answer this question.

This unique, collaborative project provides an authentic venue for students to explore the concept of freedom through oral history. Teachers involved in the program will participate in an innovative professional development session created by the Library of Congress, which will help them focus their students’ questions and research as they gather veterans’ stories from their own community. Following the professional development videoconference, teachers and students will work together to profile one or more veterans from their community in a 3-5 minute multimedia production that explores the question: What does freedom mean to YOU?

The month-long project wraps with a live, interactive videoconference where students from each school will have an opportunity to share their 3-5 minute video projects and virtually meet the veterans that inspired them.

MORE INFORMATION/REGISTRATION: http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/What-Does-Freedom-Mean-You-Veterans-Oral-History-Project

Open Submissions for Kids Creating Community Content Contest 2011

2010-09-20T22:25:00.007-04:00

Are you familiar with the Kids Creating Community (KC3) Competition? It's a fantastic (needless to say authentic) opportunity for your students to develop compelling material to teach their peers via videoconference. Brought to you by my colleagues at the Center for Interactive Learning and Tandberg.

The call for proposals just went out - - and I wanted to be sure you were aware of it! Please see the announcement below.

_ _ _

You’re Invited to highlight your community, your students, and your school by participating in a free contest opportunity utilizing videoconferencing technology.

Kids Creating Community Content (KC3) provides students with real world experience working on a project team while building research and presentation skills that support 21st Century Learning as they use a variety of technologies.

If you have access to videoconferencing and want to engage your students in a technology rich research project that connects them with students around the globe we encourage you to explore the Kids Creating Community Content opportunity.

Now in it’s fourth year, KC3 connects middle and high school students in the United States and International schools as they work on similar projects. Community landmarks, cultural activities and regional historical sites or resources are some of the many integrated curricular programs created by student teams. Your students will have the opportunity to share their program at a national or international level. Research, organization, standards based learning, communication and presentation are all part of their work.

Encourage your educators to involve their teens in using technology to communicate and share meaningful information with their peers and fellow students. Use digital media and technology environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

We look forward to seeing your students on air! Proposals are due on November 15, 2010.

Don't want to create this year, but still want to get in on the action? Pre-register to be an audience site!

Photo credit: gStatic.com

Great Videoconference Opportunity with Literary Legend Lois Lowery

2010-09-20T10:58:00.005-04:00

As a children's literacy specialist (yes -- that is my graduate training!), I have a particular affinity for fabulous writing aimed toward children and teens. Quite often, those books resonate with adults as well. My colleagues at HEC-TV in St. Louis have put together a wonderful series of programs with one of my favorite children's literature authors: Lois Lowry.

Author of The Giver, Ms. Lowry has penned more than 20 novels and won the Newbery Medal twice. Lois Lowry told Contemporary Authors that she measures her success as an author by her ability to "help adolescents answer their own questions about life, identity and human relationships."

The series kicks off on October 7th, with the event 'airing' from 11:00 AM ET to 12:00 PM ET. Hope you and your students can take part in this fantastic event!

Here's the 411 from HEC-TV:

In this first of a series of four HEC-TV Live! programs focusing on Lois Lowry’s Newberry Medal winning young adult novel, “The Giver,” students will have the unique opportunity to hear directly from the author herself. Join students from the St. Louis metropolitan area as they ask the author questions about her background and writing style as well as questions about the plot, characters, setting, themes and language of the novel itself. Discussion of “The Giver” will form the core of the program. We recommend students joining us for the program either have already read the novel or be in the process of doing so. Elements of the story including important moments of the plot as well as themes and concepts will be revealed during the program. If you don’t want students to know the entire story before reading it for themselves, you may choose to watch the archive of the program which will be available on our website, http://www.hectv.org.

This series of programs is being produced in conjunction with Washington University in St. Louis and Metro Theater Company of St. Louis as they prepare and present a stage adaptation of the novel to be presented at Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University in January.

Other programs in the series include:

November 16—Issues and Themes of “The Giver”
December 9—Performing the Play: Bringing Characters to Life
January 5—Producing the Play: Bringing the Story to the Stage

These programs will also be available for enrollment through CILC.

Special Note: This October 7 program is available via videoconference and webcast nationwide as a “View Only” opportunity. Students viewing via videoconference or webcast will be able to e-mail questions to the author during the program but will not interact face to face. All other programs in the series will be available as BOTH interactive and view only.

Photo Credit: Image from GrAde Saver

Participate in ISTE 2010 from MAGPI's Remote Site!

2010-05-25T14:58:00.002-04:00

Can't travel to the ISTE Conference (formerly NECC Conference) in Denver this summer? Are you a MAGPI member? You can still catch a session with Alan November and a google workshop with Howie DiBlasi by participating at the MAGPI ISTE remote site on June 29th!

We're sponsoring 20 teachers/tech facilitators virtual attendance at the conference on June 29th from our studio at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Participants will hear the conference keynote speaker, participate in an interactive workshop, virtually tour the conference areas via video, and participate in two concurrent conference sessions. Winners MUST provide their own laptop and take care of their own travel costs. We will be providing breakfast and lunch - - and you'll have ample time to pick the brains of MAGPI staffers about using technology in your classroom!

Here's what we're planning for the day:

9:00 AM	Welcome and Introductions
9:15 AM	Interactive Technology Demos with MAGPI Staff Interested in videoconferencing? What about virtual reality? Virtual worlds? We'll be setting up mini hands-on educational technology stations so you can experiment with and discuss with MAGPI staff members.
10:30 AM	ISTE Conference Keynote Presentation
11:45 AM	Lunch
12:30 PM	Hands-on Workshop: Google Guide: 29 Secrets for Using Google in the Classroom Tap into the full potential of Google with some insider tips and tricks for classroom, administrative, and personal use. This fast-paced session offers something for all participants. This interactive workshop will be led by Howie DiBlasi.
3:30 PM	Break
4:00 PM	Concurrent Session: Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors We'll discuss six highly motivating learning jobs: tutorial designers, official scribes, researchers, global communicators, learning documentary producers, and solvers of real problems. This session will be led by Alan November.
5:00 PM	Wrap-Up!

Want to attend MAGPI's ISTE Remote Site? Here's how you can nab one of our twenty available spots (there are three different ways -- try all three or pick the one that suits you best!):

Enter the 21st Century Educator Video Contest. Create a 60 second video (flip video, iMovie, iChat vide, you name it!) that addresses the following question: WHO is the 21st Century Educator? Full contest details available at http://www.magpi.net/News/MAGPIs-21st-Century-Educator-Video-Contest-Win-trip-attend-ISTE-2010-our-Remote-Site. Deadline to enter is June 1, 2010!

Enter our Contest Raffle: Just complete the scholarship raffle form. We'll randomly select and notify winners on June 7th!
Be entered in our Twitter Raffle! Just friend @magpik20 and tweet about our 21st Century Educator Contest and/or why you want to attend our ISTE remote site! Remember to use the #magpi hashtag! You'll automatically be entered into the raffle once for friending us, and then as many times as you tweet about us between now and June 6th! We'll notify winners on June 7th!

Have any more questions? Please contact Heather Weisse Walsh at hweisse@magpi.net or 215-573-6417.

Join us for THE ROAD TO ACTIVISM: MEXICO

2010-04-07T17:13:00.002-04:00

Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Target Audience: College and University Students, Students in Grades 9-12

Cost: FREE

More Information/Registration: http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Road-Activism-Mexico

Requirements for Participation:

Interactive Videoconference Sites (advanced registration required): here are 10 spaces available for MAGPI Members and 5 spaces available for non-MAGPI members that have H.323 capabilities and are connected to their national/state research and education network
Non-Videoconference sites: View the LIVE webstream at http://beansidhe.isc-net.upenn.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/mexico.rm. Please note this link will not be available until 10 minutes before the broadcast. Please visit the program webpage for technical requirements and testing information.

Over the past seven years, the road to activism in Mexico offered opportunities for Aldo Magazzeni to create relationships with the community at the Tashirat Orphanage and Ixaya School in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico. The road to Tashirat was guided by his friend, Esther Bissinger, who has been there for almost ten years. Aldo knew her as a child and now, at the age of 30, she is the principal of the school, house mother to four Mexican orphans, and a leader of new programs to help the special needs children. Aldo's work has included helping the school lunch program as well as designing and planning a water catchments system and showers for the school students. Along the road, the need to help the most vulnerable children - - those with special needs - -became a priority. Today, Traveling Mercies has coordinated a relationship with special education professionals in New Jersey to assist the school to develop a Special Education Program and curriculum. The Mexican populations in this country are displaced, unable to travel back home and offer help. So Traveling Mercies has tried to honor this need.

Travel this road with Aldo into Morelos, Mexico through the images, stories and video he has captured. See how you can discover your intentions and apply them somewhere in life to help others. Everyone has the ability to travel the road to activism and make this world a better, more equal human experience.

Want to be an interactive videoconference site? Visit http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Road-Activism-Mexico to register. Registration closes on Tuesday, April 13, 2010.

Image from www.tashirat.com

Cross Post from Students Helping Haiti Blog

2010-02-10T22:04:00.004-05:00

The "Students Helping Haiti" Blog is now posted at http://studentshelpinghaiti.blogspot.com and we're looking for student journalists to contribute! This is a cross-post from that blog about the February 19th event and what you can expect!

Join the International Webcast Event on February 19th!

On Friday, February 19, 2010, students and educators everywhere will participate in a ground-breaking three-hour virtual event called “The Crisis in Haiti: What Can YOU Do to Help?” This unique live program features presentation from students around the world via high-speed videoconference, along with scientists and agency representatives from federal and non-profit organizations worldwide all focused on what can still be done to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

“The Crisis in Haiti: What Can YOU Do to Help?” project is made available through MAGPI with support from The World Food Program, National Youth Leadership Council, Oxfam America, Philadelphia Global Water Initiative, Global Nomads, The Exploratorium Science Center, Multicultural Youth Exchange, Florida International University, CIARA, University of Porto, the University of Pennsylvania, and Tandberg.

The live student presentations range in format from musical presentations including first grade students in Ponder, Texas singing “Put A Little Love in Your Heart” to student-created digital projects such as the “Sending Love from Taiwan” video created by high school students at National Dali High School in Dali City, Taiwan. Additional student presentations will be given by primary and secondary schools from all corners of the world.

