I have been reading my fair share of blogs, wikis and other documentation as schools around the world are deploying iPads in their classroom. It is finally our turn at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School to welcome 20 brand new shiny iPad2s (no cart, just individual iPads)

In the spirit of passing on the trials and errors, as we get the devices ready to be used in the classroom by teachers and students, I am documenting our process.

Here are additional resources, I used to help us along the way:

• Moving at the Speed of Creativity – Here Come the iPads – Now What? iPad Deployment
• ipadschools – How the set up went
• How to set up class iPads and iPods

Here we go:

1. Took the iPads out of the box and attached a SmartCover to it.
2. Used a designated “mother” laptop to create a dedicated Apple iTunes account. I had created also a dedicated email account for the iTunes account on the school’s domain, since I did not want to have a specific person attached to the account with their email.
3. Once the iTunes account was set up on the laptop, I started downloading all the free apps, were mandatory (in my opinion) to start out with (see two screenshots below)
4. I plugged in the first iPad via USB to the “mother” laptop.
5. Registered the iPad
6. Used the same apple ID, that I created when I set up the original iTunes account
7. Noted the serial number
8. The first iPad that was set up, was set up as a “new” iPad.
9. We decided on naming each one of our iPads after a famous Jewish Person (Ex. Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Steven Spielberg, David Ben Gurion, etc.)
10. Subsequent iPads were set up by “Restoring from the backup of: “ex.:Albert Einstein”.
11. The iPads synced all the free iPad apps that I have on the “mother” laptop.
12. As I plugged in each iPad separately, I upgraded the iPad software, if it was not up to date.
13. Renamed each new iPad with a new name from our selected list of famous Jewish People
14. Created an e-mail address for each iPad identity on our school’s domain (ex. albert.einstein@ourschool’sdomain.org)
15. Connect each iPad to our school’s wifi
16. Added the e-mail account to each iPad. Example. Albert Einstein iPad was set up with his own email albert.einstein@ourschool’sdomain.org)

I created a Program Manager e-mail account and two Program Facilitator e-mail accounts under our domain to apply to the  App Store Volume Purchase Program. Take a look at these helpful links, that explain the program visually and a little more in detail.

• Tony Vincent’s App Store Volume Purchase Program Explained
• iPads at Burley: App Store Volume Purchase Program

Next steps will be:

1. Teacher PD-Part I: Introduction to iPads in Education
2. Teacher PD- Part II: Automated vs Transformative use of iPads
3. Get them into the hand of our students.
4. Test out the “fluency” of being able to consume, create, disseminate, integrate and work with shared iPads across nine different grade levels.
5. Decide on which paid apps will make the cut to be part of our app library.
6. Assess and document student learning, engagement and motivation when using iPads vs. laptops or no tech tools.

I am constantly wrestling with the issue of using technology in schools to TEACH and to LEARN.

Long ago, I have resolved that teaching and learning DO NOT depend on technology nor are “not real”, good or effective without it (see Changing-Shifting a School Culture, Bringing in Experts.  Transformative Teaching and Learning? and It’s not about the Tools, it is about the Skills ). The best “tool” for good teaching and learning…is… a good teacher! That teacher can be a professional educator…it can be “yourself”… it can be a group of your peers… it can be a book, film, audio…(insert whatever media) or it can be… (insert whatever suits you, your learning or teaching style). What technology has done for me (it came naturally) is that it makes everything CLEARER!

Through the technology lens, I am:

• amplified… I learn amplified…I can teach amplified..not only to physical bodies that I happen to share time and space with at the moment…
• reachable… I reach and can be reached whenever I choose to
• worldwide… I am in contact with people from around the world… I disseminate, ask, receive, share, publish to a worldwide audience
• connected… to information, an audience,  a personal learning network, etc.
• collaborative…I am collaborating with educators from around the world to figure out “this thing”…how to best prepare the citizens of the future, so they can solve all the problems of the world awaiting them…
• available…I am available to others asynchronously via my online presence. Limitless information, opinions, experiences, expertize from others are available to me anytime, anywhere in whatever media and platform I prefer to learn with/through…
• exposed to multiple teaching styles… I am stretching my own teaching style by exploring and experimenting with media and platforms beyond my normal comfort zone…
• exposed to multiple learning styles… I am able to differentiate multiple learning styles by giving students choices that allow them to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways…
• networked… I am part of a network…I am not alone…a network of peers, experts, learners… a network that helps me be fluent in accomplishing tasks, solving problems, being inspired by ideas, remixing of information…

