Virtual Tours for Students

Technology allows outside experts to come in to a classroom and speak virtually to classrooms and also enables virtual tours in real time. Today, year 7 students had the pleasure of touring the MOMA exhibition at NGV (The National Gallery of Victoria) with Ingrid, one of the Education Officers but it was instead of a live excursion, it was conducted using Skype. Use this link to book your own.How it looked! 

Year 7 students went to the library after form assembly, where a new SMART monitor was used to project Ingrid’s image and the virtual tour. She introduced herself and proceeded to walk us around the dynamic NGV and show us elements of MoMA – the exhibition that has been brought from New York City. During the 40 minutes that we connected, we saw and heard her speak about some of the most famous pieces of artwork in the exhibition.

Not only were their paintings but animations, videos. cartoons, posters and 3D works of art. Ingrid did a great job in chatting to us, informing us all the time of what she was doing and zooming in on the art work so that we could see in fine detail the actual brushes involved or dots that compiled the art work. There was even a dining experience where guests are invited to sit in one of the windows of the NGV and eat a Thai meal!!! The connection was robust and stable and only dropped out a little when Ingrid moved between rooms. Ingrid encouraged questions through the tour.

Note if we had to go to Melbourne for same experience at the NGV:

• 4 hour bus or train trip to Melbourne plus up to 1 hour for parents to get students to bus or train by car (from home)
• permission forms required
• costs of bus, food etc involved
• Risk assessment needs to be completed etc.

The advantages

• no cost
• little effort
• no travelling to and fro Melbourne (we are 4 hours drive from the NGV).
• No need for extra risk assessments, permission forms and other administration
• simple technology use, user friendly software in Skype
• Watching Ingrid zoom right in with her iPad to the actual art work to see the finest details, which I don’t think the naked eye could do (certainly not mine!)
• Our classroom was lovely and warm on a cold winter’s day.
• we could see what goes on behind the scenes before the gallery is opened. People cleaning glass casing, wiping clean the white walls, an exercise class moving through etc This made for further research and conversations once the virtual tour had taken place.

The challenges

• my lack of technical expertise on using the new SMART monitor in the library where an HDMI cable is now required for projection. (I am used to the interactive whiteboard) I had to get the computer technician to come and help me and this took a while, so although I had tested the webcamera and tested the external webcamera and activated that, I did not get time to test the microphone so this did present problems for Ingrid as she could not hear us well, but we heard her really well. That 2 way conversation is essential for successful interaction.) Our linkup was first thing in the morning, so there was little time to get organised.

However, this is an amazing opportunity and I cannot understand why more educators dont make use of these virtual tours.

Twitter: #NGVkids @NGVMelbourne

Link to book your own virtual tour. 

Skype in the Classroom

This was a topic for a 30 minute presentation that I made to Sheldon College, in Brisbane, Queensland, 1883 kms from me.

The presentation was made using skype and covered how to use skype, find contacts, advanced features and sample classroom uses including virtual guest speakers/experts, global connections, cultural experiences, virtual tours etc . Here is what was done:

1. intitial contact made using emails
2. test of skype connection earlier in the day between the school and me
3. a quick run through of the proposed session with Vanessa the co-ordinator of the Professional Development Day to ensure it met their objectives and needs
4. a back channel set up in todays meet for participants to introduce themselves (and for me to have some idea about the interests and needs of the audience)
5. Chat messages to alert me to when they were ready for the presentation.
6. Cabled my laptop in for best bandwidth
7. Videoconference call made at the appointed time for the session
8. Webcamera introduction
9. Screen share from my end allowed me to share the powerpoint presentation with the remote location.

See the presentation:-

Skype in the Classroom—Anne Mirtschin

https://docs.com/d/embed/D25193928-4011-7935-3820-000397619509%7eM9dcb2cf0-75c2-fd54-cc0d-4cb4b9b90919

This took approximately 30 mins. Sound, video and audio were all good. The presentation was uploaded into docs.com for sharing and the link emailed through.

Behind Closed Doors: Sebastian guest educator from Kerala, India

This week is Education Week in Victoria, Australia. To celebrate teaching and learning, our school opened its doors today on the theme: “Behind Closed Doors”. Grandparents and parents were invited in to the classrooms between 11:30am and 2:30pm.