In addition to the student presentations, the schedule includes presentations from agency representatives and researchers from global and local organizations including: The Word Food Program on their response to the crisis in Haiti; scientists from the Exploratorium Science Center in San Francisco, California who will be explaining “The Big Picture” on the geology of Haiti that contributed to the catastrophic event; Oxfam representatives on their efforts to rebuild; representatives from Global Nomads will be announcing their new $500,000 challenge grant for students to help rebuild schools in Haiti; a local scientist from the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative on the water and sanitation challenges; a presentation on Political, Social and Infrastructure Issues in Haiti by Florida International University; and The Center for High-Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania offering smart philanthropic ways to help Haiti’s earthquake victims.

The Feb. 19th “The Crisis in Haiti: What Can YOU Do to Help?” will be viewable by the public at large through a live webstream available on the event webpage at http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Crisis-Haiti-What-Can-YOU-Do-Help. Schools and library organizations are also encouraged to broadcast the live webstream in public areas within their communities to further stimulate awareness. Schools and individuals are also invited to communicate via social networking platforms, facilitating interaction between students worldwide in a global youth response to this crisis.

You can also view and download the entire presentation line-up through Google Docs.

We're looking forward to having you and your students join us!

International Webcast and Call for Student Bloggers/Tweeters!

2010-02-05T23:19:00.003-05:00

THE CRISIS IN HAITI: What can YOU do to help?
Students around the world respond

Date: Friday, February 19, 2010

Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST (Webstream will be active 10 minutes prior to start of the program)

Audience: K12 Students, University and College Students, Non-Profit and Cultural Institutions

More Information/Links of Interest/Program Line-Up: http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Crisis-Haiti-What-Can-YOU-Do-Help

Webstream URL: http://beansidhe.isc-net.upenn.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/haiti.rm

How to Connect to the Webstream: To view the webstream, you must have Real Player installed on your computer (version 8 or higher). Please see technical requirements and testing information on the program webpage. For technical support, please contact video@isc.upenn.edu.

The earthquake in Haiti shattered lives, devastating a country - - and the world responded. Most importantly, youth responded in innovative and amazing ways. Join schools around the world for this groundbreaking international videoconference and webcast to hear what youth are doing to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. You'll also hear from aid organizations who are continually responding to the tragedy and experts that will help students understand the unique circumstances contributing to the tragedy. For the complete program presentation line-up, please visit: http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Crisis-Haiti-What-Can-YOU-Do-Help.

Join us for this ground breaking event and GET INVOLVED. We encourage you to stream the program in your school, collect change and donations, and donate to one of the aid organizations participating in the program. Or simply just tune in and be inspired by what others are doing - - and then create your own project. If you're already involved in a project, let us know through Twitter®, send us a link to your blog entry or add your photos to our online album. We're looking forward to having you and your students get involved!

One person can make an impact. Imagine what we all can do together.

Be a Live Blogger or Tweeter!
Help us get the word out and tell us what you’re doing to help Haiti via Twitter®. All you need is a Twitter® account and a computer with an internet connection! You can get an account at www.twitter.com. Sign on to your account during the webcast, follow magpik20, and tweet what you’re going to do to help - - just make sure you end your tweet with #kidshelphaiti. We will randomly select tweeters to receive some fantastic giveaways from our sponsors. The more you tweet, the better your chances are of being selected for a giveaway!

If your school has a blog, we would love for your students to be live bloggers during the event. Simply send an email to hweisse@magpi.net to let us know you're interested in live blogging. We'll post a link to your blog on this site and post brief bio information about all our featured bloggers! (You'll also get mentions and links on Twitter as the event is in progress!). Every live blog entry entitles you to a chance to win a giveaway, too.

Add your photos to our online album!
We’ve created an album on Google’s Picasa called “Kids Help Haiti.” You can view the album at http://picasaweb.google.com/magpik20/KidsHelpHaiti#. If you have photos to contribute (and we’d love to have them!), please email hweisse@magpi.net and asked to be added as an album contributor. You’ll then be able to email your photos to the online, public album. Won’t it be cool to see all of the images emerge on the album map and see what students everywhere are doing to help?

International Math Game Challenge

2010-01-30T08:55:00.004-05:00

Registration is now open - - and filling quickly! - - for MAGPI's spring International Math Game Challenge videoconference. We are running three sessions (one for students in grades K-2, one for students in grades 3-5 and one for students in grades 6-8) on March 4th to celebrate International Math Day. If there is high demand, we will add additional sessions!

Here's the project description:

Learn about math and other cultures by taking on MAGPI’s Math Game Challenge! Have your students take on the role of educator and have them teach their peers about a math game from another country. Each participating school will be tasked with demonstrating a math game or numerical challenge from another country to other schools on the videoconference. Students will be charged with putting together a handout that explains the game, along with a materials list, that can emailed to other participating schools ahead of time. Each school will have 10 minutes to present their game/challenge and lead their peers in the game. You’re welcome to present more than one game during the program - - especially if they are ‘quick’ group games. Once you register your school for the project, you will need to email Heather Weisse Walsh with the game(s) your school wants to present as part of the challenge. This way, we can ensure that the same game is not presented multiple times in the same age category. Your game selections are due on 10 days before the event. Your handouts are due 5 days before the event.

U in the News from Dallastown School District recently published a great article about Dallastown Middle School's participation in the Fall International Math Challenge. Congrats to the Tropical Team and main presenter, Danny Godstrey, for a wonderful presentation on Yut! You can view the article on the U in the News Site, and you can view Danny's handounts on the International Math Challenge - Grades 6-8 webpage!

Image of Danny Godstrey and the Tropical Team from Dallastown School District, courtesy of U in the News.

Call for Presentations - The Crisis in Haiti: What Can YOU Do to Help?

2010-01-15T14:51:00.006-05:00

Students from around the world respond.

On Friday, February 19th from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST, MAGPI is sponsoring an international videoconference and webcast to help raise awareness and financial support for victims of the Haiti earthquake. We’re working to line up some phenomenal speakers, representatives from aid agencies, and student presentations/performances as part of this international event. We want you and your students to get involved! Here’s how you can participate:

BE A PRESENTER: Is your K12 school, university or college planning a project to raise awareness or funds to help earthquake victims? We would love to give your students 5-10 minutes to share their project. Has a student created an artistic work (song, painting, mural, etc) to help raise awareness? We’d love to have him/her perform! If you are interested in performing or presenting, please send a 100 word abstract detailing your proposed presentation/performance to Heather Weisse Walsh at hweisse@magpi.net. Deadline for proposals is January 30, 2010. Presenters can perform/present live via videoconference or submit videos prior to the event. Please indicate your preference on your presentation/performance proposal. Interactive videoconference sites must have H.323 videoconference gear and, preferably, are connected to their national research and education network.

SHOW THE WEBSTREAM IN YOUR SCHOOL. If you’re not a presenting/performing school, don’t worry! Participate by tuning in LIVE to the webstream. We’ll be posting webstream instructions at the beginning of February on the MAGPI website: http://www.magpi.net. During the webcast, collect change and donations at your school and donate to one of the aid organizations participating in the program. Or simply just tune in and be inspired by what others are doing - - and then create your own project.

LIVE BLOGGERS/TWEETERS: We’re looking for schools to volunteer as live bloggers and tweeters for this event, covering the presentations and helping get word out to the world at large. Interested? Contact Heather Weisse Walsh at hweisse@magpi.net.

We want your organization to get involved too - - the World Food Programme has already agreed to participate! If your organization is interested in speaking/presenting/participating, please email Heather at hweisse@magpi.net.

Image courtesy of the World Food Programme.

Brand New Youth News Collaborative Project!

2009-12-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

And we're looking for some high schools/middle schools to take the lead!

This spring, MAGPI will be launching a brand-new project called "Youth News Collaborative." We'll be looking for schools all across our network to join the project and submit 2-3 minute news segments for a magazine-style news show produced entirely by students. We'll be using videoconferencing to plan and coordinate each program - - and will be webcasting live (and archiving via podcast) so that everyone can see.

We are looking for four high schools/middle schools to take the lead and produce/host one program this spring. By taking the lead, a school agrees to:

Determine a 'theme' for the program and submit that theme to Heather for posting by January 15, 2010
Run a pre-production meeting videoconference with students at schools submitting content for the new program two weeks before the live event (pre-production meetings will be held two Fridays before the live event, from 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Write the script for the 25 minute program that includes videos submitted by 5 other schools
Participate in a live rehearsal with the MAGPI Tech Team two days befor the live broadcast (time to be agreed on by the school and the MAGPI Tech Team)
"Go Live!" and be the on camera talent for one program (held the last Friday of the month from 12:00 PM - 12:25 PM)

Below, please find the production timeline. If your school would like to take the lead on one of these webcasts, please contact Heather Weisse Walsh at hweisse@magpi.net ASAP. Lead roles are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

FEBRUARY 2010
Live Webcast: 2/26/2010 @ 12:00 PM EST
Pre-Production Meeting VC: 2/12/2010 @ 11:30 AM EST
MARCH 2010
Live Webcast: 3/26/2010 @ 12:00 PM EST
Pre-Production Meeting VC: 2/12/2010 @ 11:30 AM EST
APRIL 2010
Live Webcast: 4/23/2010 @ 12:00 PM EST
Pre-Production Meeting VC: 4/9/2010 @ 11:30 AM EST
MAY 2010
Live Webcast: 5/28/2010 @ 12:00 PM EST
Pre-Production Meeting VC: 5/14/2010 @ 11:30 AM EST

Not interested in taking the lead but want your student journalists to submit content? GREAT! We'll be opening registration for each session January after our lead schools have determined the theme for their production. We will be accepting videos submitted by middle and high school students for this project. And if you don't think you can contribute to the project this spring, start planning to show the webcasts during your school's lunchtime!

At this time, this program is only open to MAGPI member schools.

Thanks for your consideration! We're looking forward to this collaboration!

Virtual Visits to the North Pole

2009-12-15T11:00:00.007-05:00

Here are some photos (far end - - so I'm taking images of a screen!) from some of our Virtual Cookies with Santa videoconference programs yesterday. It was so nice to be able to 'visit' the North Pole and so many schools without having to travel! Students got to share their cookie creations with Santa, hear Twas the Night Before Christmas and ask questions. The students at the Kentucky School for the Deaf showed us all how to sign Merry Christmas and we learned the Santa likes to vacation in the southern hemisphere... He also eats sugar cookies for breakfast (although MAGPI does not recommend nor endorse a steady diet of sugar cookie breakfasts). Personally, I was VERY impressed with how many good deeds all of the students were doing, and I know Santa was, too.