Without the lens… teaching & learning seems fuzzy… uni-dimensional…monolingual…not reaching its full potential… to me…

When I became a “Technology Integration Facilitator“,  I wanted to use and help teachers use technology in their classroom NOT as an add on, but as a way to support their teaching. As I grew in my own learning process and became a 21st Century Learning Specialist , I realized that it was not enough to integrate technology. There had to be a change (an amplification) in what learning and teaching could be in the 21st century. Technology was merely the tool, not the end in itself.

In the article Creating a New Culture of Teaching , Alan November points out the difference between AUTOMATING a task for learning (“using a $2000 pencil”) and INFORMATING teaching and learning (“think about information systems, whole systems of the flow of information and communication”).

It has been hard…I have not always been successful… in trying to help teachers see beyond the technology and the logistics of how to use it in order to TRANSFORM the way we teach and learn. There seems to be the need of keeping the change (that needs to happen) wrapped up in a “technology bow” in order to have excuses WHY the paradigm shift can’t happen. It seems easier (and more acceptable) to say “I don’t do computers” than “I don’t know how or don’t care to prepare my students for a different future than I am used to and adapt MY teaching to THEIR learning needs”…everything is fine the way it is…it has worked for the past 20 years…!

Technology integrationists, computer lab teachers or whatever the title , still seem to serve as the crutch some teachers want to/ need to lean on, instead of taking responsibility of becoming “21st Century literate“.   If classroom teachers are taking their students to the lab to “do computers”, then they can CHECK OFF the use of technology. If a 21st century coach/facilitator/specialist/resource is in a classroom to co-teach with them, then they can CHECK OFF the use of technology integration… no matter if the classroom teacher physically leaves the room, checks mentally out or grades worksheets in the back of the room…

How can we support the paradigm shift in teaching and learning if teachers and administrators are still hung up on the logistics and basics of technology use? How can integrationists, facilitators and coaches best use their time in moving forward and supporting TEACHING and LEARNING when they are asked to hold hands with AUTOMATING tasks that have been done with paper and pencils before? They are asked to :

• fix printers to print out worksheets
• upload and edit images and videos that will be forgotten on hard drives
• help students type their book reports to be displayed on the bulletin board outside classrooms
• be on call for teachers to help them when students need to take computer based tests
• supervise students with kill and drill math and vocabulary games
• bookmark Internet resources to be accessed by students
• help students with digital drawings to be printed out
• help with basic tasks like text formatting and file management

I had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Maggie Hos-McGrane at ECIS in Frankfurt, Germany last month. Her presentation The Role of ICT in the PYP was an incredible eye opener. Maggie mentioned The SAMR Model, which immediately caught my attention.

SAMR, a model designed to help educators integrate technology into teaching and learning , was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura.  The model aims to enable teachers to design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences to lead to high levels of  achievement for students.

Maggie explained how she is using the model to move teachers from substitution, where “technology acts like a direct tool substitute, with no functional change” to a redefinition, where “technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable”.

The SAMR model seems to perfectly align with Alan November’s Automating and Informating distinction.

Maggie and her team are deciding what skills their teachers will need to start taking on:

In the case of substitution we felt that teachers themselves should be able to lead lessons that involve simple data handling – adding information into spreadsheets to produce graphs for example. They should also be able to support students using a simple graphics programme, have students take photographs and transfer them onto the computer, use a digital microscope to view images, access the internet for research and use word processing software.

