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A few months ago I made this trialling the Google Search Stories Video Creator. All you do is put some words in the boxes & choose what type of search. I typed a variety of terms into each of the video search boxes. I choose a variety of seraches – web, image, blog etc. Below is the result

Create your own video here.

It was interesting to note that more people searched on video conferencing than videoconferencing – see graph below (the red line represents video conferencing searches & the blue line is videoconferencing).

You’ll be surprised by the answers – click  for videoconferencing and for video conferencing and for both terms.

In one of the forums I belong to, Arielle Goldstein, the Computer Teacher at Bayberry Elementary School in Watchung, New Jersey posted the following call for classes to link with via videoconferencing.

The elementary, K-4, school that I work at has Tandberg distance leraning equipment. We are looking for partners for all grade levels, we have 3 – 4 sections per grade, to meet at mulitple times for multiple purposes. In the past we have met both monthly for an entire school year with the same class or met based on the needs of a single project. We are located in central New Jersey and are looking for people outside of the tri-state area and USA.

If you’d like to link with Bayberry go to Arielle’s wiki and add your details.

I was looking at the Dilbert website and stumbled on this oldie but goodie for videoconferencing. It’s hard to believe that this was written in 1994! Enjoy…..

There are a few spaces left for the Polycom Special Events Literary Festival this week & next. This event is for Education videoconferencers who have Polycom equipment.

For more information or to book into any of the below events email Lynnette.

A Lesson Plan has been developed for EACH Author or presenter session. This is for the Videoconference session and the outcomes per the Teachers Notes or Class Activities provided by the Author themselves (if available).

Activities will include:

Pre work – reading the book prior to the videoconference (one book per session you register for will be sent to your school), discussion topics and homework is provided in the Lesson Plan.

On the date – suggested questions for the Author, Activities (per the Journalist session), and post work (after the call has hung up).

A Link for where to purchase additional books is indicated on the Lesson Plan provided by Lynnette.

Responsibilities: The students will READ the book (or a selected student) who will discuss with your class prior to the Videoconference

Questions for the Author are to be prepared prior to the session

The Teacher has A Lesson Plan, Teachers Notes, and additional resources available for that particular class.

Available Sessions

FRIDAY 20 AUGUST – Deb Fitzpatrick 12:30 – 1:15 EST (2 spots available)

Author of “90 Packets of Instant Noodles”

Joel is at a crossroads. His mates are pulling him in one direction, his dad and girlfriend in another. There’s bad Joel and there’s good Joel, but who is the real Joel? Bored and lonely, when Joel meets Craggs, life gets a whole lot more exciting. But what starts as a game becomes dangerously real. Flirting with petty theft (a couple of tools here, a bottle of booze there) is one thing. But as the boys get older, and the crime turns violent, Joel turns tail — but it’s too late. Joel’s dad convinces the authorities to keep him out of juvenile detention, and incarcerate him instead in a lonely bush shack, far from the nearest city. Three months solitary confinement, without even a radio! Stuck in an unforgiving environment full of physical challenges, Joel has only his own resources to rely on. Doing battle with urban deprivation, dead possums in the water tank, feral foxes in the food cupboard, and a half-day trek to the nearest phone, Joel starts to discover a few things about himself. But the past has a way of coming back to bite you, and when Joel’s old partner in crime tracks him down at the shack things quickly get out of control. Joel needs all his new-found inner resources to survive unscathed.

TUESDAY AUGUST 24 – Jeni Mawter 08:00 – 08:45 (EST) (2 spots available)

Author of “Launched” (plus more)
Ages: 8-13 (through to Secondary)

