Solving technical issues on a global scale!

Skype for initial call then keeping contact open

There is a saying that “if your product is good, the market will come to you!” The same saying can be applied to a person who has a strong online presence. If you are interested in global connections, have a strong profile, blog, share what you are doing and push it out there, others will find you and seek connections with you.

I was delighted to get an email from a university lecturer, Mariko Eguchi, from the Shimaine Prefecture in Japan who is working on global competencies with a number of countries including USA, Taiwan and Russia but was seeking interested secondary teachers in Australia. I immediately responded and said yes I would be interested as Mariko offers linkups via both skype and polycom. We get lots of skype contacts but global polycom users are more difficult to find. The visuals can be clearer with dedicated videoconferencing equipment so I was keen to try our school equipment with Asia.

Year 12 dress up day

Yesterday we used skype to initially connect, and used as a backchannel while we tried dialling each other over polycom. Year 8 girls happened to be in the room as were some year 12 students. It was their final day of school and they had come dressed up! Always a great opportunity to show off their costumes if it is on a global scale!

I could ring Mariko using polycom but she could not ring me. It was decided to test the connection with the school that she wants us collaborate with this Friday.

Skype opens our learning spaces

Polycom videoconference was next

Testing is essential and to ensure we covered all possible potential complications, I booked a room for us to meet  through our Education Department just in case. Mariko then used skype chat to tell me that I cannot ring her on her mobile unit when outside the university, I have to ring her! We then tested the room connection immediately through the booked room number, but although Mariko could see me, she appeared as a blue box to me and also to her.

Resolving Mariko’s lack of video

Mariko is back on video

Gary Schultz, a virtual learning officer with our Education Department was messaged. He came into the room virtually and immediately to try and resolve the problem. As there was still no solution, the central office digital support technician was contacted who also immediately looked at the back end to find all was well on the Australian side. It was suggested that Mariko’s camera was not working. She contacted her technician who was on site. She came in immediately and resolved the problem. The actual linkup takes place tomorrow so fingers crossed all goes well.

How fortunate were we to have almost immediate virtual and face to face help and that technicians from 2 countries could work together and resolve the problems.

Spring is in the air!

It is finally spring in Australia! Today marks its official arrival but the last week of winter was lovely and warm giving us a real taste of what is to come. The daffodils are out and the blossom trees commencing 

Janet Barnstable of  the HLW Skypers group and Global Virtual Classroom, sent those of us in the Southern Hemisphere a little “Spring” by sharing with us this website – the Flower Garden. It starts up as a black screen, but here are Janet’s instructions for making it come alive!

Click your mouse anywhere (& everywhere) on the page & see what happens!
Better yet, click (hold down) & drag your mouse over the black page…
Enjoy!!

I wonder how this was done. Is there a similar tool that students might be able to use to create similar outcomes? How could something similar be used as outcomes for classwork?

Happy season of Spring if you are about to enjoy it like me! How many seasons do you enjoy? What is your favourite season?

 

A new school year begins and global classrooms connect!

As Australian schools enter the final weeks of term 3 with still another full term to go, our European and USA counterparts (and others) are starting or about to start their school years. Reinhard Marx is an innovative connected colleague from Germany and someone I really enjoy working with asked whether I could teach a grade 4/5 class about the area I live in. It was one of their first classes for the year.

Tools used and resources accessed:

1. Skype was used to connect me with his class and to provide a backchannel for reminders and prompts when we were both ready.
2. A powerpoint presentation was created to show a little of my school and the farm that I live on.
3. It was uploaded to google presentation, should my bandwidth not allow me to share from my screen.
4. An Australian flag
5. A real pet lamb (as we are in the middle of the busy lambing period on the farm)
6. A fresh bunch of flowers (as this is my hobby to garden and work with flowers)

My grandson and me on the farm bike

We started with a mystery skype. The students did not take long to work out where I was from. When they worked out my country, I shared my flag to the web camera. Students then volunteered to ask me a number of questions eg “Was it winter where I lived?”. The last 15-20 mins, I shared my screen through skype and talked through the photos of school and our farm. The bandwith was great for a start and images and audio crystal clear. However, after the fourth slide, the size of the images failed to load quickly in Germany, so I shared the link to the google presentation and we walked through the images remotely. To complet the lesson, I brought in one of our pet, bottle fed lambs – always a sure winner!