I liked the idea of the model to illustrate and formally outline for teachers the different stages. By pointing out their responsibilities in taking on the roles of leading and supporting their own students in the Enhancement/Automating stage of substitution and augmentation, the “crutch role” of the facilitator in the classroom should be diminished, limited and even eliminated. Classroom teachers take on the responsibility of these tasks. If they need help to learn the tasks for themselves, they receive training outside of the classroom without students. When teachers are ready to redesign and transform tasks (not automate) to create learning opportunities that previously  would not have been possible, the facilitator becomes the co-planner, collaborator, co-teacher, connector and coach.

I wrote previously about the issue of teachers relying on coaches/ facilitators too much in 2009 in a post titled Interested? Supported? Let’s move on to taking the Reigns.

How do we keep moving from one stage to the other? How long do we “allow” teachers to stay in one stage? How do we make sure we don’t enable teachers and get stuck? How do we increase the chances of sustainability? How do we prepare teachers so they are able to take the reins and enjoy the ride?

Almost 18 months later, I am still contemplating the issue…I have not found a solution yet… I believe  the SAMR/November model/idea can give us a roadmap.

I will be working with Andrea Hernandez on creating a customized chart with example tasks to illustrate for our teachers  what stage their “technology use” in the classroom falls under. We will formally outline what kind of responsibility we are expecting teachers will assume in leading and supporting 21st century teaching and learning through technology.

Here are a few more of Maggie’s blog posts describing how she is using the SAMR model at her school:

• The SAMR Model – From Theory to Practice
• Moving from S to R
• Moving from S to R part 2

What kind of task do you see in your own school, classroom or work that would fall under the 4 stages outlined in the model? What stages/tasks do you support directly? Which ones are classroom teachers’ responsibilities?

I remember when I placed in the top three of an international writing contest for students in German schools abroad. My essay “What is typical German” was published in a magazine. I was  proud as I could be to have my work “published” for the first (and only) time as a student.

Times have changed…

We are pushing teachers and students to blog , wiki, podcast, and video conference. We are upgrading our teacher toolbox to include web based tools to engage, motivate and connect our students locally and globally. We are asking them to create, produce, share and collaborate online. Publishing students’ work can be as easy as hitting a button.

But…

…we can’t forget to update our policies at school to reflect these changes.

As the 21st century learning team was looking at the current Media Release of our school, we realized that it did not address any of the media creation and publishing concerns associated with these new tools nor the philosophy behind sharing, authentic audiences, collaboration and anytime/anywhere accessiblity. It “only” addressed permission to have:

• images of students used as marketing and promotional purposes
• photos of students published in a school newsletter  or bulletins (paper version)
• video by the local news media
• images published on the school website

The media release clearly did not address the school’s move towards cloud based storage and digital creations to be shared with an authentic global audience.

I started to research other schools’ media and publishing releases.  There was clearly a trend that most of them were outdated and  addressed Internet access, images and videos published for traditional media outlets and  possibly for a school website. Very few addressed the use of digital portfolios, blogs, wikis, video conferences or other web based tools with content created and published  in the cloud.

See some examples I came across below.

Internet, "media coverage", images and videos published on Internet

Published in print, media, broadcast or video

Traditional media and website

Traditional Media & Internet Resrtrictions

Mentions website and podcast

In order to be transparent and to comply with what we ask our parents to sign, it was time to craft a new Media & Publishing Release for our school.

I sent a request on Twitter to share the releases others had put together to address the shift towards publishing students’ work.

Richard Byrne pointed me to an Internet and Media Publishing Consent and Waiver Form by  Tim Landeck, Director, Technology Services from the Pajaro Valley Unified School District

These templates can be downloaded, modified, and printed to obtain parental consent for students who publish their work and/or photos and videos online. A signed consent form allows the school or district to also publish photographs and videos of students.

• English template (Word®)
• Spanish template (Word®)

The above template was the one, that addressed the most points we wanted to cover in an updated media release. Take a look, download if you want to, edit and in the end share back by publishing and making it accessible to others. You can leave a comment with a link to your media release on this post. Media & Publishing Release

Just a few days ago, Andrea Hernandez (edtechworkshop) and I had a  conversation about our Personal Learning Network.

