My virtual classroom extends – Ping

An exciting virtual classroom and collaborative  project that will start on Monday Feb 9th at our school and in my class. Ajax MckKerral is organsing the project.

Year 7  students  and some grade 6 students from Casterton Secondary College, Heywood and District Secondary College and Hawkesdale P12 College will be involved in a six week online music project, Ping,  

Ping is the result of collaborative project between the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, The Song Room, and Country Education Project. Generous support has been provided by the Helen MacPherson Smith Trust

The project

• Focus – listening, arranging and organizing sounds
• Staff and students involved, will create sound stories
• 5 workshops. MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) will come in for about 4 of these workshops and discuss their instruments, including physics, history etc
• MSO will record specific requested sounds for student use
• Completed stories will comprise 5 tracks or more, convert to mp3 file, embed in the blog.

A blog has been set up for use by all staff with students and features

• Links
• Posts
• Discussion forum- for both staff and student use for discussions, problem sharing and solving.

Requirements: Audacity beta version 1.3.7

So before we commence students need to

• Register
• Write a post
• Learn how to make a comment

Work can be taken home and accessed from home.

Software used

• audacity – beta version 1.3.7
• Ccmixter
• Freesound

·         Emails and usernames for all students

·         Students rmust register on the blog

·         Individual student PC access for elluminate meetings

·         Headsets with headphones and microphones or headphones and desktop microphone

Students will also require sufficient download and server space.

Ajax introduces ping to the staff involved

 

 

 

A virtual school becomes evident

Jean Pennycook amongst her beloved penguins

A penguin egg hatching

Today bore witness to the start of a virtual or web2.0 school. Jess McCulloch and I had teacher professional leave this year to lay the eplanks in web2.0 or virtual school. This would have to be one of the highlights of this project.

My valuable contact from Boston, Lorraine Leo connected us to Jean Pennycook, living in a tent, in Antarctica for a webcast. To ensure all went well, a backup date and time had been pre-arranged. Our primary teachers, (now there was a real purpose to use virtual classroom software, discoverE)  rather nervously entered the virtual classroom yesterday to test the sound and gain confidence in the use of the classroom. Three year 9 girls acted as the technicians (students became experts) and supported the staff. This procedure went well and full credit to the staff for their quick acceptance of this software as they had not been exposed to it before. It was agreed for management purposes that most classes remain in their own rooms and log on as their class name. However, prep/one/two were combined and the secondary students were combined in the library (years7-9)

This morning we held an early recess and logged everyone on to their discoverE  classrooms. One staff member who was absent yesterday was required to respond to Lorraine in Boston but came to me and said she had no idea how to talk or chat to her. Imagaine my surprise when at recess we were testing the sound with Lorraine and this teacher took over with utter confidence and performed the tests. After some internal gliches, we were so pleased to hear Jean Pennycook  online with perfect audio transmission. Jean talked about the penguins and her research with them. Lorraine and Jean had prepared a presentation of slides with some wonderful photos.

Reflecting back, the eplanks of a virtual school were in evidence by the following factors:-

• students as experts (year 9 girls became the experts on sound checks, software management etc and worked with Lorraine in Boston)
• teachers from Taiwan, Adelaide, Sth America, USA were in the classroom (global teachers)
• several students were in their homes in the USA listening and particpating (global students)
• Geoff the software developer from Perth was in there (virtual team involving all aspects of the linkup)
• every class and student at Hawkesdale P12 College from 5 year olds through to 15 year olds – a broad age group whom Jean managed to keep captivated for more than 1 hour (virtual school)
• the vast majority of our staff (including those who were not timetabled for this timeslot) were in one of the virtual classrooms.
• each class was a virtual classroom with teachers confidently managing audio and chat questions.
• The chat moved furiously and fast with lots of questions from all year levels. Time was allowed for our students and the global students to ask questions using the microphone.
• Jean allowed self directed student learning to occur, in that she paused to answer the student questions, rather than always speak to the slides. The students had some great questions that not only related to the penguins but to her life and experiences in Antarctica etc (student directed learning)
• Parents came in to our classrooms and also listened to the webcast (parents as partnerships).

A huge thank you to all concerned for this wonderful 21st century educational experience.