We'll be scheduling a week of virtual visits to the North Pole next year for MAGPI members ... so start planning now! :0) View the videoconference agenda and projects at http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/Cookies-Santa.

Give yourself permission to write bad lines or scenes...

2009-11-12T13:33:00.012-05:00

When talking about how to overcome writer's block, playwright Edgar J. Shockley advised 5 classes of high school students to "give yourself permission to write bad lines or scenes ..." He added that when you give yourself permission to do this, you'll never have writer's block.

Rewind five hours earlier: I was working with our fellows during a virtual training session to help them design collaborative projects. As a group, we came up with a great list of best practices for designing videoconference collaborations - - but I wish I had been able to quote Ed when chatting with our fellows.

We are all still learning how to integrate videoconference project-based collaboration into our classrooms. Collectively, we are generating a framework of advice; but every project is different. Although we may not have an exact blueprint for how to put every project together, we can't stop innovating. We need to give ourselves permission to write bad lines or scenes. And then, of course, learn from them.

To me, it's all about iterative design (and if you've participated in one of my training sessions, you might be tired of hearing me say this!). We have to start with the learning objectives, decide what evidences understanding, and then design the learning experiences. But it doesn't end there! During the entire planning and implementation process, we must look critically at what worked well and what didn't work well. And about taking risks.

Ironically, looking back at the 3 hour training session I facilitated about developing collaborative projects and the 75-minute session I coordinated on playwriting (all within the same afternoon!), I've discovered striking synergies between advice given during each session.

For example, Ed told students that "writing something with a moral is rarely successful; but when we see truth on stage, the truth speaks to us. Great art makes the personal universal and the universal personal." Translation to project development? Don't have "this is the right way to do the project" tunnel vision when planning. Allow space for iteration, organic development and retrospection while designing. When you give yourself space to reflect, the project may be more sucessful.

Another theme that emerged during the playwriting session is the idea that in order to be a good playwright, one has to experience (not necessary excel!) all of the different jobs that go into producing a play (i.e. costuming, directing, set design, etc.). Same goes for developing a collaborative project. Educators and students should experience putting together all of the technological pieces that go into a project; technical support and students should assist with the curriculum design; and educators and tech specialist should assume the roles of students at some point. It gives everyone an appreciation of the talents and expertise that goes into designing and partaking in a project - - not that we all need to be experts at each piece!

And lastly, the playwrights joked that one of the best things about being a playwright is that you get to sleep in late and your day doesn't really start until 4:00 p.m. Conversely, by 4:00 p.m., my work day is almost done. :0)

Kaleidoscope Songs and Breaking In the NEW MCU!

2009-11-06T11:24:00.007-05:00

Today we had two Kaleidoscope Songs VC sessions (one for grades K-2 and one for grades 3-5) with Alex Mitnick. Alex joins us in our studio every few months to make music with lots of students across PA, NJ, DE and KY! You can learn about Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band on their website.

We had seven elementary schools join our K-2 session, and due to some last-minute issues, only one school in our grades 3-5 session. The lucky students at Hopewell Elementary got some one-on-one time with our guest!

Although we used the Internet2 Commons for the K-2 session, we tried out our BRAND NEW Codian HD MCU for the Grades 3-5 session. It worked great! We're still working out some logistics concerning the MCU, but will be migrating all of our programs to that piece of equipment over the next few months. Look for information about how to book your own program/event/videoconference through our new MCU service VERY SOON. The service will be available to both MAGPI members and non-MAGPI members.

The grade 3-5 event ended with students from Hopewell Elementary and Alex singing "Together." You can listen to Alex sing the song through this mp3 and follow along with the lyrics:

Being together
And being myself
I feel my happiness
Go round about

When I see all my friends
Being happy and free
I know that together
We all love to be

Together, together
Learning today
Together, together,
Freedom is our goal
Together, together
Finding the way
Together, together
Together today.

Each is a light
Each is a spark
Each single life
A star in the dark

Everyoneʼs faces
Together is us
All of our differences
Gives us a plus

Alex is coming back in December and we still have some spots available. If you're interested, please go to the www.magpi.net, find the program under "programs and events" and register!

Behind the Scenes at The Haunted Poe Videoconference

2009-11-05T17:14:00.014-05:00

Today's Haunted Poe videoconference, a collaboration between MAGPI, Brat Productions and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, was a huge success! 12 schools joined us for the program from across Pennsylvania. Here's a brief glimpse 'behind the scenes':

It's the Philly Poe Guy! Edward Pettit shared historical information about Poe, his life and literary works - - specifically related to his time in Philadelphia. Check out Ed's "Ed and Edgar" blog.

Actor Dallas Drummond does a dramatic reading of the Tell Tale Heart.

Here is the dual screen display that Dallas was looking at while performing. He was able to view all 12 schools simultaneously.

Designer Alisa Sickora Kleckner shows off the puppets she created for the show, assisted by Michael Alltop, artistic producer for Brat Productions.

Alyssa shows off the prosthetic toothless mouth, worn by actress Jess Conda during the performance.

Jess shows the audience how the mouth was adhered to her face during make-up.

Michael explains the concept of Haunted Poe and how the production came to be.

Jess demonstrates how to 'move like a ghost' when explaining her scenes in the show.

At the end of the videoconference, the whole crew pulled up chairs to answer questions from our 12 connected schools.

We'll have the podcast of the event up on our iTunes site soon! In the meantime, check out a brief clip of Brat Production's Haunted Poe Production...

Many thanks to all! A great time in the studio and learning experience for the schools.

Innovation Workshop and the Time Sync Question

2009-10-18T21:04:00.012-04:00

This past Friday, the MAGPI team organized our first-ever Innovation Workshop at Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit. Approximately 36 educators and technologists took part in this program, which lasted from 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. - - - seven and a half hours of technology integration!

Even though I was facilitating all of my workshop sessions remotely, it was great to get to know the educators and technology specialists who attended. Here's a brief snapshot of some of the things we accomplished that day:

MAGPI's Executive Director, Greg Palmer, was onsite and gave a 30 minute overview of Internet2, the K20 Initiative and MAGPI.
I conferenced in from my Baltimore-area office and talked about the various applications that educators can take advantage of over Internet2, including: interactive video, digital library and media sources, simulations, educational games, remote instrumentation, and more. Take a look at the innovation workshop link list to learn more about these specific applications.
We broke the group into teams of four and each team got to spend 15 minutes in each of the following demonstrations: experimenting with the virtual reality development lab equipment, exploring NOAA's island in Second Life, placing/receiving calls on videoconferencing gear, and an online tour of the K12 Community on MAGPI's new website.
After lunch, the educators spent two hours with me taking an indepth look at videoconferencing in the classroom. We took a virtual field trip to Gemini Observatories in Mauna Kea, HI, and talked about best practices for using videoconferencing in the classroom. During our second hour, we talked about how to plan collaborative projects that use interactive video and brainstormed project ideas. Meanwhile, the technology specialists were spending time with UPenn staff members learning about IPv6, unified communications, troubleshooting H.323 and multicast applications.
We ended the day with a virtual panel discussion featuring educators who had successfully created collaborative projects. We were joined by Marilyn Puchalski who discussed the We Want the World to Know project, and Allison Carpenter who talked about the Murder Mystery Project and States of Matter project.

One of the most exciting things that came from this workshop was the formulation of a potential collaborative project idea for schools along the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The project would involve schools located in the watershed areas and along the bay to collaborate through data collection and videoconferencing, so students in one area can see how the actions of their community affect other communities located 'downstream.' I was also thrilled to hear about a new service-learning course offered in Souther Lehigh School District that will be able to take advantage of the technologies we discussed to enrich students' inquiry and project-based learning.

Since I was facilitating all of my workshop segments remotely (and there was a bit of a predicament with the camera set-up in the room - - they were mounted in the back of the room and I was looking at the back of people's heads most of the day), it was tough to gauge participants' reactions to the event. Admittedly, it was a lot of information to digest. Our hope for the workshop was to expose participants to the different applications (specialized uses of the network :0)) available to them and inspire/excite them to want to take on a project. Hopefully, we accomplished that without overwhelming. If you attended, we would love to hear your feedback.

At the end of the day, one technology integrator asked me "What would you say to a teacher who said they just didn't have time to try and integrate this technology?" If I'm honest, I'd have to say I don't have a really good answer to that question. As much as we say that integrating technology enhances (and in many cases, can supplement or even substitute for existing learning activities in the classroom), it by no means makes the educator's life easier the first time out. If they are new to the technology, the educator has to learn how it works. After that, they need to think critically about how it makes sense to use the technology to help accomplish their content objectives. It's definitely a time sync when you're learning it. Even if you are an educator lucky enough to have a fantastic technology support network, you're going to need to put some time in. Not to mention that there are so many interactive technologies to choose from; it can certainly be overwhelming to learn about them and become the 'networked teacher.'

But the initial time investment pays off - - exponentially. Not only are your students more engaged in technology-rich learning environments, but you have increased opportunity for authentic, inquiry and project-based learning. Interactive technologies flatten classroom walls and allow you to tap into additional knowledge networks, bring leading experts into your classroom and virtually excpose your students to places and things they might have never seen. So no, I don't have a good answer to the time question except to say the more you use technology in the classroom, the less time it will take to plan for using it.

Adding to the time crunch issue? We really can't start with the technology when planning classroom activities. We have to use backwards design and start with the learning objectives: what is it that I want my students to walk away with? Then think about how we will know students have achieved those objectives... and THEN think about the learning experiences and how technology can mediate those experiences. Again, not really a time-saving strategy - - but one that will make sure our integration efforts are effective and meaningful.

So, interactive technologies in the classroom have leveled geographic barriers. But we're still figuring out time zones... and time syncs...

Networked Teacher Image from: langwitches.org blog

Reflections on the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit 2009

2009-10-05T22:42:00.004-04:00

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit 2009. Spending the day with such creative innovators and entrepreneurs was such a treat. Energy pulsed through the conference and it was impossible not to drink the kool aid or take the red pill (as one panelist suggested).

According to the website, the Summit is "a two-day conference which promises to embrace the same values it champions: innovation, creativity, collaboration, shared learning, technology and open source thinking." The sessions I attended today focused primarily on alternative workforce development/management, innovation in education, social networking trends and alternative educational models (i.e. internship/mentorship, project-based learning, civic engagement).