A “working definition” by David Warlick says that a Personal or Professional Learning Network:

involves an individual’s topic oriented goal, a set of practices or techniques aimed at attracting or organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to help the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest.

As I am working on various projects at school (A Worldwide Audience for Six Year Olds? and Jewish History Fair), where the presence of my PLN played a mayor role, I can’t help but wonder, if using and “showing off” these connections to students and other teachers, does not shed a “false” light on “reality”.

In order to disseminate student work, like

• the 1st grade podcast or
• the 8th grade Current Events Google Map

and get them an audience for

• global awareness
• increased motivation
• and the value a network can have as a source of information & resources

you have to have an active PLN to work for and with you.

As Steve Dembo (Teach42) points out in one of his recent posts If you tweet, will anybody hear?

In the effort of attempting to demonstrate how wonderful, simple, powerful and dynamic it is, we make it seem much more effortless than it really is.
[...]
the fact that it takes TIME and EFFORT to gain a few hundred followers. And without having a critical mass of people to message out to, your odds of getting a response from a general tweet are VERY small.

Steve is absolutely right. It takes time and effort to blog, tweet, share and disseminate. Are we making newbies or others who we want to introduce to the value of a PLN look through rose colored glasses?

Seeing the World through Rose Colored Glasses

Some of us are expanding and growing our PLN through blogging, twittering, skyping and speaking at local, state, national and international conferences. In consequence, we are able to create projects, collaborate with global participants solicited through PLN contacts and disseminate results to get feedback through our globally read blogs. I would not be able to do a lot of these above mentioned projects, at least not to the same extend nor with such a far reaching response/audience), without the always willing participant of my PLN.

Will Richardson even compares creating, maintaining, growing and working with and through Personal Learning Networks to a literacy.

… the literacy becomes how do you build these [Personal Learning] Networks?  How do you flourish within these networks? How do you find trusted sources within that context?

[...]

You have to be able to engage in those conversations. You have to be able to find those other people who are producing content or who are engaging in their own kind of conversations that you are interested in.

It takes time… it takes dedication to build a network… it takes perseverance to not give up when no one responds to your  first (second or third) shoutout.

Building and Maintaining a Personal Learning Network

The conversation, Andrea and I had started, about PLNs took a turn by asking, if we could expect every educator to dedicate that time and effort into building  AND maintaining such a PLN?

Is it realistic to expect every teacher to create, be part of AND nourish a PLN? A network that consists of contacts that would allow them to expose their students and their work to a global audience, experts and collaborators? A network that models for students the possibilities of connected and collaborative learning?

I wonder if every school should have a a position that is dedicated to search for, find, grow, nurture and provide a far reaching network of contacts to bridge that gap? The person in that position would be connecting teachers,   scout curriculum related projects from around the world to get involved in, find communication and collaboration partners  and put them in contact with their colleagues and students.

A Learning Network- A Give and Take

That person would be responsible for creating a SLN (School Learning Network). I don’t mean a Learning Network among people who work at the same school. I am thinking of someone in charge of nourishing a Learning Network  for all classes, teachers and students at a school, with their interests in mind.

Such a person could be in charge of sharing resources, growing potential collaboration partners, being available to help others via video conferencing, survey participation or collaborative assessment and in return be able to solicit expert advice, receive authentic feedback and harvest resources to distribute among colleagues and students.

A Learning Network is built on a give and take. You get out of it what you put in. What if that becomes the responsibility of one person or a small group of people at one school in order to benefit the learning experience of everyone?

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Please keep spoon feeding me.

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post titled Collaboration Projects-Doomed to Fail? I wondered:

How much can you spoon feed other teachers? Do you write their lesson plans for them? Do you keep nagging and begging for participation? How do you find collaboration partners who are equally invested in a project? How do you motivate your teachers at your school to be those invested collaboration partners for others?

At that time, my job title was “Technology Integration Facilitator”and I was struggling to get teachers even interested in and to be open to collaborative, global and technology integrated projects. Two years later, I am the “21st Century Leaning Specialist” at a school where most teachers have welcomed support, co-teaching and projects with an open mind.

