scott armburger director of computing services franklin area school district...
TRANSCRIPT
VIDEO CONFERENCING IN THE CLASSROOM
Scott ArmburgerDirector of Computing Services
Franklin Area School [email protected]
Do you have Video Conferencing Equipment in your School District?
IU5 and IU6 School Districts
If you belong to an IU5 or IU6 school District, you probably have one somewhere in your district.
One Polycom VSX 7000 was bought for each district through the E-Fund grant during the 2007-2008 school year.
Video Conferences per year
How many Video Conferences does your school district do per year? None Less than 5 Less than 10 Less than 20 Less than 30 31 +
How often did we use the Video Conference equipment
the first year?
First year Video Conference Usage
Only used video conference equipment twice during the first year:
1. The initial test with the IU2. Where in Pa Video Conference
Where - 4th grade at Victory Elementary Who - 6 schools from across Pennsylvania Content -
Our School gave clues about our location Our students had to use an Internet search engine
to research clues in order to guess the other school’s locations.
Review - Teacher and students loved it
Why only 1 Video Conference the first year?
Teachers did not really know what it was or what to expect.
Very little information was given to teachers regarding video conferences.
No demonstrations were done for staff only. Teachers were not sure how to correlate
this new technology with their existing lessons.
A solution to increase Video Conferencing in your school.
How to increase teacher interest in Video Conferences: Contact a teacher at each building who could be persuaded
into doing one video conference by: Help determine what can be tied into their curriculum Offer 1 to 1 support from tech department on day of conference Encourage Principal and other teachers to attend the initila video
conference
Tech Camp with a focus on video conferencing Held August 24 – August 28, 2009 Volunteer signup for teachers and staff Conducted 14 video conferences to different sites during the week Held drawings for prizes at the end of the day
Tech Camp 2009 Schedule
Tech Camp Preparations
Set up a schedule to accommodate ½ hour to hour long video conferences
Contact Video Conference providers Most have teacher trainings for free Some gave free Video Conferences as a door prize.
Modify schedule around the Video Conferences Add the other instructional classes around
Video Conferences, such as: Office 2007 File Management Web Design
Scheduling Purposes:
Smart Board Training Scheduled as training for Tuesday and
Wednesday In order to get a smart board in our district,
you have to attend the 2 day training. 24 people must be signed up for those 2 days
Mandatory Attendance – On Tuesday all teachers attending SmartBoard training had to attend a video conference As a result of this people showed up on
Thursday and Friday for the Video Conferences that
Tech Camp
Summer of 2009 was the first time we held a summer workshop on Technology
On average had 15 people a day Around 40 different teachers took part at
some point during the week Collaboration - Teachers showed others
what they learned during the week Teachers are already interested in this
year’s tech camp
GREAT RESULTS! Had over 50 video conferences this year
at all instructional levels Used 6 different providers Approx. 30 different teachers participated
in Video Conferences Purchased 2 more video conferencing
units to meet demand Set a line item in our budget for Video
Conferences Plan to have a Video Conference unit for
each building by 2011.
Important Lessons learned:
Scheduling the Video Conference Create a separate shared calendar for Video
Conference scheduling Make sure you have time to get the equipment to
each building at least 24 hours before Video Conference
Do test calls prior to ALL Video Conferences Video Conference Equipment Training
Train each tech aid how in the use of the equipment and how to set it up.
Train one person from each building to aide in setup and dismantling of equipment.
What will we do different next year?
Create an email template for scheduling the Video Conferences Make sure to have date, time, teachers name,
building, room being used, name of Video Conference, IP Address connection, provider, grade level, and number of students
Add a backup date and time in case of last minute technical difficulties
Eliminate the amount of emails being sent to determine Video Conference particulars
Try to focus on collaboration video conferences
Scheduling Determine the amount of interest you have
from your teachers Purchase in bulk from the provider
Contact each provider for bulk purchase information
Each vendor has different prices and bulk levels Purchase at least 5 more from each provider
than what is needed Do the bulk purchases before school starts
Complete in July if possible Allows scheduling to start before school starts Vendors fill up fast
Scheduling Suggestions(continued)
Created a spreadsheet for each vendor Allows you to keep track of how many were
purchased and how many are filled. Include this same info into your Video
Conference template Track teachers that requested Video
conferences that did not get one due limited funds. Makes budgeting easier
Helps to determine how many Video Conferences will be purchased next year.
Favorite Vendors
E-Missions by Wheeling Jesuit University Over 10 missions this year
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum Over 30 VC this year
Cleveland Museum of Art Over 15 VC this year
MAGPI 3 VC this year
PDE 2 VC this year
Technical Requirements for Connection to
Video Conference providers How and when to cancel the connection
to Video Conference provider due to technical issues
Make sure Video Conference units are configured for each building (DHCP address Reservations)
Make sure firewalls are configured to pass this traffic
How to find Video Conferences
CILC – Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration
MAGPI TWICE – Two Way Interactive Connections
in Education PDE Webinars CFF Coaches E-Mail Mailing List
Collaboration VC’s
What technology you can use to Video Conference
Polycom/Tandberg Unit Elluminate Skype
Group share
Share what you may be doing different with video conferencing in your school district
Q/A
Video Conferencing in the Classroom
Scott ArmburgerDirector of Computing Services
Franklin Area School [email protected]
Special Thanks to my tech staff for making all these Video Conferences happen and also for
all the help with tech camp every year.
Sneak Peak
Tech Camp 2010 Draft This camp was designed for our preparations
for one – one netbooks in our high school next year
We are considering opening this up to our students this year
If you are interesting in sending someone for a day, contact me.