Listen to the recording of the webcast and read some of our other staff’ posts

• Britt Gow’s version at “How are penguins adapting to climate change?”
• Faye Matter’s Live link to Antarctica

Using skype in the classroom

My students argue that videoconferencing with another class in, another country, is the best and most powerful experience for them. They beg for more and more. It is now 12 months since our first experiments with skyping students in  Korea. 

To successfully connect, the following factors need to be taken into consideration.

Why I like skype:-

• Skype is a free piece of VOiP software, that can connects computers together to allow free telephone calls.  
• Follow up service is great, they constantly seek feedback and are always improving their service.
• User and operator friendly
• Inexpensive – just need cheap headset or desktop microphone and headphones, cost of download time is negligible. Download software from skype.
• Allows chat and video conferencing
• May be used to call landlines

Videoconferencing with skype

Hardware/software required:

• downloaded skype software,
• higher bandwidth connection
• web camera
• desktop microphone and earphones, or headset
• Interactive white board for display or a white wall, and  datashow or data projector if videoconferencing with a class.

21^st century skills required

Shannon demonstrates a meat pie

 A new set of skills needs to be taught and developed as there is now a virtual class. Staff  and students need to learn and practise these skills.

• Speaking to a web camera requires use of eye contact, stillness or little movement and  voice inflexions or animated voices (avoid all montotones). The voice needs to take the place of body language.
• Use of microphone is critical as the audio must be carried to the distant classroom(s).
• Student confidence is crucial – students who are not confident will not be effective. (I have found it is often my quietest students and those who are not so competent in literacy and writing skills who will excel and perform well in the virtual classroom)
• Appropriate placement of any object being displayed needs to be carefully considered for maximum effect eg when demonstrating a jar of vegemite – the angles need to be checked for maximum effectiveness.
• Keep any movement of objects or people to an absolute minimum, or else there is too much blurring.
• Use the chat window feverishly for feedback, questions and variety of delivery. If dealing with a country that does not speak English as their first language, or if the sound quality is not so good, the chat is great to type in the key phrases, to ensure they understand what is said.
• Video should be used to keep the class interested and give some concept of a third party(ies).
• Diction is another crucial element in successful use. You need clear, slow voices and short, simple sentences.
• Need to be able to multitask eg speak, read chat, position camera, microphone, control and manage existing class and virtual class etc.

Management issues

• Keep the camera as still as possible. Better to bring the students and objects to the camera, rather than move the camera to them.
• Seat students appropriately, so that they can be seen via the web camera.
• Allocate roles to students eg chat window, web cam operator, microphone manager etc as this is a real multi tasking operation.
• Ensure everything is organized right from the start – all materials required are on hand.
• Determine the outcomes and plan the class accordingly. (We find it is good to get to know each other first – so a show and tell of school, classes, country, culture etc works well in the initial stages.)
• Always test the equipment before starting the class and test prior teacher to teacher before the day. Practise with family, other teachers in school, country and then abroad.
• Always use chat to ensure that the other class is ready, then when given the ‘all clear’ ring.
• Organisation, confidence and management are the key to success.
• If the call drops out, come back in and switch the videooff for the group who is listening, then reverse and switch yours on when talking. If it continually drops out even with just one video on, switch off both videos and continue with chat. (not as exciting but it is still maintaining connection)

Class discipline

This is an area of difficulty, as the teacher needs to be working at the front with the technology, student speaker etc. Small groups are far more effective and manageable. If students are misbehaving, ensure that the camera does not pick that up. Cross culture teaching is interesting and so exciting  but expectations differ. Have a management plan for discipline problems ready before commencing. Most students love this kind of work, but if sound quality, voice carry over, technical issues, software dropping in and out it may become boring and students, restless.

Always have a backup lesson ready should the internet not function and a backup date for another attempt.

Constraints

• Video option is lost once there are more than two participants in the conference.
• Long distance and differing bandwidth connections are still unstable. Connections with Korea and Russia were not as stable as those with USA and Canada.
• May be blocked in many educational institutions especially universities.
• Skype does not like another program being open at the same time if that program also uses a video camera option. So close any other programs down, before using videoconferencing with skype, and restart the computer if necessary.