I don’t feel handicapped that I do not have my own class, but empowered that I am able to be part of the  learning of many individuals and I get to work with ALL  students and teachers. We are communicating, collaborating, and connecting through blogging, podcasting, wiki-ing, video conferencing, back-channeling, goggle-ing, AND creating…

I am already so thrilled that there are teachers who are open minded, interested and willing to open their classroom doors that I want to:

• make it as easy as possibly for them
• allow them to completely concentrate on the objectives and goals of their subject area
• keep as much “technology related problems” away from them
• protect them from Murphy’s law

I don’t want them to have to do the (often tedious) work of:

• finding and coordinating with possible collaboration partners across the world
• filming, recording and editing the footage into final audio or video products
• setting up blogs, wikis, voicethreads and google apps
• writing, editing and cleaning up blog posts or wiki entries

One part of me FEELS that it does not matter who does the prep work, the leg work or deals with the problems, as long as students are

• learning
• being engaged
• being exposed to 21st century skills: communicating collaborating, connecting and creating
• connected to a global audience
• becoming literate (basic, media, information, intercultural, network, ethical, digital citizenship)

Chris Dawson asks in his post: Are we spoon-feeding our users too much?

If we simply spoon-feed them the technology and isolate them from the bits they find challenging, then they will never have an incentive to learn or grow independent in their use of technology, both in and out of the classroom.

And the other part of me KNOWS what Chris says above is true and that its important to “teach teachers to fish” and not simply give them the fish to eat.

Where is the fine line of making it as easy as possible in order to let teachers see that the benefits will outweigh (make it worth) the time invested, hassles and learning curve? It is important, in the beginning, to ease into the transition from “the old ways” towards 21st century teaching…but when does the time come to cut the umbilical cord?

Putting all the eggs in my basket...

Am I enabling teachers to rely on me or someone like me too much? My colleague, Andrea, wrote about her worries regarding sustainability in a post “Seeds, Serendipity, Sustainability“.
Her words helped me remember the learning and the integration has to come from within.

My concern is that, while Silvia is truly an incredible teacher and we are extraordinarily lucky to have this time with her, I worry that we are putting all our eggs in her basket. Silvia is an agent of change, a support, someone to lead the way — but the teachers MUST begin to develop their own PLNs, we must learn to be better at collaborating, sharing, supporting and teaching each other. That is the only way for these changes to be sustainable.

Teachers integrating 21st Century teaching, learning, skills, projects and technology

Is it a natural process all teachers have to go through in order to begin integrating and then sustaining 21st century teaching, learning, skills, projects and technology?

1. Being interested in and open minded towards a new approach?
2. Being supported by a colleague or technology/21st century coach, facilitator, integrationist?
3. Being able and willing to take the reins on their own?

Being supported and guided

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostinfog/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

How do we keep moving from one stage to the other? How long do we “allow” teachers to stay in one stage? How do we make sure we don’t enable teachers and get stuck? How do we increase the chances of sustainability? How do we prepare teachers so they are able to take the reins and enjoy the ride?

Taking the Reins

Why do we so often encounter defensiveness among teachers?

Defensiveness

• about the way they have been teaching for years the same subject, the same book, the same curriculum, the same tests, the same way…
• towards someone who is willing and ready to help them plan, co-teach, model, mentor, coach…
• about “doing” computers
• when listening to the difference between computers (in general), IT, networking, Help Desk and what “educational technology” means…
• against experimenting with something new where we don’t know the outcome yet ….but isn’t that the definition of experimenting?)
• against wanting to participate..becoming involved

Defensive (adj) is defined on Dictionary.com as:

Excessively concerned with guarding against the real or imagined threat of criticism, injury to one’s ego, or exposure of one’s shortcomings.

Mmmhh…

Is it an illusion that one can bring about the shift towards 21st century teaching & learning and integrating technology in our schools with:

• a smile
• a good attitude
• by being helpful and supportive
• “knowing your stuff”
• having a generally nice personality

That does not seem to be “enough”.

“In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.”
Carl Rogers

We are not the only ones asking ourselves these questions:

Why are teachers so defensive and what can we do about it?