Year 7 ICT class demonstrated the power that technology can bring in opening up the doors globally. Sebastian Panakal kindly accepted the invitation to play “Mystery Skype” with the students, then show his wife’s Seena’s wonderful samples of origami and and answer any further questions.

Students had to think of one question to ask Sebastian, that required only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, whilst I solved the many problems I was facing with my laptop. Sebastian waited extremely patiently whilst my laptop rebooted. Students gradually worked out where Sebastian was from, using visuals and accents as ancilliary clues. Hamish actually worked out the name of the city – Kerala! Students had previously asked if he lived in the northern hemisphere, near a tropical forest, near the Pacific Ocean etc. Once they knew it was India, the next questions were

• Do you live in southern India?
• Do you live in a big city?
• Do you live in Kerala?

Sebastian proceeded to share the wonderful origami that his wife Seena creates. I hope he could hear the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the students as the webcam beamed them back to us. She shares her work over youtube.

As it was breakfast time for Sebastian he told us he was having Chappati & Daal – further learning as to what this actually looks like. Appam (made of rice) and curry was also part of it. Our students had had toast, toasties or cornflakes with banana!

Then he  invited us to Skype with “Sandesh – Be the Change” learners as part of training of a team of social entrereneurs ready to empower poor at the bottom of the pyramid in Kerala. The Prime Minister is eagerly promoting “Make in India” – Kerala Government is keen on digital democracy, empowering the marginalized. What a fabulous event for us to be involved in.

Read some of the student blog posts and what they thought about it all:

1. Kiara’s post
2. Dominic’s post
3. Emmerson’s post
4. Tim’s post
5. Megan’s post

Safer Internet Use Day

Today is Safer Internet Day #sid2015 – a globally recognised day organised by Insafe. In First Aid, one of the first lessons to learn is DR ABC. The D being of prime importance as it stands for DANGER. When using the internet, it is important that students also learn of the dangers, so they can protect themselves as much as possible. As our Australian school year starts, this is a timely lesson and should be enforced whenever technology is used.

Australian Cybersmart organised webinars to be held throughout Australia for classes of students in years 4, 5 and 6 today. In Victoria, Digtial Learning partnered with ACMA to provide a webinar at 10:30am with more than 130 classes and more than 20,000 students logged in – a wonderful number to reach, all learning and sharing together under the guidance of an expert speaker. Popular Greg Gebhart ran a presentation on “Being a Good Bystander” using case studies, discussion, graphics, real world examples and time for feedback and reflection. Teachers were given the opportunity to test entry into blackboard collaborate, the virtual classroom software to be used the day before with help support provided by telephone on the day.

Students were also given the opportunity to participate as individuals in a chat or backchannel using Todaysmeet. Due to the large number of students online in the backchannel, the chat was fast and furious with some wonderful sharing by most students and lots of ideas on how to support their fellow peers. This is an amazing example of technology allowing students anywhere and everywhere to connect and learn. There were small rural schools, huge city schools, private and government schools all in the one classroom, connecting together and most importantly sharing their learning and experiences.

For Victorian teachers, further resources are available on FUSE for follow up activities and a game called “The Postie” was highly recommended.

What did you do for Safer Internet Day?

 

 

 

Going back in time!

Mariko Eguchi took us on a virtual tour of a Japanese classroom belonging to the class she is going to connect us with in early December.  Japan brings images of high technology use in my mind so it came as a bit of a shock to see a blackboard, chalk, no sign of computers or technology except for Mariko’s equipment, chairs in straight lines, desks individually placed allowing one student per desk etc. Certainly a contrast to our classrooms at Hawkesdale! It took me way back in time and reminded me how far we have actually come with technology.

Mariko had brought mobile polycom equipment, but the school firewall did not allow video to be transferred during our test linkup.  Skype was used instead with the video and audio of high quality.

The year ICT class used Mystery Skype, google maps etc to determine where Mariko was from. She then took us on virtual tour of the classroom explaining that we were to meet the actual class in a couple of week’s time. Students were intrigued to find out that this school canteen only serves curried rice compared to our school which has a wide variety of hot foods and cold foods.