Although I'm still synthesizing all that I learned, here are some of my favorite take-aways from the conference (expect longer posts on some of them when I have time to expound!):

Jane McGonigal (evening keynote) suggested that game developers should aspire to win the Nobel Peace Prize in the next 25 years.
The Freemium Business Model (term coined by blogger Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and shared by speaker Paul Wright of Micco World.)
Breaking the Cube Panel Discussion: virtual companies, virtual assistants, co-working and making the office obsolete (Food for thought: how will the future of virtual companies affect how we prepare students for the 'real world?' What implications does the concept of the co-working have on education? What role does interactive video play? How about advanced networks? Check out Shift101 and Conjunctured for more on co-working)
Redefining the internship model... empowering interns in the work place and making them vital parts of teams... is a virtual intern an extern? How do you manage, mentor and supervise virtual interns? Love the cool cities model and had no idea the UPenn participated in InternU. Need to think about how to succesfully integrate interns into educational program development at MAGPI.
Can't wait to try out Google Wave -- sent Google a request but would love to get an invite from someone! :0)
Myrikal - - what a fabulous story and talented young woman. How can we foster and nurture such creative individuals in an urban public school environment? And how can we build on her story and inspire others? Young Virtual Artist in Residence Program via interactive video? (Any suggestions about funding?)
Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) suggested that everyone explore their curiousity - - which is a much more friendlier term than passion - - and that will lead to innovative entrepreneurship.
Still not sure what this crowd sourcing thing is all about - - and a little bummed I missed that session.
Co-creation and creative participation seem to be key ideas to all kinds of creative initiatives. People like to contribute. (thanks for the tweet @spragueKS)
Pennsylvania is last of the states in terms of new entreprenurial ventures with new entreprenuers according to latest data from the Kauffman Foundation... Ouch...
Work is changing: focus, collaboration, learning and socializing -- virtual and coworking situations need to support all. Again, how does this affect career preparedness and what IS the role of technology in education?
Where does global education, preparing 21st century students, global networks and how to build global student-based creative economies play into all of the above? Thinking about Thomas Friedman's "flat" concept... how does it translate?
Definitely need to rekindle MAGPI's relationship with Innovation Philadelphia... How do/can advanced networks and educational technology applications affect creative economic development?

Just a little food for thought and some of the things that are going to be on my mind for a while... For other thoughts on the summit, search #gcecs2009 on Twitter.

Are your students ready to STAND UP, SPEAK OUT and LEND A HAND against extremism and hunger?

2009-10-02T16:22:00.006-04:00

Each year, MAGPI partners with several outstanding non-profit organizations to design interactive educational programming. One of my all-time favorite organizations to work with is The Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, and I am very pleased to announce our annual collaborative program: The STAND UP. SPEAK OUT. LEND A HAND! Project.

In the winter of 1945, on the day of her liberation from six years of Nazi rule, Gerda Weissmann clung to life at the end of a 350-mile death march. She weighed 68 pounds, her hair had turned white, and she had not had a bath in three years. She survived with courage, grace and dignity

Gerda Weissmann Klein, renowned motivational speaker and Holocaust survivor, teaches each one of us about tolerance, understanding and making a difference. Gerda Klein’s spirit helped her survive six years under Nazi rule; through her story, and her unique perspective, she continues to help each one of us to understand the dangers of hate and extremism.

Students involved in STAND UP. SPEAK OUT. LEND A HAND will hear from Gerda during a special interactive videoconference event and then embark upon their own service learning projects. Each participating school will be tasked with designing and implementing a service learning project that combats social issues in their community.

In order to maintain an on-going dialogue over the course of the project, each class will create a wiki page and posting bi-weekly updates on their projects. Once a month, schools will be assigned a partner class who will review and comment on their wiki page (and vice versa). Students will then reconvene via videoconference to share their service learning projects with the Klein Foundation during a celebratory "Project Collaboration Videoconference" in March. We will break schools into smaller groups for project sharing to encourage dialogue among students!

Here are the project dates - - mark them on your calendar:

You are the Messengers to a Time I Will Not See:
A Conversation with Gerda Weissmann Klein Videoconference
December 10, 2009 * 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Supporting Your Students in their Service Learning Projects
Teacher Workshop Videoconference
January 21, 2010 * 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET
Student Service Learning Projects
December – March
Service Project Celebration
Student Sharing Videoconference Event
March 24, 2010 * 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Students/Classes will be assigned to a 50 minute interactive period during this time.

It's a three-month service learning challenge. Are your students ready to STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, and LEND A HAND against extremism and hunger?

To register for this program, please visit the program website.

Don't miss out on this year's Digital Flat Stanley Project!

2009-10-01T11:39:00.006-04:00

Just wanted to make you aware that registration for the 2009-2010 Flat Stanley Project is now open (and closes on October 15th!)! We hope that you and your students will participate!

What happens when a normal boy finds himself flattened by a bulletin board and is sent through the mail to places all across the country? Your students can find out during this fun project, based on the 1964 book written by Jeff Brown! Classes across the country will participate in this project and send their Flat Stanleys around the USA to visit different students. Every journey, one school’s Flat Stanley will visit another partner school. Students will take their new flat friend on different adventures near their school and record the adventures on a wiki page. At the end of each journey, partner schools will meet via videoconference for 30 minutes to greet one another, discuss their hometown and experiences with their flat friends. At the end of the project, Flat Stanley will have visited 4 places and - - and so will your students! Last year more than 130 classes participated! Make sure your class doesn't miss out! This project is open to students in grades K-3.

If you participated in the project in the past, there are some changes this year. Due to increase in postage fees and tight budgets, there is NO scrapbook component to this project (so we'll just be mailing Flat Stanleys in envelopes - - no worries about large packages!) Instead of creating physical scrapbook pages, each class will be creating a wiki page for each of their journeys. Of course, you and your collaborating teacher for a journey may choose to send things to your partner class about your location, but this is not required.

We have a new registration system this year as well. In order to register for the Digital Flat Stanley project, you must work with your technology coordinator to get set-up in our new system. Here are the steps:

Have your videoconference/technology coordinator go to http://www.magpi.net, click on “log in” and then either log in using their existing MUSE username/password (if they have one) or click on “create new account.” When an account is created, it may take up to 24 business hours for it to be approved before you can register.
Your videoconference/technology coordinator must then go to their account information (click on their username which is displayed on the upper right hand corner of the website when he or she is logged in) and then click on the “sites” tab. Your technology coordinator must create a site for every building that wants to participate in this project. This will keep your technical information on file with MAGPI and teachers don’t need to worry about knowing IP addresses!
After your videoconference/technology coordinator has created your sites, YOU need to create an account for yourself (so we have your class information on file!). Go to http://www.magpi.net, click on “log in” and then log in using your existing MUSE username/password (if you have one) or click on “create new account.” When an account is created, it may take up to 24 business hours for it to be approved before you can register.
Before you can register for a program, you must link your account with the appropriate site in our database. To do that, go to your account information (click on your username which is displayed on the upper right hand corner of the website when you are logged in) and then click on the “sites” tab. Click on “other sites,” scroll to find your site and then click “join.” Congrats! You’re now linked to a site!
After your account is approved, you’ll see dates, times and “register now” links on all MAGPI program pages when you are logged into the website. Go to the Digital Flat Stanley project webpage, click “Register Now,” accept the terms and YOU’RE REGISTERED!

I realize that registering for a project the first time using our new system is a bit of a process; however, any time you want to register for a future program – all you will need to do is log in and click “register.”

Please note that if you participated last year, your class wiki page from last year’s project has been archived. We will be creating new templates for registered participants next week - - look for information from me after you register for the program. Please don't go in, delete last year's information and update your old page. We'd like to save those as an archival history of the project!

Thanks! Looking forward to working with all of you on this project and to another fabulous school year!

MAGPI launches new website and logo

2009-09-11T09:52:00.002-04:00

Starting a new school year is always an exciting time and that's especially true for all of us at MAGPI this year. We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new logo and redesign of all our print and electronic communications to better serve you - our MAGPI Member Communities!

After many months of conducting user feedback surveys and extensive redesign work with an outside firm everything has been redesigned with a focus on what you, our members, wanted most -- easier access to programs, navigation by community type, and a more simplified consistent visual design.

Many of you may have already noticed our new logo last spring, and the new website has been up for a few weeks now but we are thrilled to finally annunce the final piece in our overhaul which is the new customized MAGPI program and events calendar and registration system. Through the new system, you will be able to search and register for programs without having to go to an external site as you did in the past and searching for program events should be much easier overall.

Our new MAGPI logo represents the connections of networks - both technical and people - that we serve. We feel it is strong and fresh and conveys a sense of the future while retaining a focus on the global connections that are so important to us. We hope you like it as much as we do!

The newly re-branded, re-designed website has been created to overall help you navigate quickly to whatever you are looking for. It has been redesigned to be customized for each of the various communities we support. You'll notice that you can navigate the site by first choosing a community on the left hand side of the homepage. Once you've entered a particular community you will see an About tab that gives you an overview of that community including examples of how it uses advanced networking, then you can browse Programs, Applications, Resources, Initiatives and Funding that are tabbed and sorted for that particular community. The new homepage allows you to quickly see featured programs, current news and our program and events calendar.

We are particularly excited about the new MAGPI calendar and registration system which has been custom designed for us to allow for exactly the functionality needed for our programs. The new Programs page now allows you to view upcoming programs in either calendar view or the program list view. And, you no longer have to leave the MAGPI website to register for any of our programs as it is all built into our new custom calendar and regisiration system. You must first login to be able to register for any program though so be sure to do that as soon as you start browsing the site. Finally, you can jump right to Muse through the new MAGPI site either by the Program menu or the navigation on the left. As a continuation of our work to date with the Muse Development Team, MAGPI will be further working to integrate our calendar and registration system with Muse to allow for a more seamless integration of the two systems. And, if you are already a member of Muse you do not have to recreate a new login for the MAGPI site, all you need to do is login using your Muse username and password and you're ready to go!

We've come a long way in the last ten years and we couldn't have done it without you. We thought it was time our logo and website reflected that journey together. Everything has been designed with you -- our MAGPI Member Communities -- in mind and we hope it shows.

Please do take a moment to browse around and tell us what you think. Your feedback is invaluable to us and will help us to continue to serve you better. Send any comments, questions, or suggestions to "webmaster@magpi.net".