Steven McLeod on Dangerously Irrelevant blogged “What they say vs What they hear“:

Educators’ reflexive defensiveness is a fact of life in most school organizations and is a challenge for leaders who are trying to move their schools in new directions.

He quotes Sue King who blogged on Leader Talk. Her “I said…they heard” rings so familiar:

I have said, “We must be explicit about what we want students to know, understand and be able to do.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “We will be more effective [if] we collaborate and work together to figure out how to best meet the needs of our students.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “The responsibilities of public education have changed; we can learn together how to be successful in this new environment.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “I believe in the ability of teachers to reach and teach ALL children.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

” Improving the planning and teaching of Mathematics by Reflecting on Research”  by Lauren Hoffman & Daniel Brahier

…can be a worthwhile experience as teachers compare the general findings of the research with what they typically do in their own classroom. Instead of viewing the results defensively, educators have an excellent opportunity to constructively improve their teaching performance through reflection on practice.

This quote implies that defensiveness seems to be also used as a mechanism for not having to reflect and and guarding against having to implement changes and adjustments of their teaching practice if necessary.

Corey Bunje Bower asks the same question on her blog “Thoughts on Education Policy”  Why do teachers get so defensive?

Although the post tries to approach the question and answer from the general criticism towards “bad versus good teaching” and not towards the defensiveness against technology integration aspect , nonetheless it points out the extremely personal nature of teaching as one of the reasons for defensiveness.

[...]teaching is a very personal pursuit. It requires a lot of an individual. Many people who go into teaching devote more than just time and energy into their teaching — it’s more than just a job to them. [...] For many teachers, however, their job is personal. And criticism of the way they do their jobs is seen as criticism of them as people. And nobody takes kindly to that.

How can we as  “Change Agent Wannabes” work with the defensiveness of educators?

• Do we need to take them as that is just the way it is in education?
• Only work with the willing (non defensive) ones?
• Focus on breaking down the defensive wall if we ever want to really be effective and shift our schools and education?
• Focus on building trust?
• How do we encourage dialogue?
• Make sure that we have the courage and passion to address individual defensive teachers and not make a “blanket” statement, plan or decision for everyone?

Steven Kimmi, on his blog Experiments in Technology posted Taught Versus Learn, A Distinguishing Factor

Again,  it was a small sentence that caught my eye and I was not able to let it go. Just as Kim Cofino’s quote about “ Using Technology Integration in the classroom is a Mindset, not a skill set“, I am mulling over the meaning of Steven’s

idea of waiting to be taught versus being willing to learn.

Is the difference an indicator of whether a teacher is a life long learner or not? Is being a life long learner a characteristic of a “good teacher”? Can you still be a good teacher if you are not a learner yourself?

Was does “the difference” mean to you? Is there a difference? Does it make all the difference? Is it an indicator? How do you work with teachers that are willing to learn? How do you work with the ones that are waiting to be taught? What are some of the characteristics of teachers who are waiting to be taught?

Six schools in six countries in one hour? Is it possible?

Over 100 participants in 23 countries have shown desire to connect with other schools and left their contact information.

Time zones issues seem to be the biggest hurdle in connecting our students with schools from the Eastern Hemisphere during school hours.

I invited the students in my TechClub to come and join me on a Sunday evening, the night before a school holiday on Monday, in order to skype with schools in Asia and Australia. Luckily that school holiday was a country specific one (Presidents Day) that the  other schools did not observe.

My own daughters and a family friend joined us to create a group of students from grade levels ranging from 4th-11th grade.

As you can see from screenshots of Google Earth above, taken on Sunday February at 8 pm (EST), it was already dark for us on the East Coast of Florida while the schools in Asia and Australia were already in school on Monday morning.

We met about 30 minutes before I had scheduled the first skype call with Thailand for 8 pm (our time). I showed everyone the google map with yellow placemarks indicating the schools that we would be talking to that evening. We made a visual connection to the time zone issue by looking at the geographic location of these schools on the map.

Each student received six index cards that they labeled with the country. I then asked for volunteers to

1. Introduce our school
2. Share something about our school or location
3. Ask a question

I also asked them to help me take notes of what each school would be sharing or asking us.