One of my students then took Mariko on a virtual tour of our school, using their microsoft surface tablets device.

 

How To Bring in Virtual Participants Effectively

How would you go about connecting a housebound staff member to a school curric day? @jjash@rgesthuizen@camhock@murcha

— Margo Edgar (@medg56) August 24, 2014

This tweet sparked a conversation on twitter with many teachers offering advice. Before answering the question, further questions were asked:-

1. was the staff member housebound and able
2. what software would be best to use and which is easiest
3. sound could be tricky so need a microphone. Question on what sort of microphone and how to set up
4. what physical space was being used and how many f2f participants
5. what does the program look like – presentations, workshops, group work etc?

Valuable advice from Brette Lockyer

@medg56 @jjash @rgesthuizen @camhock @murcha Whatever used should give opportunity 4 them to do more than listen: input, add to convo.

— brette lockyer (@brettelockyer) August 24, 2014

As one of my passions is using technology to break down all barriers. From my experience, my response would be as follows:-

Potential tools to be used:

Software options available to Victorian School Teachers:- Skype, Blackboard Collaborate (through DEECD license), MS Lync, Google Hangouts or Polycom videoconferencing equipment. The easiest tool to use would be Skype as it extremely user friendly but may be blocked in some schools. It would allow chat, video and audio options plus some more difficult features such as screen sharing etc. Recording sessions is more difficult and bandwidth may be an issue. A mobile device can be used for access from home.

Using skype

MS Lync is available to Victorian teachers but the software would need to be installed and activated on devices. If it is a two way link, it is user friendly and has many advanced features, including chat, whiteboard and the ability to send large files. It can easily be recorded and presents itself as wmv file once finished which can be shared privately or online. All participants could log in and the chat area could be used as a valuable backchannel, giving everyone a voice. Multi participants would take more time to create email invitations.

MS Lync whiteboard

Blackboard Collaborate is still one of my favourite tools for bringing in virtual participants to events. It has many advanced features, including that valuable backchannel, an interactive whiteboard, the ability to create breakout rooms for group work and can be recorded easily. One link or booking could run all day or different links created for different sessions logins. The housebound teacher would need to have trialled it first to make sure it all works from home, especially if on a Mac. There is a mobile app which does not allow participants full interactivity eg cannot write on the whiteboard, but can chat, view and talk. At least one staff member will need moderator rights in order to book a room(s).

Interactive whiteboard in Blackboard Collaborate

Google Hangouts Offers many of the above features and is very google based. Sessions can be recorded and uploaded simultaneously to youtube. However only 10 video participants can be involved and it is very bandwidth heavy. If multi participants, takes time to learn how to set up the hangout and share out the link. It would be preferable to provide a different hangout link for each session.

Google hangouts used for PD

Polycom Videoconferencing Equipment All rural secondary schools and smaller rural primary schools have access to Polycom equipment. The housebound teacher would need to log in with a mobile device and the video will not be as clear. A separate back channel would need to be created eg with todaysmeet.

Polycom used for PD to several schools

Brette Lockyers suggestion was such valuable advice as the one of the biggest challenges is to make virtual participants feel part of the professional development.

@rgesthuizen @medg56 @jjash @camhock @murcha Yes n maybe also assign an on-campus buddy to enhance communication. Hard to call out online! — brette lockyer (@brettelockyer) August 25, 2014

Other considerations

Requirements:

Equipment: microphone, web camera, ideal location for the recording devices to capture sound, video etc and above all – determination to make it work! Preferably an on-site buddy and a back channel separate to the chosen tool.

The simplest and easiest to use option would be for “an (confident) on-site buddy” to use skype on their laptop or mobile device, sit up the front, directly in line with the presenter and videoconference presentations.  The housebound staff member would be taken with them to be part of their smaller group discussions. It takes pressure off the organisers and presenters to be using the formal equipment and worry about sound, microphones etc. The buddy’s device would need a built in webcam and microphone. However external ones could also be used.  Alternatively any of the above tools could be used by the buddies. The buddy would need to watch the txt chat for any messages from the virtual participant.

If there is no buddy, careful consideration would need to be given to position of webcam and microphone. The webcam will need to capture the presenter, and/or the presentation and will need to be adjusted each time unless using Lync, Blackboard Collaborate or Hangouts.