“Launched!” is the second book in The Freewheelers action/mystery books after`Unleashed! The twins, Clem and Darcy, and their friends Mio, Bryce and the new member, Tong, are The Freewheelers, five kids who tackle the challenges that come their way as they ride through their urban jungle. Although coming from different backgrounds and different families together they take on the world. When The Freewheelers decide to enter a bike trials competition they set up a training camp only to discover some unwelcome intruders. Tong’s bike is stolen and graffiti appears around the neighbourhood, including Bryce’s old tag from his days when he lived on the streets. Under suspicion, Bryce protests his innocence but the evidence that links Bryce with the bike thief is mounting. To clear his name and find the missing bike Bryce must turn to the street kids he used to hang out with, kids who he’s been forbidden to see ever again. Tensions rise as the bike trial approaches and Bryce must choose between The Freewheelers and his family, or his old friends

TUESDAY 24 AUGUST – Jacqueline Harvey 11:00 – 11:45 (EST) (2 spots available)

“Author of Miranda-Alice at School” (plus others)
Ages: 7-9

Move over, Matilda, and step aside, Madeline, there’s a new charming miniature heroine about to make her mark. Can one tiny girl change a very big school? Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones is waving goodbye to her weeping parents and starting her first day at boarding school. But something is wrong at Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies. The headmistress, Miss Grimm, hasn’t been seen for ten years. The prize-winning flowers are gone. And a mysterious stranger is camping in the greenhouse. Alice-Miranda must complete a series of impossible tests. Can she really beat the meanest, most spoilt girl at school in a solo sailing mission? Could she camp in the forest all on her own for five whole days and nights? Well, of course. This is Alice-Miranda, after all.

TUESDAY 24 AUGUST – Stephen Measday 12:00 – 12:45 (EST) (1 spot available)

Author of “Send Simon Savage” (plus others)
Ages: 10-13+

Simon’s father has drowned under mysterious circumstances and Simon wants to know why. So when two secretive men turn up with classified information and an offer of a place in an elite school, Simon jumps at the chance-not least because these men seem to know more about his father than they’re letting on. This however, is no ordinary school, it is one of the world’s most uber secret organisations: The Time Bureau and Simon has been hand chosen for training. Three centuries and multiple time trips later, Simon discovers a world he never knew existed and the story of a father he didn’t know as well as he thought he had. Unlocking these secrets is only the beginning for Simon Savage… Simon Savage is your fast-paced action adventure for 2010!

THURSDAY AUGUST 26 – Ursula Dobosarsky 12:00 – 12:45 (EST) (2 spots available)

Author of “The Red Shoe”
Ages:10+ Junior school

Funny, tough-minded and tender, this is the story of Matilda and her two sisters growing up in Sydney in the 1950s at the time of the Petrov Affair. Punctuated by the headlines of the time, it shows with unsettling clarity how the large events of the world can impinge on ordinary lives. The whiff of intrigue and mystery will keep you turning the pages of this story of a family living in Australia in the 1950’s. Told from the viewpoints of the three daughters aged 6, 11 and 15, the story follows their life with their mother, their war sore father, who is often absent on his ship (or is he?), and footloose and fancy free Uncle Paul, who might be making things better and then, maybe he’s making things worse. And just who are the mysterious new neighbours with the long black cars?

FRIDAY AUGUST 27 – Jo Oliver 12:00 – 12:45 (EST) (1 spot available)

Author of “Tatiara”
Ages:4-8

CAMDEN author Jo Oliver has used the story of a girl and an injured seal to offer hope to young people. Mrs Oliver’s second children’s picture book, “Tatiara”, tells the story of a girl in a back brace who meets an injured seal. Their injuries hold them back but when the girl’s brace is removed and the seal improves, the pair enjoy a swim together in the ocean at Tatiara, the Aboriginal word for the seaside town Tathra on the NSW south coast.

FRIDAY AUGUST 27 – Sandy Fussell 2:30 – 3:15 (EST) (2 spots available)

Author of “Polar Boy”
Ages: 9-12

Set in a 13th century polar community, a young boy’s destiny transforms him from a frightened child into a courageous hero. Illuak, a Too-lee boy, has been told by his grandmother that it is his fate to save his people from a bear. But the mere thought of a polar bear makes Illuak’s stomach churn and he lives in fear of this destined encounter. When Illuak summons the courage to rescue a Northman (Viking) child from a polar bear he realises there is a far greater challenge involved in the prophecy — two very different cultures are about to collide head-on.