While we were in the middle of preparing our index cards, we received the first Skype chat notification from Ann Mirtschin (Australia) that they were ready for the call. Oops, even with using GMT and a converter online, I still must have mixed up the timezones and was off by one hour. (Maybe Daylight Savings time issue?)

So we needed to be flexible and improvised and jump in!

Open YOUR windows to the world!

image by ozekki

You could literally hear the hinges of the window screech as they opened up and we connected with:

1. Anne Mirtschin from Hawkesdale P12 College,  in Hawkesdale, Australia
2. Chrissy Hellyer from International School of Bangkok, Thailand
3. Jason Crewe from Busan Foreign School Elementary School in Busan, South Korea
4. Wendy Liao from United World College of South East Asia East Campus in Singapore
5. Heather Davis from Yew Chung International School of Beijing, China
6. Amanda Marrinan from St John Vianney’s School in Brisbane, Australia

In one hour students were exposed to:

• Connections to people and  cultures from
  • Australia
  • Singapore
  • China
  • South Korea
  • Thailand
• Measurements and Conversions
  • Temperature- Celsius- Fahrenheit
  • Distance- Kilometers-Miles
• Geographic Literacies
  • Language, Accents s & Dialects
  • Time Zones
  • Hemispheres
  • Seasons
  • Continents
  • Oceans
  • Location
• Technology
  • SmartBoard
  • Webcam
  • Skype
  • Chat,
  • GoogleMaps
  • Spreadsheet

Questions students asked the most

• Subjects taught in School
• Sports
• After School Activities
• How many languages do you speak?
• How many different nationalities are in your class

Students took notes on what they heard during our connections

Australia- Hawkesdale

• 11th & 12 th Graders
• It is summer there right now
• Boomerang is used for hunting, killing animals
• Lots of Koalas and Kangaroos
• Waltzing Matilda is an Australian folk song
• Red White and Blue flag

Thailand- Bangkok

• 5th Graders
• 81 year old king
• 15106.82 km away from Jacksonville ~9320.56 miles
• About 53 different nationalities
• International School
• 1870 students at the school
• They are in the rainy season- hot and humid
• They have many After School Activities
• Soccer is a very popular sport

Singapore

• Kindergarten
• other side of the world
• Audio was not working well

South Korea- Busan

• 4th Graders
• One student used to live in Jacksonville
• best food in cafeteria is Pizza
• Many of the students have been to the USA
• Popular sport: soccer
• Really hot in the summer

China- Beijing

• 4thGraders
• Wear red shirts as part of their uniform
• School is on East side of Beijing
• They like to play football, soccer, rollerskating, ping pong, basketball, badminton, Monopoly
• Their teacher, Mrs. Davis is from Canada
• Each student is from a different country, no Chinese students are at the school
• They all speak English and Chinese and the language of their home country.
• They travel a lot during their vacation
• Just celebrated the Chinese New Year (Year of the Ox)
• Currently -2 C
• About 850 students at school from 41 countries
• They like to eat ice cream
• They just learned about Alaska
• Ni Hao (Hello)
• Xie Xie (Thank you)

Australia- Brisbane

• 2nd Graders
• Net Ball- Like Basketball, but you don’t dribble, you have to throw it into a goal
• Sunny and hot
• They play soccer, cricket, football and netball (for girls), swimming, tennis
• They live close to the Pacific Ocean
• They live close to a bay.  “MoretonBay”
• One family of their class lives on a boat
• 28 C- 82 F
• 26 kids in class- 16 are boys
• compared activities in school
• wear uniforms

Things to consider for the future:

• Students tend to be quiet and shy the first time. As will anything else, give them time to practice and they will come out of their shells
• Let students be more involved with setting up the skype call. Let them manage the chat, dial in and video and audio settings
• Let students guide the conversation more
• Practice through role play ahead of time a CONVERSATION.
• Teach them to continue a question with follow up. How about you? My name is….what is yours?, etc.
• Improvisation and flexibility. How much do you want to script and prepare the conversation? How does that affect English Language Learners?