Here's to another great year!!
The MAGPI Team

Discovery Education announces their 2009-2010 FREE webinars

2009-09-10T10:19:00.003-04:00

Discovery Education announced their free 2009-2010 webinar schedule earlier this week on the Discovery Educator Network blog. While, admittedly, many of these webinars focus on discovery education products, there are some that focus more on integration of technologies into classroom in general. Since MAGPI does not specifically use Discovery Education products (not yet, anyway!), here are some of the seminars I'm looking forward to attending this fall:

Creating Class Communities
September 22, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Educators know that learning is a social endeavor and that technology can connect students to powerful learning experiences. Learn how to leverage online tools to create vibrant classroom communities that sustain student engagement and empower students to learn from each other. (I'm hoping to learn some new ideas for strenghtening communication/collaboration between students in different geographic locations for specific MAGPI projects).
50 Ways to Spin a Digital Story
October 13, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. ET
An in-depth overview of the digital media available in Discovery Education Streaming and 50 different ways to tell digital stories using it. DE Streaming provides your classroom access to thousands of videos, images and audio clips. Learn how to integrate them into cutting edge Web 2.0 sites to make your students' digital stories come alive! (I've always wanted to cook-up a digital storytelling project and have been in conversation with The Library of Congress about a potential project. Hoping to pick up some tips!)
Learning through the Funnies
October 20, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Learn to use free comic creation programs and websites to enhance your lessons and student projects. These great tools can be used to across all grades and easily integrated into all curricular areas. Learn, Laugh, and Lesson Plan. (One of the most popular projects I work on is Cartooning with Blitz. This might provide some inspiration for additional collaborations with Bruce or between participating schools!)

For more information about DEN webinars or to register, visit: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2009/09/08/discovery-education-webinars-2009-2010/

The Student Blogging Challenge

2009-09-09T09:25:00.005-04:00

While easing back into things before I'm back full-time on September 21st, I came across the Student Blogging Challenge announcement in my email from edublogger. I know that a lot of you use edublogger in your classroom, so I thought I'd share the announcement. According to Ms. Wyatt's blog, last year's challenge "had students from 15 countries taking part with either their own blogs or as part of a class blog. In total over 1000 students were writing posts, making conversations through comments and getting to know students and classes around the world." A great way to make some connections!

This year there are two challenges: one for helping students become better bloggers and one for helping students become better commenters.

To register, and for more information, visit Ms. Wyatt's blog. Although the challenge started on September 6th, you can register at any time. If you have your students take part in the challenge, please share your thoughts (especially if you participated last year!). I'm really curious to see how this works, so I've added Ms. Wyatt's blog to my "What I'm Reading." You should, too!

I always like to try and incoporate different web 2.0 technologies into the various programs that MAGPI runs. While reading about Sue Wyatt's annual blog competition, I came across Gail Desler's (@gailhd) blog "5 Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers." Strategies include:

Provide students with examples.
Include reflection and self-evaluation as part of the blogging process.
Teach students how to hyperlink.
Invite students to share their strategies for inviting others into their conversations.
Begin an ongoing conversation about digital citizenship.

Many thanks to Gail for posting these suggestions! I'm curious what other strategies you might add to this list?

Image from the Student Blogging Challenge blog on Sue Wyatt's blog.

National Constitution Center Announces September Student Exchange Program

2009-09-02T22:57:00.002-04:00

The National Constitution Center has extended an invitation to high school students to participate in the 2009 – 2010 season of its national high school student program, The Exchange: A Marketplace of Student Ideas. The first videoconference event will take place on Friday, September 25th 2009 from 1PM to 2:30 PM EDT. This installment of The Exchange, “Should the U.S. reduce immigration?” asks students to consider ways to address immigration reform and to work together to create an immigration policy for the United States. The discussion will be hosted by SuChin Pak from MTV and Discovery Channel’s Planet Green, and moderated by Dr. Michael Hogan, co-director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation and Pennsylvania State University.

Students will have the opportunity to be heard by and hear from other students around the country using Internet2 video conferencing technology. It is an exciting way for students to discuss current constitutional issues with their classmates and peers in other parts of the nation.

Schools that participate in The Exchange will be asked to use a free lesson provided by the National Constitution Center to prepare their students to be part of the conversation.

Space is in the program is limited. If your school is chosen to participate in The Exchange, you will be asked to select one student to be part of the video conference round table. Only one student, your schools’ student representative, is allowed to speak to the nation audience during the videoconference. If a student other than your student representative speaks without prior authorization, then your school will be disconnected from the video conference.

During the videoconference, students will have an opportunity to interact with each other and share their thoughts on current immigration policy. Students will use this deliberation to recommend immigration reform policies the government should follow.

Participating schools must have connectivity to the INTERNET2 network and the ability to do H.323 videoconferencing. While there is no cost to participate in this event, we do ask schools to work to make sure this event is a success. Participating schools will be responsible for the following:

Participation and successful completion of videoconference testing prior to the event with the National Constitution Center
Selection of a student representative
Preparation of students through the use of the provided Exchange lesson plan and resources
Uploading your class’s point of view on the issue of immigration reform at www.constitutioncenter.org/exchange.

If you would like to take advantage of this remarkable opportunity, please contact Jason Allen at either jallen@constitutioncenter.org or 215.409.6644 by Friday September 18th 2009 for registration and information. Mandatory videoconference testing for all sites will be on Monday September 21st from 1 PM to 3 PM EDT. Please confirm that your school has Internet2 connectivity prior to contacting Jason Allen to reserve a testing time.

Maternity Leave, New Website and MAGPI Fall Programs

2009-07-27T09:08:00.006-04:00

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, but I am happy to announce that on June 28, 2009, my husband and I welcomed our first child, Lila Grace, into the world. Therefore, I've been on maternity leave since then and will continue to be through mid-September.

But things are still very busy with MAGPI! We've launched a brand new website (www.magpi.net) and will be launching a brand-new registration system soon. Our fall program descriptions are posted and you can download the fall program listing by clicking on "Program and Events" on the home page and then clicking on "Download Program Catalog" (it's a PDF). Registration will open later this summer. You can read the full program descriptions and see resources for each event on the website by clicking on "programs" under your community; however, dates and times are not posted on the website yet because they are directly linked to the new registration system and that is still under development. Dates and times are published in the PDF version of the program catalog.

We've also selected and announced our 2009 Fellows! The Fellows will be gathering in August for their Summer Institute and I look forward to working with all of them during the coming year. For more information about our Fellowship program, please see: http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/MAGPI-Fellows-Program.

I'll be posting periodically throughout the summer - - but look for more regular posts this fall!

World Ocean's Day Webcast

2009-06-05T15:19:00.005-04:00

On June 8, IGLO, in collaboration with the World Ocean Network (WON), will be celebrating World Oceans Day (WOD) with a live webcast featuring NOAA's Dr. Chris Sabine speaking on Ocean Acidification.

Every year, World Ocean Day brings together more than 250 organizations spanning five continents and reaching more than 150 million visitors in museums and science centers, aquariums, educational charities, institutions and NGOs. Designated by the United Nations and supported by the World Ocean Network and The Ocean Project, World Oceans Day is a celebration designed to raise awareness about the importance of the ocean and the impact of our daily actions on the marine environment. This year's theme is "One Ocean, One Climate, One Future."

Dr. Sabine's presentation on ocean acidification will address one of the most crucial issues linking oceans and climate. View his presentation live at 2:30 p.m. EDT! For more information, visit: www.astc.org/iglo.

The webstream will be live at 2:15 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 8^th. To access the webstream, go to http://codian.oar.net. Put 5147 into the conference ID field, choose your preferred stream rate and click ‘stream this conference.’ That will launch the streaming browser. A chat box will appear as well, which will allow individuals at your institution to ask questions of the speaker.

MAGPI is happy to be partnering with ASTC, NOAA and the Internet2 Commons to bring you this program!

Students, Authors and Videoconferencing: Descriptive Writing with Mary Quattlebaum

2009-05-13T13:28:00.011-04:00

This week, MAGPI has been wrapping up several projects and programs for the 2008-2009 academic year. Several of these programs revolved around students interacting with authors, so I thought I'd reflect on the different models. (I'm also starting to put together our programs and projects for next year - - so catharsis is always good!). Today, I'm looking at the descriptive writing videoconference with author Mary Quattlebaum.

Children's book author Mary Quattlebaum has been working with MAGPI for three years now, and is truly a pleasure to work with! Over the past three years, we've co-developed two program platforms (one based on haiku poetry that we do in the fall and one based on her book Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns) and offered them twice a year. She graciously donates her time and her publishing companies are always kind enough to donate one copy of her book to each participating class.

Yesterday, we held the Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns videoconference program with five 3rd through 5th classes in Pennsylvania. Students read the short chapter book ahead of time and responded to a prompt (written by Mary) that asked them to write a descriptive paragraph:

In "Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns" (pages 106-107), Jackson describes the garden using many of his senses. How does he seem to feel about it?

In preparation for this videoconference event, students should use their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (at least 3 of 5) to write a description of a place special to them. How does being in that place make them feel? Descriptions should be relatively short (about 1 to 3 paragraphs long).

Each school selected one student's work to submit and we posted them on the project website. We then assigned a school to read and reflect on another school's work. The student descriptive pieces are great - - I encourage you to visit the site and take a look! I'm still chuckling about Evan's description of Mickey D's ... and how a bad day at McDonald's is when you get a "prosthetic thumb in your iced coffee." (Bethel Elementary's submission).

During the videoconference, Mary gave a brief presentation on the book making process and then asked each school to read their submission aloud. After skillfully providing thoughtful feedback to the student author (i.e. "I really liked how you used language that...") and asking a few questions of the author about his or her writing process, she invited the school that read the students' piece ahead of time to reflect for the rest of the group. Although students were certainly well prepared, Mary's modeling of the feedback went a tremendous way toward helping students formulate thoughtful critiques and extend their feedback beyond simple statements such as "I really liked your paragraph." Also, Mary's careful attention to detail and kind words provided validation for the student authors -- who bravely read their work in a videoconference environment and answered questions on the spot from a "published author!"

This videoconference event wrapped up with Mary sharing a quick garden craft and answering questions from students at each of the sites. For more about Mary (and for instructions on the sweet potato garden craft she demonstrated), visit her website.

Granted, we've done this program multiple times; however, I really felt like it flowed effortlessly yesterday. Mary was quite the pro 'on-screen' and facilitated interaction between the multiple sites effortlessly. Although any time students get to interact with authors is exciting, I felt this program went particularly well because Mary quickly adapted to the students' needs and continually involved them throughout the 75 minute exchange (a long time to engage elementary school students).

