Day 1- Small town school reaches the Global Community

The article I read covered a project called Comfort Quilts implemented by students at Sunnyside Elementary in Pullman, WA (my alma mater, incidentally). The students made quilts and sent them to hurricane victims and pediatric patients in South American countries. The teacher found the children in need through iEARN (www.iearn.org) which connects 400,000 students in 95 countries. The students exchange info, data, writing and artwork in a variety of subjects. This avenue is a wonderful way for students to learn more about students all over the world, as well as help those in need, thus learning the true value of a global community. Megan Temple ISD

Spearfish to Sakaide City: Thursday Reading

Furger, R. “From Spearfish to Sakaide City: A Teacher’s Odyssey.” Edutopia. June 6, 2002.

The article follows a teacher from Spearfish, South Dakota who travelled to Sakaide City, Japan with the Fulbright Memorial Fund Master Teacher Program. The program matches experienced classroom teachers from the U.S. with counterparts from Japan in order to increase understanding between the cultures and provide new professional development opportunities. Kathy Christensen spent six weeks in Japan following the goings-on at a Japanese school and even teaching a few classes. When she returned to the States she continued her collaboration with Japanese teachers. Videoconferencing was just one aspect of the experience, but allowed Christensen and her students to see and visit with their Japanese counterparts on an ongoing basis and experience their culture in a new and exciting way.j

Megan

Temple ISD

Day 4–Videoconferencing in K-12 Classrooms: Doable and Practical FINALLY!!!!!!

This article is about Virtual FieldTrips and how two different grade levels (High School and 2nd Grade) did the same field trip to the Elephant Sanctuary. The article told about how the two grade levels experienced it very differently but still had alot of fun. the two schools were in Tennessee and the sanctuary was located in the middle of Tennessee. I enjoyed it!

Lori-TISD 

NASA virtual space

I have been very impressed with what NASA has done for education.  It does benefit them by getting student excited about spece exploration but I still think they go way out of their way to help teachers and students.  I have been to a conference at Johnson Space Center and loved every minute of it and hope to go again.  I was excited to fine this article and see what NASA is doing with VC’s.  I knew they were doing things but I had not done a search yet and this will give me great direction to boldly go where no teacher has gone before.

 Ken – Temple ISD

Day Four Readings

Out on a Lim with EdTech, by Janine Lim.

This was a fun and useful article simply because I have spent this week with Janine.  She covers the successful programs that they have experienced in their region.  There is also a website given in case you need more information about each program.

debra, Temple ISD

Middle School Videoconferencing Fosters Global Citizenship

I agree with the author of this article in that videoconferencing opens the world to students.  We live in an area that does not have very many opportunities for students so the videoconferencing can really help the students see and experience so much that they would not otherwise see.  It is especially meaningful when it fits with the curriculum and actually during the unit of study.  Middle school students must be actively engaged and videoconferencing with its interactive qualities meets this challenge.

Amy-TempleISD

Elementary Students “Go the Distance with Video Conferencing

This article was printed in 2001.  It describes the efforts of two elementary teachers in Texas doing the first videoconference in their areas.  Both pre-planned extensively.  Both were very committed to using technology and the kids naturally loved it.  If someone had never experienced a VC, this article would be enlightening, but I will pick a more recent copyright article for my next reflection.

When Good Technology Goes Bad by Scott Merrick

Plan, plan, and Plan B!  Nothing is worse than disappointing a group of excited students and teachers.  Merrick shares his botched VC experience and advises the reader to take heed.  “A Videoconference Where Everything Goes Wrong,” http://www.unc.edu/cit/h.323/ created by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Instructional Technology helps teachers and technologists prepare for an effective videoconference.  However, as we all know…on occasion the worst can happen.  Make sure you have taken the few extra minutes to plan for such an occasion. 

Cynthia

Cultural Exchange

The article that I read today is an excellent example of how to use video conferencing to bring tow different areas togeather for an exchange of ideas or comparison of each others cultures.  In this article it was talking about an exhange between a town in South Dokota and one in Japan.  It spoke about the similarities that the two classes found existed between them that they would have never imagined.   Plus also about the differences that they noticed.  One example, was how different it was during recess.  In Japan, no teachers were outside with the students.  If something happened, an older student took care of the problem.  We know this would not happen in the US.  Students must be supervised at all times.

Both teachers in both countries see things differently now whn they speak about each others’ countries.  Their participation was an ey opener to them.

Erasmo- Temple ISD

What the research says about video conferencing in teaching and learning

This is a good article for everybody, new or experienced to video conferencing.  It gives several positives to video conferencing such as meeting face to face with an expert and hearing it in their native language.  It also talks about how a student who does not have confident writing skills may open up more when he can talk about what he wants to say.  But it does warn that not all students are going to like the technology involved in VCing.  Their are many advantages to VCing but it needs to be planned well so it can be done effectively.

Adrian
Temple ISD