I like working with Reinhard because he:

•  actively seeks global connections and lessons. He is a science and maths teacher
• gave students the choice of mystery skype and a lesson with me or they could continue with their maths. (There was a mix but most of the time, they were intently watching me and the presentation)
•  introduced the class of 26 clearly to me swivelling the camera so I could understand the teaching space I was in
• always repeats what the students say, so that I can both hear and understand the comment or question asked
• always stopped me for a question that a student might have – so their curiousity was satisfied immediatley and not forgotten about
• ensured the students came up to the camera and could be clearly seen by me
• interpreted my talk so that all student members could understand what I was sharing

Challenges:

• bandwidth and sharing images over skype
• working with an interpreter, remembering to keep my sentences short and concise, pausing to be interpreted and then carrying on
• the accents and understanding the comment or question – especially understanding the name of the students

 

The role of questions in learning!

“What did you learn, Terri?” I asked a student.

“I didn’t learn anything, I just asked lots of questions” was the response.

I was surprised by this comment from one of my year 7 ICT girls following a linkup with students from another school in Melbourne. They had been placed in pairs and used Onenote to learn about each other. I know that she would have learnt a lot as she had asked questions, received responses and discovered the answers to what she wanted to know.

My secondary students also do not think that they are learning when they txt each other on their phones, add updates to their favourite social media sites or share images and videos. They have a ‘set’ view on what is ‘formal’ learning but do not pull that across to this wonderful informal learning.

A recent linkup with Melbourne Museum where students could Meet the Scientists virtually using polycom equipment, meant that they did not have the same opportunity as the f2f audience of students. However, Cameron Hocking had provided them with a backchannel, which some of our students used. There were many questions placed in that backchannel and many of them were also posed to the physical panel of scientists. Following is a sample of some of the questions asked of Dr Erich Fitzgerald, Palaeontologist, in the backchannel:-

• Are whales your favourite?
• Did whales once have legs?
• did you help get that whale back into the water a few weeks agoless than a minute ago by jeremy ring
• How do you name the animals or find out the names of the animals if you’ve never seen the animal or fossil before?
• How big is the biggest fossil you’ve ever found? Emily year 6about a minute ago by The King David School
• how many fossils have you find this year

Wherever possible, students should be given the opportunity to participate in a backchannel, whether it be one set up in eg todaysmeet or backchannelchat or in a virtual classroom eg blackboard collaborate, skype, MS Lync etc. It will provide a teacher with further teaching and learning opportunities, areas for research,  and greater knowledge of student interests and involvement in topics.

Do you get many questions from students? How important do you think that questions are? What role do questions play in learning?

When the North Star meets the Southern Cross!

Wisteria, our engaging presenter

This morning reminded me how anxious and nervous teachers can get when they face the unknown! Although I have used our polycom videoconferencing equipment extensively with educators, classes and community organisations within Australia, I had never dialled an overseas polycom unit. The IP address had been given to us to dial rather than they dial us! Eek! A practice run was rather difficult due to our time zone differences so at 9am my time this morning, I dialled the number 15 mins before the students were due in for lesson one, having shared Skype contact details should we face technical problems.

Almost immediately, Wisteria answered the call and we were transported into Marriner’s Museum, Virginia, USA, a different day, a different time zone, different hemsipherse, different culture, history and a different accent.  Students from year 1/2, year 7 and 9 then enjoyed an engaging and interactive session with Wisteria as she revealed life at sea centuries ago. It was fascinating to hear from someone in our ‘yesterday’, who talked about the Northern Star and their famous explorers eg Christopher Columbus cf Captain Cook for us.

What worked well

• a crystal clear videoconference on both sides, with no hint of lag
• our microphone that was able to pick up the answers from our students who often spoke quietly and were at the back of the room.
• an engaging and interactive presenter, in Wisteria, who varied the session with a mix of using images, objects from the museum, getting the students involved, using the webcam effectively  and even sharing a youtube video that did not lag either!
• having the broad mix of age groups. The young students added a dynamic, unreserved and spontaneous addition

At the end of the 60 minute session, students were asked to relate three things they learned and one thing they enjoyed. Following are some of the year 7 ICT student comments. Year 1/2 repsonses will be added as soon as they have had their responses go through the editing stage.  By the time year 7 related what they learnt and due to most remembering different elements of the presentation, their total compilation almost gives the overall presentation on Life at Sea.