For more information or to book into any of the above events email Lynnette.

I’ve just finished a webinar with the eT@lking group. Below are three things:

• more detail about 5 ways to use videoconferencing in education
• the slideshow – which is short on detail but will give you links to the sites
• the links – if you’re really short on time – scroll to the bottom of the post

You can watch & listen to the recording – start about 18 minutes in – that’s when we really get to the topic.

There are many ways that videoconferencing can enhance the educational experience. Here are five suggestions.

1. Access to more subjects/courses

This is usually the first reason that educational institutions install videoconferencing and the most common use when they first start. Students shouldn’t be disadvantaged by not being able to take all the subjects or courses they would like. However, it’s not always possible to put a teacher for every subject on every campus. Videoconferencing can be used to link a teacher and class at one campus with students who may be located in small classes at another campus, or on their own at their home or office. But don’t stop there! Let your imagination go wild. Why not take a class on how to conduct an autopsy or do a knee reconstruction! These and many more classes can be taken live via videoconference. If you’d like read about (or even join) the next live class on knee reconstruction click here.

2. Collaborating with other students and teachers

Collaborating with other students can be formal or informal. There are many units of study about culture, religion, climate etc that would come to life if your students could connect with other students who are living that topic. Or maybe you just link students informally to talk. You can find other teachers to link with at CAPSpace (Collaborations Around the Planet). It’s a social networking site for videoconference teachers. Once you join you can post invitations to link with your students on particular topics or issues. You can also choose to be notified of teachers wanting particular connections. Join CAPSpace here.

3. Virtual Excursions/Field Trips

School excursions are taking on a whole new dimension with videoconferencing. You can take your class to many places around the world without leaving the classroom! Imagine taking your class to meet the robotic Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus-rex dinosaurs at Adventure Science Center in Nashville; on a Mission to Mars Challenge with NASA; or diving on the reef with Reef HQ in Townsville? All of this for less than it would cost you to take the class to the local aquarium!

A virtual excursion allows you to link live via videoconference to a place of interest and interact with local experts. You can take students to places they would never be able to visit in person and have experiences that may not be possible in person. Your students will be able to participate in live demonstrations and ask questions of the presenters. The presenters are very skilled at involving students and this won’t be a case of ‘sit and listen’. There are hundreds of virtual excursions you can experience via videoconference. You can search for them at the Polycom Content Provider database or the CILC Content Provider database. Like any field trip, a virtual excursion requires planning and participation to be successful. Allow several weeks lead-time for booking. Many programs are popular and are booked out months in advance.

4. Linking to Experts

Experts can be authors, scientists, politicians, sports stars…. the list is endless. You can build a unit of work around an expert or have them link to you to motivate students. I urge you to ask an expert to link with your students – no matter who they are. People who don’t work in an educational institution often enjoy connecting with young people. And these days it’s easy for them to connect form their computer with a good Internet connection. You might also have experts you want to connect to. Videoconferencing can link you with them for an informal chat or a formal PD session – see below.

5. Professional Development Now you can link to anyone in the world – who would you most like at your next PD? You can ask and organise people directly – or you could search the Professional Development database to see who is offering PD programs on a regular basis via videoconference.

Happy videoconferencing.

Slideshow

This was designed for use in a webinar – so ignore the first couple of slides.

The Links

Following are the links I spoke about in the webinar:

• Total Knee Replacement lesson
• Collaborations Around the Planet
• Polycom Content Provider database
• CILC Content Provider database
• Professional Development database
• and don’t forget the Resources page of this blog

I was wandering about on the World Wildlife Fund website and came across a paper on videoconferencing. It’s called Virtual meetings and Climate Innovation in the 21st Century: Can offsetting CO2 emissions from flights by investing in videoconferencing be a way to support transformative change? and was released in 2009. It’s a timely publication since many organisations are claiming they are carbon neutral and citing video and/or web conferencing as a major part of their offset.

Picture of videoconference equipment courtesy of Polycom (doctored by me!)