A few notes:

Agenda setting was key in making this program work! As students became more aware of the process for sharing and responding to one another's work, they became more at ease with one another, the technology and Mary herself.
Planning time was time well spent. These types of author exchanges take more time to set-up: more of my time in terms of coordinating information between the schools; the author's time in terms of reading student work ahead of time and working with me to formulate a more interactive agenda; and the teacher's time in terms of integrating the descriptive writing activity into their classroom and creating time for students to read/respond to another student's work. I would argue, however, that this particular videoconference was more meaningful to students (and me, the author and the teachers!) because of the time invested up front.
Time keeping is critical. In a 75 minute videoconference, mixing up instructional strategies is key to keeping students engaged. Equally important is watching the clock -- we ran out of time at the end yesterday and the MCU kicked all of the participants off!
Working with individuals who are truly interested and invested in the educational process is WONDERFUL! Mary is such a pro! I can't thank her enough for all of the time she invested into making sure this was a wonderful experience that nurtured burgeoning student writers! While some authors may have perceived this as merely a marketing tool (which, if we're honest, it certainly is), Mary spent time encouraging every student who participated in yesterday's program by providing thoughtful and constructive feedback. This wasn't something that could be done 'on the fly' and required thoughtful preparation.

Although we did get disconnected at the end of the event, Mary was kind enough to write an email to all of the participating teachers that I thought I'd share with you:

Hello Everyone,

I so enjoyed yesterday's video conference. All your students were so well prepared and had much to offer. It was a pleasure to hear and see them on the screen. And many thanks to Heather, who always does a wonderful job of coordinating the series.

I'm sorry, too, that we ran out of time and wanted to make sure I got back to Dunmore with the answer to the final question, which I think was something like this: Did any animals or pets inspire your books?

Answer: Yes! Animals seem to inspire many writers. Do you like to write about your pets? Let's see, for me there's a performing hamster in "Jazz, Pizzazz, and the Silver Threads" inspired by my first childhood hamster, Ginger. "The Magic Squad and the Dog of Great Potential" has a big, goofy dog, Train, based on a childhood dog, Muttsy. I think I mentioned a picture book I'm working on, in which there's a guinea pig, like ours, named Smoochie. And our old dog, Charlie, just inspired an early reader. I also like to write articles and poems about the animals and birds in the natural world. (Which is like Samantha, who shared her writing about her cabin during the
videoconference.)

Please do feel free to get in touch with me through my website http://www.maryquattlebaum.com/, if you and your students have other questions. And if you try the sweet-potato craft in your classroom, do let me know if it grows. Sometimes it sprouts leaves and roots, sometimes, alas, it doesn't.

Wishing you a good end to the school year,
Mary

Many thanks to Mary and all of the teachers and students who made this program a success!

100th Day of School Project - Revisited

2009-04-30T11:22:00.008-04:00

In March, MAGPI, UNC-Asheville, and Peachtree Publishing sponsored the 100th Day of School Videoconference Celebration with author Dr. Lester Laminack. 12 schools (Grades K-2) from across the MAGPI region read Dr. Laminack's book, Jake's 100th Day of School and created class collections of 100 objects. The projects were incredible. Here are some of my favorites:

100 images of their school mascot
100 images of their community
100 pieces of candy
100 snack ingredients
100 "words we know"
100 kind deeds (or random acts of kindness)

During the videoconference, students listened to Dr. Laminack, presented their collections/projects to one another and asked Dr. Laminack questions. Cathie Cooper from Garnet Valley School District was kind enough to share this video of her students presenting their project. A fabulous example! Thanks to Cathie for sharing (and thanks to the students in the video, and the students' parents for allowing us to post)!

And check out the project students at Hempfield School District did (posted on their blog!)

Supporting Videoconference-Based Learning Events with Virtual Reality

2009-04-20T14:26:00.009-04:00

On April 2nd, MAGPI tried our first simultaneous multisite videoconference and virtual reality program. Students at seven schools participated in “Fleshing the Bones: The Art and Science of Drawing Dinosaurs” videoconference with The Academy of Natural Sciences. While students were interacting with one another and the instructor via video, they were also manipulating images and bones in a virtual environment that we provided to each participating school. Virtual environments were installed on computers that individual or pairs of students could access. We decided to this rather than having students access an environment from thirty different computers in a single location while the videoconference was happening; we were concerned about bandwidth limitations within individual classrooms.

Now, the virtual environment containing the digitized images was basic and students weren’t interacting with one another within the virtual environment - - they were only interacting with digital learning objects. But the advantages of structuring the learning experience in this manner were clear:

Students were able to clearly see intricate details and individually manipulate images of dinosaur bones on their own computer screens - - rather than view them via content sharing on a videoconference endpoint (which isn’t always ideal). Because students were interpreting the visuals and then drawing dinosaurs based on those visuals, details were very important.
There was multifaceted interaction throughout the videoconference, which kept students engaged. They were simultaneously interacting in a class-to-class video environment and an individual student-to-learning object environment. Negotiating both environments takes skill - - but our digital native students are fairly adept at this. How many times have you seen a high school student juggle several interactive technologies at once?

The virtual environment students used was created using Virtual Reality Development Lab equipment. MAGPI has partnered with VRDL and is going to be loaning this equipment to schools for 30 day project periods next school year. We’re excited to see what VRDL environments students and teachers design! As I mentioned before, the VRDL environment we created alongside the Academy of Natural Sciences for this program was fairly basic; however, I see a lot of educational potential for this technology - - especially when we put students in the 'driver's seat.' It’s also a great tool for building realistic immersive experiences for students they cannot experience in ‘real life.’ For example, the creators at VRDL often talk about how middle school students created a Japanese Internment Camp VRDL environment as a history project.

I believe the next challenge for combining high-quality interactive video with virtual environments will be to have students interacting with a more complex virtual environment. After that, we might be ready to try having students simultaneously interact with one another (and an instructor) via video while immersed and interacting with one another in a virtual environment like Second Life or Active Worlds. Of course, there has to be a compelling educational and pedagogical reason to do this - - and there’s the added challenge of finding schools that allow students to participate in immersive interactive virtual environments! However, I’m looking forward to exploring even more ways to enhance videoconferencing with other tools and would love to hear your stories.

Many thanks to Gail Barna at Western Wayne School District for sharing these photos of her students participating in the program!

Take a look at student comments from Keystone School District's Technology Blog! (added 5/13/2009)

Twitter and Videoconferencing

2009-04-09T16:24:00.004-04:00

Janine Lim, a videoconferencing colleague of mine at Berien RESA in Michigan and all-around VC guru, has a post on her blog today about Videoconference Twitterers. Check it out! And thanks for the mention, Janine!

Personally, I'm pretty excited that Collaborations Around the Planet is now on Twitter! Real time updates for collaborations. What a great idea. If you're interested in collaborations, I highly recommend that you follow all of the people on Janine's list and definitely follow CAPspace.

I'm curious how others might be using Twitter in the videoconference world. I originally signed up for a Twitter account to get real-time updates about new and upcoming programs out. That's actually proved to be pretty effective. But I've also heard of folks using Twitter as back-channel communication for videoconference events (as a means of communicating 'behind the scenes' between sites so they don't have to interrupt the flow of the videoconference event). Other schools and twitterers have mentioned that they've 'saved the day' by putting out a call for help on Twitter to other schools for last minute videoconference connections. Are there other ways Twitter is being used?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm new to the "Twitter" world and still figuring things out - - but so far, have found it to be a great real time communication and collaborative tool.

Classroom Reactions from "Where in Pennsylvania?" and Creating "Video Ready" presentations

2009-04-07T17:18:00.002-04:00

Earlier in April, I ran a "Where in Pennsylvania" videoconference for six classes across Pennsylvania. The idea (again, borrowed from the great folks at Berrien RESA and TWICE) is that students connect from different locations around the state and give the other participating schools clues about their location. We had some fantastic presentations that day!

Mr. Jim Knight from Pearl S. Buck Elementary School discussed the program with his class at the conclusion of the event and was kind enough to share the following student feedback with me:

I liked the variety: giving clues, listening to clues, going somewhere to research, returning to guess, and getting to hear if you were right.
It was good to see what other classes did after only seeing what our class was doing for the past week.
We liked seeing ourselves on camera.
We liked seeing how other classes interpreted what they were asked to do and see how they presented the information.
It made us feel smart when we guessed the locations of all the other classes.
Our location seemed tough to guess. Either our clues weren’t very good, or they were really good.

Personally, I am intrigued by the students' comment "we liked how other classes interpreted what they were asked to do and see how they presented information." During this program, we had skits, power point presentations, poster presentations and more. I agree with the students - - seeing how everyone creates their presentations is one of the highlights for me as well!

But creating presentations that are "camera friendly" isn't an easy task. Here are some tips:

When using multimedia in a presentation, TEST the ability to send the multimedia through the codec with your far site and/or bridge ahead of time. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to share hours of hard work and hitting a technical snag - - not only does it slow the flow of the videoconference, but it adds undue stress. Make sure to test with THE far site (not another far site). There could be compatibility issues with different endpoints.
When creating multimedia presentations that involve sound, make sure your audio levels are audible. If you're having trouble hearing your presentation when you're in the same physical space, it will be even harder to hear at the far site. Be sure the microphone is close to the speaker if that's how you are sending the audio to the far site (and be equally sure the other sites are muted to avoid any echo cancellation issues!).
If your students are performing a skit, the last place you want to put the microphone is at their feet! The far site will hear more feet scurrying and dropped scripts than they will your students voices. Try putting the microphone up on a desk or chair as close to them as possible. And be sure the microphone is in front of them -- not behind.
Speaking of scripts -- rustling papers will literally put a kink in your performance. Students will tend to look down and read (which means the far sites only see the tops of their heads!) and the paper flipping will often time mask your students' voices. Use cue cards next to the camera which will encourage students to look up!
When students are performing a skit, it's helpful to set camera presets ahead of time so we can see 'close up' shots of individual actors as well as the group shot. And make sure your group shot is 'in frame.' Meaning, if you have 4 performers, make sure that you get as close as you can to those 4 performers without cutting one of them off in the group shot. It's distracting for the far site to see 4 performers in a large space along with an audience of 30 students.
Posters, in general, are great tools for videoconferencing; however, the text on a poster should be kept to a minimum (just the highlights - - no novels necessary) and the font size should be very large. If you can read the poster from across the classroom, you're in good shape. If not.... well, your far site won't be able to read it either.
Speaking of posters - - displaying them can be problematic. If you tape them to a whiteboard with a florescent light overhead, chances are that the glare from the light will keep the far sites from being able to see the poster. Avoid glossy textures on your posters (and lamination, too! Preserve the work of art after the videoconference!).