Technorati Tags: AroundTheWorldWith80Schools

Mike Artell, illustrator, cartoonist and author of several children’s books, has contacted me because he read (on Langwitches) about the fantastic connections my school is making via Skype.

He offered to “visit” us as well, via Skype:

I’m very interested in seeing how we might be able to work-in some drawing instructions when I visit with the kids. I can have an easel and tablet available and I can show them how to draw.

Mike and I skyped ahead of time to make sure that webcam and audio worked. We also wanted to test if his easel, paper and marker would be clearly visible for our students to follow along.

6th grade teacher, Mrs. M.  prepared hers students for his visit by pre-viewing some of his books

and listening to Mike read Petite Rouge (The Cajun version of Little Red Riding Hood), which I found on YouTube and downloaded to our server ahead of time.

When the big day came, Mike started his visit out with answering a few questions students had prepared ahead of time.

The main message Mike passed on was that when drawing cartoons, the most important thing is humor, not your drawing ability.

It set the tone for students who might have been a little insecure about their drawing.

Mike talked the students who were sitting with clipboards and paper and pencil all around the room through how to draw different emotions, animals and how to personalize letters. He made them Ooohh and Ahhh when he showed them how to draw heads from different perspectives.

We used our Flip Camcorder to record parts of the visit.  Students were hanging on Mr. Artell’s every word and we heard whispers like:

How cool.

This is so cute.

Wow.

Mike had the students mesmerized.  Several students were able to ask him how to draw something specific, such as a dog, chicken or a person running.  Mike improvised and made responses personal by calling students by their first name.

Although Mike was speaking from the “other side” of a webcam and screen, it did not feel “unreal”. The connection, video and sound quality were excellent. He was “just” another person in the room teaching by showing, answering questions, encouraging and responding and reacting to one of the students sneezing

Video Conferencing (via Skype) is a great alternative to allow exposure to different expert voices and opportunities that otherwise would be impossible due to time, budget or distance.

Field trips and professional development opportunities are usually one of the many things that are reduced or  eliminated at a time when most schools are dealing with budget cuts.

Why not think outside the walls of and for your classroom and imagine inviting an author, artist, musician or other expert in a field or topic that your students are interested in.

Try to contact them and see if they would be interested  in “visiting” you virtually.

The worst that can happen, is that you don’t receive a reply or a “No”. The best that can happen is a “Yes!”.

Thank you to Mike Artell for being the one to take the initiative by contacting me.

I am hooked. Can’t wait to have another opportunity to bring in an expert.

Anyone interested?

Digital Copyright: How to be Compliant in a Digital World
Presenter: Lisa Scherer

Description: Music, movies, graphics and Internet content are essential tools to technology, but how to you make full use of digital content and not break the law? This presentation will explain how.

Illegal music sharing sites:

• Limewire
• Kazaa
• Morpheist
• Grogster

Peer to Peer Sharing sites ARE ILLEGAL

If you have any of the songs from these sites on your home or school PCs , YOU NEED TO GET RID OF THEM. Schools are being charged fines if any of them are found on the school  PCs.

“Prince” made a mother take the video of a baby dancing to a song from him down from Youtube.

Copyright Case-

School thought if they used the portion of a song it would be ok. Claimed “Fair Use” . Fair Use does not cover you when using music.

Legal use is considered home and personal use. If you take CD to school to use, is NOT personal use.

Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines

Who owns the copyright to music?

Copyright.gov

Acknowledging the source does not substitute permission, especially in music.  Especially in web publishing!Must be on a secured password protected network to be considered fair use

No copies

Fair Use Guidelines:

1. Relevant
2. Used for face to face instruction
3. Credit/cite the copyright holder
4. One time -use

It is wise to document fair use in your lesson plan.

Fair use guidelines is for use of music without permission

Digital copyright is about being legal, ethical and you don’t own the music or material.

1. Legal
2. Ethical
3. Ownership

Links are not copyright protected.

Important Points:

• It is easier to infringe on someone’s copyright or other intellectual property
• It is easier for them to see me do it.

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