The paper starts:

Due to technological improvements, an increasing number of business trips can now be substituted by ‘virtual meetings’ and therefore help to minimise aviation-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. For example, an Australian study has estimated that videoconferencing could avoid 2.4 million tonnes of national CO2 emissions, equivalent to 0.43% of the country’s total.

The author then notes that despite advances in videoconference technology, substitution from air travel to videoconferencing is happening relatively slowly. The reasons given for this slow uptake are listed as:

• concerns about effectiveness of the technology
• limited access to bandwidth and equipment
• weak vendor incentives to push large-scale use
• misalignment of user incentives
• a lack of strategic impetus in many organisations
• poor information about the benefits.

These barriers should be noted by those of us already using videoconferencing. It’s time to spread the word – videoconferencing is not only effective it offsets CO2 emissions! However, the paper notes that whilst there is plentiful data on conventional transport, no detailed studies have been done on the direct environmental impacts of videoconferencing.

The paper argues that:

the current situation with marginal use of virtual meetings is not inevitable, and that the development of a global, open access, videoconferencing infrastructure could significantly reduce CO2 emissions, with many business benefits at the same time.

It’s an interesting read (48 pages). You can download it here (direct link to pdf)

I’m not sure if ‘Telepresencing’ is a word – but I’ll use it anyway! And why is it that we always spell Telepresence with a capital ‘T’??? Perhaps because it’s had such a major impact in the industry.

I’ve been absent from blogging for a few weeks as I’ve been running a series of Telepresence workshops – many, many workshops!!! I’ve been using the Cisco systems – pictured below:

It’s been an interesting experience as this is the first time I’ve spent an extended period of time using Telepresence as opposed to videoconferencing. So what do I think – the good, the bad & the ugly….. Well mostly it’s good – but there are a couple of things I miss.

The Good

The picture quality would have to be the best feature. It’s wonderful to be able to turn cartwheels (not that I do!) and have NO picture break up. It’s just a pity that we can’t all have the large amounts of bandwidth needed to achieve this quality.

I’ve found that Telepresence is less tiring than videoconferencing. I think that’s because of the excellent quality picture – not as tiring for the eyes.

The feeling of being in the same room is definitely there. This is mostly because the system automatically makes people lifesize and doesn’t squash everyone into the screen. After just a few minutes you can build up a rapport with people you’ve never met.

The ease of use is also a big plus. There is literally nothing to do once you’ve made the connection – the system automatically moves the camera to whoever is speaking.

The Not So Good

I miss having a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) view of myself. In videoconferencing I use the PiP to check what everyone is seeing at any point in time. Because Telepresence tries to recreate a face-to-face experience, there is no PiP. I guess you don’t have a PiP when you go into a face-to-face meeting so you don’t need one in Telepresence.

I’d also like to be able to see everyone on the screen at once. I know this kills the illusion of being lifesize and in the same room, but I think there are times you need to see the whole group and not just two at a time – as this system does.

However, all round, Telepresence is excellent and great for those who don’t want to struggle with a whole bunch of controls (most of us). It’s videoconferencing on steroids! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on telepresence.

It’s your very last chance to take the 2010 Distance Education & e-Learning Survey being conducted by Jan Zanetis and Alan Greenberg of the Wainhouse Research Distance Education and e-Learning Practice Team. (Closing 12 May)

The 2010 distance education and e-Learning survey will explore how you use various collaborative technologies in your educational organization, what are their benefits, and how you see them being used going forward. The survey covers collaborative technologies such as social networking, lecture capture, virtual worlds, video and web-based conferencing, and interactive whiteboards.

For completing this survey:

You will be entered into a drawing for one of five $50 Amazon gift cards.
You’ll be sent exclusive highlights of the survey findings.

So please take a few minutes of your time to contribute to this valuable research – click here for survey.

The TANDBERG Summit was on in Sydney last week. There was no official Twitter channel, but two of us were tweeting – despite the lack of good connectivity! You can see the stream here.

Below are my tweets (unedited) of things that caught my eye:

keep looking »

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