3 things I learnt:

• When at sea,  they worked for 4 hours and rested 4 hours,  about the different parts of ship

• What people at sea eat, lots about compasses, learnt all about parts of ship

• The youngest pirate executed was 9 years old. Captain Cook was first captain to give his crew fresh vegetables, in their spare time, crew members would carve pics on whale teeth

• Only males were allowed to go on a ship, and as young as 6 or 7; they would eat crackers made of flour and water, dominoes were made from parts of whale’s mouth

• Children started work at age of 6 and 7 – eg scrub the deck, peel the vegies; because they didn’t eat fresh veg and fruit, they lost their teeth and their skin would change colour; older kids would have to work for hours, $12 per month pay

• Pirates take valuable things, you need vitamin C otherwise you get black gums and your teeth will fall out; little boys started work on ships between the age of 6 and 7

• Kids went on ships at such young ages; women work on ships disguised as boys; pirates don’t really kill captives unless they have to – put them on an island if they did not comply. Walking the plank was only done once in history. It is not a common practise.

• It was night in USA, 7pm, our today was there yesterday; pirates don’t make you walk a plank, only one person was ever made to do that; Time differences, didn’t know USA were so far away from us,

Showing museum objects

What I liked

• Much better learning from someone like Wisteria than through a textbook
• How she showed the actual objects
• Hearing about the female pirates
• All of it was really good – Wysteria was a really good presenter, asked questions and got everyone involved.
• Different time and it was interesting to know that she was in my yesterday and there was a night time concert outside while she spoke to us.
• Lady pirate Chin commanded 500 pirate ships, made me interested in old history
• The problem with hearing clearly eg the girl was actually a boy who answered a question, misunderstanding accents
• Liked how she was actually at the museum, and showed us the actual objects from the ship
• To see the things they used – photos and objects

If I could ask a question

• why did kids start work so young

• Did they eat canned food?

• What kind of food do they have in America?

Question time

 

Designing CD Covers – a task students enjoyed

This lesson worked well with my year 9/ICT class today. They used random links on a number of sites to come up with a CD cover. I prefer them learning by doing rather than learning by theory. This task teaches copyright, appropriate acknowledgement of IP and gives them some avenues to explore in other subjects when they cannot think of anything creative! Here is how it looked:-

Today we will design CD covers using some internet sites. This task is worth 10 marks towards your first semester assessment.

First watch the videos from Common Craft on Creative Commons

Follow these instructions:-

1. Go to wikipedia and hit random article on the left. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. Key it into a Word document. Save the name and the url
2. Go to the quotations page and hit random quotes on the left. The last 4-6 words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album. Save the name and the url.
3. Now find a photo that fits with your album! You can look for photos at compfight. Add a search word. Choose creative commons and find an appropriate image.
4. Make sure that you follow the prompts, grab the  code or get the web address of your photo and the photographers name so you can acknowledge (and link) where you got the photo from. Double check the permissions!
5. Use powerpoint, word, paint or other program to put it all together for your CD cover design. Consider using an online text creator for the title of your CD
6. Save as a jpg or png.
7. Goto your blog, write a blog post. Insert your CD cover image, explain how you put your album cover together.
8. Share the owner of the original photo or follow the permissions  and required credits given.
9. Add the category IT or Info Tech to your blog post
10. Add tags stating all the websites used and why you used themetc
11. Publish your blog post.

Enriching the Skype or Videoconferencing Experience

Recently Maria del Carmen Colussa posted an update on the HLW  skype group looking for someone to practise conversational English with one of her students – Carina. It is not often that my time zone matches that of students in the USA or Sth America so here was a golden opportunity to connect. Maria comes from Santo Tomé, Santa Fe, Argentina and teaches English to Spanish speaking students.

Carina is an adult student – a pharmacist who wished to travel thereby wanting to improve her conversational English. We talked a little about Australia. Then I noticed one of my year 9 students working in the lab and invited her to be part of the conversation. Initial confidence, volume of voice, accents and clear speaking are always a challenge when first connecting.  Georgina used the txt chat regularly to ensure they understood her.

The sharing and demonstrating of objects is always engaging. Georgina showed a toy koala and to our delight Carina and Maria immediately produced and showed us two cholitas which come  from Salta the north of our country.  

From Maria and Carina

Georgina’s curiousity was aroused and she searched online for more information about the dolls and the country once the skype videoconference was finished. As often occurs, the learning continued beyond the initial linkup. Read Georgina’s post on Skype with Argentina.