If the whole staff are to participate in the virtual link up simultaneously, then blackboard collaborate and MS Lync would be the tools of choice. Physical participants will need to turn down their speakers and listen to the actual voice rather than the virtual. They can be active in the chat or on an interactive whiteboard should the occasion present. Other external participants could be invited in to create an even richer environment.

Complementary Tools

A backchannel in todaysmeet could bring in all participants if they have their own device allowing questions, shared resources, information sharing and a space for follow up conversations.

A backchannel should also be agreed upon and tested with the housebound staff member so that they can communicate should the normal channels not work in making connection- could be any of the above tools that they are familiar with.

The buddy

Needs to be comfortable with using technology, networking and a person who can work well, actively, interactively and collaboratively with the housebound staff member.

Recording of the Event

In the event of misfortune, the event/sessions should at least be recorded so that it can be viewed again and again!

What have I missed? What would you suggest? There are many many tools out there now for web conferencing but these are my favourite ones! It is learning in progress and using technology effectively to ensure that no-one is restricted from learning!

“Meet The Scientists” Virtually

This week is National Science Week in Australia. Many events have been organised and suggested for schools and science classes. Most of these great events occur in Melbourne which is an 8 hour return trip from our school – a near impossibility!

When the opportunity arose for our students to be part of a remote polycom video conferencing linkup to Meet the Scientists , we were quick to take up the opportunity. Cameron Hocking of the Melbourne Museum was keen to reach out to as many rural schools in Victoria and target primarily year 8-10 students, introducing them to some amazing careers and opportunities in Science.

Yesterday, we had the linkup with 5 scientists who have the most amazing careers, unusual opportunities and chances to travel. A backchannel was set up which provided remote students, teachers and classes to be given an opportunity to ask questions of the scientists. This worked really well and many interesting questions came forward. It was gratifying to hear them being answered.

Why it worked well:-

• many hours had been spent in preparation for this event, ensuring the connections, equipment etc all worked as it was a first for Scienceworks and the Melbourne Museum (at least on this scale)
• promotions had gone out through social media
• the scientists were well chosen and strong, engaging speakers sharing wonderful images.
• the backchannel was great and could be used for questions, sharing of knowledge and also to report any audio, video issues etc.
• the careers were adventurous, unusual and of high interest to students
• the bandwidth was sound
• best of all, we could actually attend!

Challenges

• technology and getting the video displays right
• ensuring all participants muted their microphones
• keeping within 1 hour, as beyond that time, students get restless in the virtual space
• getting all students logged into the backchannel

Who we listened to:

1. Dr Stuart Mills, Geologist
2. Dr Erich Fitzgerald, Palaeontologist
3. Dr Karen Rowe, Ornithologist
4. Dr Kevin Rowe, Mammalogist
5. Mel Mackenzie, Marine biologist

Britt Gow and her biology students also participated in a Polycom videoconferencing event on Monday for Science Week. Professor Doug Hilton, CEO of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute will be speaking to Secondary students on the topic of “I wish I was a Biology student in 2014”. He spoke about current research in gene technology at the WEHI.

There are so many wonderful opportunites to bring the outside world into our classrooms, why aren’t more teachers/classes taking up these opportunities. Did you celebrate Science Week? If, so how?

 

International Friendship Day

Collage of Brendahs class

Today is a celebration of International Friendship Day. Such a day becomes more meaningful the more globally connected we get. Having online global friends helps develop empathy for different cultures, ideas, religions, spaces we live in, conditions we live under etc. Misunderstanding leads to racism, friction and conflict.

My good friend, Sebastian Panakal from Kerala India was going to link up his students with mine today to do an international wave. But, the school was unable to connect. As Sebastian stated:

The school has postponed World Friendship Day Celebration ( and the Skype wave to your students) on 30th July due to Ramadan Holidays. Unfortunately MOON on this day came a bit late and the Ramadan prayer had to be rescheduled..

Immediately, my class is getting a sense of a different religion, the importance of this festival to Islamic people etc without connecting formally.