Concerns:

• Security cannot be guaranteed although, operator has option of allowing a person to use your phone number of name, before being listed as a contact.
• Risk of viruses over large organizations.
• Bandwidth variations

We have successfully skyped with video to USA, Canada, Korea and Russia. In conclusion, these are such rich learning experiences with amazing learning outcomes and gives us a taste of where the future of education may head.

Since I wrote this post, @Peter@skype found me on twitter and gave me this great link with advice on improving my connection:-  “You might find the call quality guide useful – and let me know if you run into problems next time http://is.gd/3XZL“

WIWOW- Walk in walk Wednesday

Wednesday October 22nd

Present: GP, AMH, BG, TM, JM, AM

Topics of interest:

• Using audacity to podcast
• Learning how to use animoto (quick presentation online tool, combining images and music) for embedding into blogs and wikis
• setting up and adding depth to nings and wikis
• adding audio to slideshare

Walk In Walk Out Wednesday

There was active and strong interest amongst the participants tonight, 15th October.

Present: WS, GP, CW, AM and Sharon

Topics of Interest:-

• blogging
• online conferences and using elluminate
• using a digital camera – how to take a photo, plug into computer, download, delete unwanted photos, delete photos from camera.
• voicethread for podcasting of the Hawkesdale history trail. How to upload photos, add voice, add identities

Coffee, Blogs, Parents and Community

An interested group of parents and community members attended our first information session in the library. They represented both primary and secondary year levels throughout the school and included an interested grandmother who ‘wants to keep up to date’ for the sake of her grandchild.

After an introduction, Faye Matters, our librarian introduced our school page explaining and exploring the links, pages and widgets.  Marg Murnane, the Middle Years Co-odinator then ‘walked’ the group through the grade 6 class blogs, showing the pages including the homework page,  posts, global projects,and voicethreads etc To complete the session, I outlined the flatclassrooms project and ‘blogging across the cultures’ project which the year 9/10 students are working on.

It proved to be very rewarding, especially after the recent article “Crossing the digital divide” in “The Education Age” this week. Concerns on safety issues were voiced and great interest shown in the student work. The coffee mornings will continue and perhaps be rotated at different times and days to allow others to attend. It was interesting to note that flickr was a tool that they were keen to learn.

Quote for the day from a grade 2 parent “This is their world!”.

Coffee anyone!

The major stakeholders in a school, were identified as

• students
• staff
• parents
• school council and leadership
• parents club

Parents…… a vital link in the educational chain!  A very successful evening session was held earlier in the year with parents, updates have followed in the community newsletters and encouragement given via notes and journal entries to become involved in the student blogs

However, having recently attended the Shanghai Learn2.008, I learnt from Kim Cofino that they were running a morning coffee session once a month for interested parents at their school in Bangkok (an activity we had often discussed running here.)

So, tomorrow, October 15th will be the first of a monthly session of meetings with parents and interested community members. It is hoped  that this will extend to sessions where parents can learn some of the exciting web2.0 tools and gain some understanding of their student’s potential online activity. This may lead to parent and community classes tutored possibly, by year 9 students. The concept fits in well with the goals of our middle year’s coordinator and our librarian, as our library is a community resource centre as well.

Talk-It-Tuesdays

It all started with an idea of Jess McCulloch and was fully supported by me, that we apply for professional leave to research “Laying the eplanks in a web2.0 school”. That idea has taken us on a rather incredulous journey, whereby our staff after taking ‘baby steps’ are embracing the use of web2.0 tools wholeheartedly. One of the reasons for this success was our “Walk In Walk Out Wednesdays”, where staff can come into the computer lab for an hour after school and seek advice for any computer related issues. Staff from neighbouring schools have also taken up this option. However, they ‘Drive In Drive Out’!

Now look where those planks have led us………………… “Talk It Tuesdays” with Knowledge Bank, hosted by Tamara Carpenter.

Talk-It Tuesdays are informal online gatherings for educators interested in using social media, or Web 2.0 tools, in their work. These collaborative sessions take place every second Tuesday and will focus on:

• Sharing stories of what we are experimenting with and learning about
• Teaching each other about what we’re finding useful and exciting
• Listening to each other’s experiences
• Connecting people, tools and ideas
• Helping each other sort out problems and get started

Everyone is welcome, the format will be open, respectful and flexible, and there is no prerequisite knowledge for attending. You can drop-in for part or all of the session. You are equally welcome if you are the greatest Web 2.0 Whizz ever, or just trying to find out ‘What it’s all about.’ The sessions will be loosely facilitated by Anne Mirtschin, Jess McCulloch and Tamara Carpenter.