I'm sure there are lots more tips out there! What are your favorite ways to make a student presentation "camera ready?"

Blogging for Alex's Virtual Lemonade Stand Project this week...

2009-03-31T21:18:00.004-04:00

I'm blogging for Alex's Virtual Lemonade Stand project this week - - so check out the posts there: http://alexslemondrop.blogspot.com/.

Students have put together some AMAZING projects! To date, they have raised more than $12,500 for pediatric cancer research. The project concludes this Friday and we'll be webstreaming the final videoconference celebration. For more instructions on how to access the webstream, see: http://www.magpi.net/programs/alexslemonade.html.

Videoconferencing Best Practices and Virtual Field Trips

2009-03-25T13:48:00.005-04:00

On Monday, I facilitated our spring 2009 Videoconferencing: Best Practices and Virtual Field Trips seminar. Despite a rocky technical start (the MCU dropped ALL sites about 5 minutes before we were supposed to start), the seminar did seem to go rather well. It involved an abbreviated virtual field trip from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (who did demonstrations from their All About Matter program) and a presentation from CILC about their virtual field trip resources, as well as a brief overview of the MUSE social network community, MAGPI resources and videoconferencing set-up, etiquette and tips for integrating into the curriculum.

As I was preparing for this seminar, I realized that what was really missing from it was a list of helpful links for educators new to using this tool. So I spent some time today collecting some of my favorite videoconference resources:

Finding Virtual Field Trips/Content Providers
(*not all are I2-based virtual field trips)

Finding Partners to Do Collaborative Projects Using Videoconferencing

Great Resources for Getting Started with Videoconferencing

TWICE’s “Getting Started” Guide
Videoconferencing Instructional Strategies
Hawaii’s Department of Education VC Guide (great video tutorials for using the Polycom VSX 7000)
MAGPI's H.323 Videoconferencing Resources
Videoconferencing in Education NING Community
ISTE Interactive Videoconference Special Interest Group

Videoconferencing Etiquette and Best Practices

ViDe Cookbook
Even the Emily Post Institute has etiquette guides for videoconferencing!
UWTV Videoconference Zone Video

Some of My Favorite VC Blogs

Alex’s Virtual Lemonade Stand Kick-Off

2009-03-23T21:06:00.008-04:00

Students at 38 schools across the US and in Taiwan are putting the squeeze on cancer for the next two weeks by participating in the Alex’s Virtual Lemonade Stand project. This collaboration between Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Lower Merion School District and MAGPI uses videoconferencing as a way to bring students from different schools together around a common purpose - - raising awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research.

This is our fourth year running this project - -and every year the project gets better! Today was the kick-off virtual pep rally where students had an opportunity to show their lemon spirit. The steering team behind the project was thrilled to see so much enthusiasm from students! We had step team performances, dramatic presentations, songs, raps and cheers - - all directed toward getting one another excited about giving childhood cancer (as one school put it) ‘the boot.’ Students from Cynwyd Elementary (who emceed the entire event) did a great job. And I can’t even begin to sing the praises of the of the faculty at Lower Merion School District (who ran all of television production equipment, prepped students and wrote the script) - - they really made the event look professional!! The success of this project is that it is truly a team effort. :0) A very special thanks to Tom McGee and Nancy Einstein (LMSD) as well as Connie Screnci (from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation) for all of their efforts!

We found out today that over the last three years, this project has raised more than $61,000 for pediatric cancer research - - - and we quadrupled our school participation from 9 schools the first year to 38 this year.

Some of the highlights from today’s event:

Choreography from students at North Hills Elementary as they performed their original song
Watching the step teams from Jacob Elementary School and East Stroudsburg Area High School South perform
Hearing (and seeing) the students from Kutztown Area School District ‘rap’ their lemonade spirit
Seeing students from Robeson Elementary School perform a dramatic presentation of how they make lemonade (complete with students dressed up as water, lemons, sugar a straw and ice - - should have seen how they ‘stirred.’)
All of the ‘lemon heads’ at the Career Institute of Technology
Connecting with Taiwan in the middle of the night! Yes - - it was almost 2 a.m. there!
Hearing all of the cheers from all of the schools

Personally, I get excited about this project because it shows the power of the ‘people’ network when they harness the power of advanced infrastructure networks. It’s an amazing feat to bring all of these schools together for an hour - - and we can’t wait to see what they do over the next two weeks. You can keep track of schools’ progress by visiting the Alex’s Virtual Lemonade Stand Project Blog.

You can also watch the kick-off event, in its entirety, from the new MAGPI podcast site. You'll need iTunes to watch!

Facilitating Multisite Videoconference Discussions

2009-03-20T11:37:00.008-04:00

Earlier this week, one of our Fellows asked if I had a document on best practices for facilitating multisite videoconference discussions. I was embarrassed to admit that I had never put such a document together, although have been collecting anecdotal knowledge and tips for years. I decided to use today's post as a way of sharing some 'tricks of the trade.'

Ultimately, I believe that facilitating good multisite videoconference discussion is similar to facilitating any good classroom discussion. Although there are distinct differences on how participants (especially students) might seem 'real' to one another in a virtual setting as opposed to being in the same geographic setting. If you're interested in reading more about this, please see Getting Real in Virtual Talk about Text in this month's edition of Middle School Journal (March 2009). Maren Aukerman (assistant professor at Stanford University) and I co-authored a paper that looks at how students interact with one another via videoconference during virtual reading comprehension instruction.

But as a quick reference, here are some of my initial thoughts on facilitating good multi-site discussion via videoconference:

Everything in moderation. Get more than two sites on a videoconference (especially with multiple participants at each site!) with open microphones, and you're asking for trouble. It's important that sites keep their microphones muted unless speaking in order for everyone to hear what is being said. Having a site moderator (someone at individual sites) to direct folks and facilitate participation is a good idea. Often times in an educational videoconference, this can be a teacher. This person is responsible for making sure the person speaking is in front of the microphone and that when a particular site does not have the floor, the microphone is muted. Be careful not to let this person dominate the conversation from their site - - nothing will inhibit student participation more than a teacher or site facilitator that does all the talking for them.
Ask open ended questions. Nothing shuts a conversation down faster than asking a yes/no question. In order to elicit thoughtful response, ask questions without having a preconceived answer in mind. For example, asking a student or participant about what they think, their past experiences, their processes, to make predictions or to summarize their understanding will take you a lot further than a question like "did you have fun creating the project?"
Use strategies of open dialogue. Your job as the facilitator is not necessarily to evaluate the comments of the participants; it's to engage them in discussion so that they collectively come to an understanding. Therefore, don't place value judgment on responses (try to avoid words like "good" or responses like "you're close but not quite there yet"). Instead, uptake responses (i.e. "So, Sherri thinks that the cow is blue") and invite others into the conversation (i.e. "What do you think about what's been said?"). A particular favorite book of mine on this topic (related to classroom discourse, not necessarily videoconference-based discourse - - although there are definite parallels) is Nystrand's Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom.
Promote cross-site dialogue. Getting participants at different sites to talk can be challenging. Explicitly inviting sites to talk to one another will help, even though it might take some time for sites to warm-up to one another. When planning instructional videoconference events, it might be helpful to designate a 'first response school,' especially if students will be sharing work with one another. For example, if School A is presenting, let School C know they are responsible for providing feedback on School A's presentation ahead of time. It's also helpful to provide a framework for feedback (i.e. share something that confused you about the presentation, something you were intrigued by, and a question for the group).
Think critically (and plan) for the visual layout of the videoconference. It will be difficult for sites to interact with one another if they can't see one another. Therefore, it's often helpful to use a continuous presence mode on you endpoint or MCU when trying to facilitate discussion. This mode will allow all sites to see one another simultaneously, usually with the speaking site in a large box on the screen and the non-speaking sites in smaller boxes on the screen. As different sites have the 'floor,' the other boxes on the screen will shift. This isn't an ideal mode for presentation (it can be distracting looking at all of the connecting sites when you're supposed to be focusing on a single presenter/presentation) but is great for discussion. As the facilitator, you can instruct sites to raise their hand if they have a comment and call on them -- which will avoid sites doing the mad dash for the unmute button in order to be heard.
Plan, Plan, Plan... Although you want to be spontaneous in dialogue facilitation, having a plan is very helpful. When facilitating a multisite event, your participants will be more at ease if they know what to expect. Provide discussion topics, an agenda and preparation materials (even a few website links so folks can familiarize themselves with a topic) at least 48 hours in advance. As facilitator, it's your job to stick to the agenda - - and not to let one site monopolize conversation. Be polite and judicious in your planning and your moderating; make sure that every site has an equal voice.

Of course, this list is a living, breathing and evolving list of tips! I look forward to hearing your feedback and thoughts, too! So please feel free to comment!

Word Cloud above courtesy of wordle.net (one of my favorite collaborative sites!). I encourage you to visit and create your own!

Aukerman, M., & Walsh, H.W. (2009). "Getting 'real' in virtual talk about text." The Middle School Journal, 49(4), 53-61.

Nystrand, Gamoran, Kachur, ... Opening dialogue. New York: Teachers College Press. Schifter, D. (2001)

Inspiration from Suraya Pakzad

2009-03-19T18:38:00.012-04:00

Last Wednesday, I had the good fortune to meet an extraordinary woman who is doing phenomenal things in her home country of Afghanistan. While on a US tour, Suraya Pakzad, founder and director of the Voice of Women Organization, was kind enough to stop by our studio space and talk with students from 18 different high schools across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Suraya shared her stories of overcoming adversity and working to provide education for all in her country during times of Taliban rule. She also spoke frankly with students about the current state of education and women's rights in Afghanistan, her hopes for the future, and the role the United States can play in advancing education in Afghanistan.

The one hour program was moderated by Aldo Magazzeni, director of Traveling Mercies and friend of Ms. Pakzad. During the program, Ms. Pakzad (who answered to either Ms. Pakzad or Suraya when students addressed her) spoke briefly about her background and then answered questions from all 18 schools - - an admirable feat in and of itself! This program was streamed live by Penn Video Network and we are currently working to get the program up, in its entirety, on the new MAGPI podcast site. I know many of you were unable to 'tune in' live - - so here is a brief clip:

Before leaving our studio, I had an opportunity to chat one-on-one with Ms. Pakzad, share family photos (she has 6 children, the youngest of whom is 5) and talk about motherhood. One thing that struck me was our conversation about how one of her three daughters could not understand why her mother continually put herself in the public eye advocating for women's rights, when it could mean danger and uncertainty for their family. In response, Ms. Pakzad wrote the following poem and was kind enough to permit me to share it with you (a note, she gave me the English translation of the poem which was originally written in Persian):

My name is woman.