At night, a request came over the HLW skype group from Brendah of Port Elizabeth, East Cape, South Africa, for someone to speak to her grade 4 class about subsistence and commercial farming in their country. As I live on a farm, it was of personal interest to me. 29 students from her class, with names that I could never have pronounced, participated in the skype linkup with me and had to work out what country I was from, then ask questions on farming. They all spoke their native tongue, learnt in English at school but also learnt Afrikaans at school.

To complete the linkup, they sang with great rhythm and passion, a song that nearly brought tears to my eyes. There was a time ….

What does International Friendship Day mean to you? How did you celebrate it?

 

 

The accent and not the language barrier!

I was a amused today to hear dynamic Sheryl NussbaumBeach https://twitter.com/snbeach relate a story from years ago of getting up at 2am in the USA to be involved in an online conference. At one stage she grabbed the microphone to share her experiences only to be asked to please repeat what she said. After the third ‘please repeat’ she asked what language they spoke. When English was the reply, she realised her accent was providing a barrier to understanding.

This reminded me of the time I hosted a Tech Talk Tuesday webinar during global education week. I noticed in the chat that someone asked me to slow down. So, politely, I asked what first language they spoke and the response was “English.” My Aussie accent was too broad and fast for them despite me thinking that I was speaking slowly and clearly. Earlier this week I spoke to year 2 students in Russia. Their teacher stated that their questions would be very simple and may be unusual. When asked “Do I have a bed?” I said yes and tried to describe it, only to be interrupted by the teacher to say that the question was “Do I have a pet?” Oh dear!

On Tech Talk Tuesday this week, Marc Grossman from the UK presented on “Coding for everyone”. He stepped Peggy George from USA through creating a simple type game in Scratch. I quietly laughed as the two completely different accents wanted reassuring of what was said eg Did you say ‘hall’? etc  When classes connect and try to communicate, we know that something is not quite right when we hear laughter at the other end when nothing really humorous was related! But, we continue to try and make ourselves understood and just laugh together.

Overcoming the accents!

• Use a backchannel for questions and to support understanding eg skype chat with video, chat in the virtual classrooms, todays meet etc
• Slow deliberate talking helps!
• Laugh together and work through it all as much as possible.

It is interesting to note that skype is working on a translator during video calls. See http://mashable.com/2014/05/27/satya-nadella-microsoft-2/

Overcoming the Loneliness of the Far Distant School!

Visiting Federal Politicians

A big thank you is extended to the education staff at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) who taught our year 9/10 Visual Communication students and VCE Vis Com/Studio Arts students about “the use of lines and patterns in design” – their current topic of study”.

Ingrid Wood of NGV taught them about contemporary Melbourne artists and the ways in which they have used line and pattern in their work. These Melbourne artists were featured in the recent popular Melbourne Now exhibition were featured. Polycom videoconferencing equipment was used to bring Ingrid into our classrooms. Our visiting politicians were also able to witness this great use of technology in giving equal educational opportunities to country students.

Our school is approx 3.5 -4 hours drive to Melbourne. The cost, effort and time taken for a day trip makes it very difficult take students on excursions,  to explore and enjoy many of the cultural institutions that city students take for granted. Our students are geographically and culturally isolated, so it is wonderful to be able to use technology to connect them to many institutions, galleries, museums virtually so that they learn beyond classroom walls.

Feedback from the students on this engaging videoconference:-

• There are many different simple ways to make art – magazine cutouts of bottles were re-arranged to make a new work of art
• I liked how they demonstrated local artists from Melbourne to show you can actually do it. They weren’t overseas artists but our very own.
• I liked the masking tape on  the wall that had an intricate design.
• Exposure to different artists that we did not know about or haven’t seen before. As a student I wouldn’t know who to look up to find what we saw yesterday.
• I learnt how to use patterns and colours
• You can use anything to create art.
• How different artists use different products that are just part of everyday life to make art – the orange bags, the stickers, the Ikea buckets to make the dome.
• Really liked the mix of media types eg video, presentation, talk  in the presentation.

How we could improve:-

• I want to see more even more examples of artists work and more sessions.
• Position the class better – tables were in the way.
• Set up a backchannel for questions, feedback as it is too hard to ask question  because students  didn’t want to interrupt the presentation as it stops the flow.

Classroom setup