The first session is Tuesday 14 October at 3.30pm

Register your interest at Knowledge Bank.

It is hoped that Jess can make it today all the way from Nanjing, China (riding her eplank, of course!)

WIWOW

WIWOW stands for Walk In Walk Out Wednesdays. Jess and I are laying the eplanks for a virtual school. As teachers and educationalists are the key to success, it is important for staff to

• comfortable using computers
• use emails and then move onto
• use programs and online tools that are personally useful to them and
• use web2.0 tools in their classroom once they can see a ‘need’ or ‘purpose’ for them

In Victoria, Australia, our teacher registration body requires us to complete a minimum amount of PD (Professional Development) each year. As these afternoon sessions would comply with that, records need to be kept and in true “disorganized” state, I am going to keep a record here of queries that teachers worked on and the initials of staff who attended, in this blog for more efficient recording and easy retrieval.

Date:-Wed July 16th

Staff in attendance:- GP, JK, WS, TB, BG, AM, Jess

Queries covered and worked on:-

• uploading movies to teachertube
• correcting work ie using the ’new comments’ (under review) function of MS Word for returning to student via intranet, rather than printing.
• learning how to create a wordle, produce a screen dump in MS Paint, save as an image and insert into a word document as a prompt for terms needed to be learnt for a topic in Human Development. Students will then search the wordle for the terms and write up the definitions.
• embedding MS Photostory into a blog
• using www.wordle.com to add a word cloud to a word processed document for printing and classroom use.
• embedding Voicethread into a blog

Laying the eplanks – a 6 monthly report

Jess and I have teacher professional leave this year, to lay the “eplanks for a virtual classroom” and are now required to write a short progress report. When we first started this project at the end of last year, only the two of us were seriously blogging in our school. A student blog had successfully been in progress for 4 months in 2007.

Achievements since Feb, 2008 at Hawkesdale p12 College

• approximately 60% of staff now blog
• three of our SSO staff (teacher aides) have commenced a blog
• all primary grades have a class blog (see links from http://hawkesdale.globalstudent.org.au)
• all students from grades 4 to 10 and some year 11s have an individual blog
• a Hawkesdale College  ”front page” has been created, from where all staff and student blogs are linked.
• a science wiki has been set up by the secondary science staff
• a new maths wiki is in the process of being produced
• established a wiki outlining our project and its progress
• getting involved in global projects, voicethreads, videoconferencing and much, much more
• developing a personal learning network that includes staff from Australia and overseas

All of these projects are attracting a global audience.

Getting staff on board

-has required taking ‘baby steps’.

•  end of 2007/ we ran short inservices on the use of delicious, MS PHotostory and digital image manipulation with irfanview and introduction of skype and ms communicator. We started with tools that staff would use in their personal lives, so that they could gain confidence and then think about applying it to their classes.
• “10 minute spot demonstrations” at staff meetings on new tools, technology, resources etc.
• WIWOW – Walk in walk out Wednesday afternoons, where staff come into the computer lab with any  needs and Jess and I help them. It is purely voluntary and runs for 1 – 1 1/2 hours. Queries have related to a whole range of topics, including basic email use, photo resizing through to blogging, digital movie creating, music files and live blogging. This has been very successful.
• The sheer enthausiasm of our students with blogging and associated web2.0 tools has driven many staff to look at their work and become involved.
• As time goes by, and others join in, lots of ways and uses for blogging are shared resulting in even richer and more powerful learning outcomes. New directions are being discovered all the time.

Involving Parents

• a parent information evening for grades 4-6 students included a 30 min presentation of our goals in regard to the laying of the eplanks
• a weekly corner in our school and community newsletter updates them on progress, activities and notable events.
• at parent/teacher interviews, parents were shown student blogs
• students often show parents their blogs once home from school

Personal PD

• attendance at a SLAV conference with Will Richardson, a renowned blogging expert from the USA.
• 4 week inservice on Quest Atlantis – a virtual world for students
• online sessions with USA technology educationalist counterparts

Reflection and reporting

• blog postings
• producing podcasts
• presenting at conferences