My daughter, my beloved daughter
you who are my whole life,
the passion of my existence -
lately your gaze has lost its light
and I fear you are distancing your heart from mine
ignoring me, even while listening
Do you fear your mother shamed?
What frightens you?

She who able and aware,
with perseverance her strength
gallops into the conflict without fear?
She who for love of her country has stirred up waves
and rejecting all the myths, today redraws the boundaries
where our identities are worthless?

Who are you asking my sweet-heart?
Your mother does not need a name;
her name is Woman,
my name, your name and the names of a thousand others
with unfulfilled lives.
Their names, despised and belittled, are discounted,
so many names just as seals on pacts.

Do not be afraid my love, your mother is not alone.
She travels with friends on the path
with one thought, one heart and one journey,
beyond name, beyond life,-
and all are in danger,
We shall prepare the path for you and your children.
We shall fight now so that you shall survive.
We shall die now so that you will live.

What a powerful experience for American students to hear from this truly inspirational person. It's amazing what live, interactive video can do for our students by opening the doors of communication and fostering cultural understanding. While many of our students may have expected to hear contempt from Ms. Pakzad, instead what they heard was a message of hope, perseverance, strength and admiration for her culture.

And even though Ms. Pakzad has been featured on the Larry King Show, MSNBC, at various world affairs councils and in The Philadelphia Inquirer, she mentioned that this particular event - - feeling like she was in each of these students' classrooms even though they were separated by a screen - - will stay with her always. After all, reaching out to these students will ultimately help strengthen communication and cultural understanding for future generations of American and Afghani youth.

We're now working with Traveling Mercies and Ms. Pakzad's organization, Voices of Women Organization, to try and organize skype video conferences between American students and students in Afghanistan. I look forward to sharing those experiences with you as they develop.

If you're interested in seeing more of Ms. Pakzad's remarks, you can watch these CNN clips:

First Ever Animal Quest

2009-03-11T16:15:00.009-04:00

Today I ran the first-ever Animal Quest videoconference with six 3rd and 4th grade classes across Pennsylvania. The Animal Quest is modeled after the very popular multisite MysteryQuest and HistoryQuest videoconference programs started by TWICE and Berrien County RESA. (MAGPI runs our own versions of MysteryQuest USA and Where in PA? with permission from TWICE).

During this collaborative event, schools create presentations that give other schools participating in the game clues about a mystery animal. In order to make sure that everyone is presenting the same information, we provide the format for giving clues and a notetaking sheet to all schools to guide students in taking down information as they listen to the presentations. Following the presentations, all of the sites mute and have 20-25 minutes to determine what the mystery animals are using classroom resources - - anything is fair game except the teacher's prior knowledge. Then we do a round a yes/no questions to help students narrow down their guesses and they have a short period of time to reevaulate their answers. All schools have a chance to present their guesses - - and then there is the big reveal! I was amazed at how many different possibilities schools came up with when presenting their guesses - - and the creative ways in which they 'unveiled' their mystery animals. I was especially impressed with Forest Hills Elementary's snow leopard costume!

In truth, I'm not sure how much help the teacher's prior knowledge would have been during today's game because I learned about all sorts of new animals! In particular, animals that were new to me included the Okapi and the Olm. (Although, most of the schools on the call thought the Olm clues were about a salamander and I have to agree that there are a lot of similarities!)

All of the student presentations were great! Miss Fishman's class at Goodnoe Elementary in Newtown, Pennsylvania was kind enough to send me their short "clue movie" - - The ABC's of Our Mystery Animal. Take a look! Do you know what the mystery animal is?

Many thanks to all of the participating schools for a great morning event!

I know a lot of you are anxious to hear about the Afghanistan and Women's Right's Videoconference and Webstream Program that happened this afternoon - - more on that tomorrow.

Don't Miss Tomorrow's LIVE EVENT with Suraya Pakzad, Founder of Voice of Women Organization

2009-03-10T10:27:00.000-04:00

In Celebration of Women’s History Month, MAGPI, Traveling Mercies and Penn Video Network at the University of Pennsylvania are pleased to announce “AFGHANISTAN AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS: A CONVERSATION WITH SURAYA PAKZAD.” In a live, interactive videoconference, 17 high schools across Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be hearing from and talking with Suraya Pakzad, Founder of the Voice of Women Organization. Although we do not have space for any more interactive videoconference sites, we will be streaming this event LIVE over the Internet and Internet2 via a Real Player webstream. We hope you can ‘tune in’ and watch!

Suraya Pakzad of Afghanistan, entered into an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen years old, and by the time she was sixteen, was the mother of two children. Suraya is now 37 years old and has raised a family of six children. However, with all of these personal challenges and responsibilities she has dedicated her life to helping the women of Afghanistan by starting schools in private homes during the Taliban period, creating vocational training for women in prisons, and establishing safe shelter homes for abused women which offer medical, psychological and legal assistance. Suraya and her organization are dedicated to their cause and every day live with the threats of violence and kidnapping of themselves and family members. Join us to hear her real life stories and be inspired by her dedication and grace!

The webstream will be live at 12:45 EDT on March 11, 2009, with content beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

View the program it's entirety via a Real Player Webstream at: http://beansidhe.isc-net.upenn.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/pakzad.rm

Photo by Aldo Magazzeni

MAGPI Fellows' Collaborative Projects

2009-03-09T16:30:00.004-04:00

Last week, I met with the 14 MAGPI Fellows for this year via videoconference for an informal training session. The bulk of the 3 hour meeting was spent with Fellows presenting about their previous collaborative projects and talking about their ideas for upcoming collaborative projects.

I’m amazed at what these diverse and innovative educators have come up with! One group of educators created a student-generated CSI-like series of forensic videoconferences for high school students to solve. Another group planned and facilitated cross-cultural book sharing between U.S. students and students in Portugal. Our third group of Fellows created a Science Career Demonstration videoconference for students in their school district - - and pediatric patients at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in New Jersey.

And while I was really impressed with the projects they’ve undertaken so far, I’m even more impressed with what their cooking up for spring 2009! The Arts and Humanities Team (which brokered the cross-cultural book share this past fall) is planning a wonderful international video project with high school students. Students will be creating videos about what it’s like growing up in their community and then discussing the video projects via videoconference. Take a look at this wonderful promotional film the team has put together!

- - and they are looking for partners! So check out the website and register if your school is interested.

The Science and Technology Team is working with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to design a series of interactive videoconferences (and demonstrations) that show various states of matter. And our Career Education and Work Team is working on a project that will have students envisioning what journalism will look like in 2020. They are partnering with local and regional media organizations for this project to work with students on their explorations- - talk about bringing the world into the classroom and expanding resources.

Can’t wait to report on their progress as the projects develop. And if you’re a MAGPI Member and are interested in being a Fellow for 2009-2010, please download the application from our website. Applications are due on May 1, 2009 and we’d love to have you apply!

Challenging Teaching and Learning Paradigms with Technology

2009-02-27T08:11:00.008-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I taught an Introduction to MAGPI and Internet2 seminar via videoconference; it’s a seminar I teach often and although I try to update the content as frequently as possible to keep it fresh, I am constantly reminded how much I can’t squeeze into a 90 minute introductory session without watching everyone’s eyes glaze over. Just my own process of determining what information may be relevant to a particular crowd and weeding through old and new resources can be daunting. So I’ve decided to start this blog - - as a means of organizing my own understanding and information about teaching, leading and learning through technology while sharing those resources and thoughts with others who are interested. Not a holy grail of how to integrate technology successful into the classroom, but maybe the beginnings of a helpful roadmap.

I started my Intro to MAGPI session by asking the educators at each connecting site (there were four) to describe what the ideal classroom looks like. I asked them to think about not only the physical space, but what teaching and learning might look like in this classroom as well. I anticipated the typical answers I get every time I ask this question - - small classes, well-behaved students, involved parents, whiteboards/Smartboards, a computer for every student, collaboration, inquiry-based learning, etc. Imagine my surprise when they collectively came up with a list that not only included these things, but also included expanding resources and communication beyond the four walls of a classroom. EXACTLY what technology can do when harnessed in the context of teaching and learning (as opposed to using it just to use it).

Now, I’ve given this seminar 100 times over the past two years and I’ve never gotten this answer before. Actually, it ruined my usual presentation lead-in which says “now imagine your classroom has no walls… that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about doing today.” But it ruined it in a good way! Perhaps we’re finally starting to see a shift in teaching attitudes toward using technology seamlessly in the classroom. (YES! Validation for coming to work every day!)

Earlier yesterday morning, I ran MAGPI’s bi-monthly K20 User Group Meeting and one of the issues that came up was how to affect change in international education using technology. One technology director expressed frustration at trying to get educators to adopt technology - - and concern over getting educators to change how they teach. To which others suggested he just plain grovel until someone caved... Another tech integrator/facilitator expressed concern that until we change what we hold students accountable for (i.e. content standards), teachers may not be interested in using technology to do so. Others were concerned that new teachers, just out of college, are not prepared to teach 21^st century skills. And finally a higher ed administrator announced that in a recent study of 40 countries, the US came in last in terms of innovation in education. Ouch. (I’m curious to read the study though – aren’t you? I’ll link to it when I get my hands on it.)

So while I left that meeting feeling a little defeated, I was heartened during the afternoon seminar when those very educators we were concerned about during the morning suggested that we use technology resources to break down geographic barriers and expand classroom resources. Perhaps adoption of such philosophies is not as wide-spread or as rampant as we’d like - - but the adoption IS happening.

For example, before meetings and seminars yesterday , I co-facilitated the first videoconference in a multi-month project called “Youth and Violence: A Global Perspective.” Six classrooms across the US and Canada are working together to investigate risk factors that lead to youth violence in different areas of the world, assess those risk factors and create multimedia projects to combat such issues. Students are investigating issues in their own communities and schools, but also placing those risk factors in a global context, sharing information and working together. An inner city school in Kentucky talking about the youth violence they experience with a rural school in Canada and then comparing those issues to violence experienced by Iraqi youth? Amazingly powerful.

When we start the conversation from a place where all agree technology can help students and teachers transcend classroom walls, the possibilities for teaching, learning and organizing understanding become very exciting. I look forward to exploring such ‘possibilities’ through this blog. Happy reading!