I am completely hooked on the idea of using video conferencing now. After reading this article you will too! Promise!
Vanderbilt University getting involved and making video conferencing easier for educators; what all educators want-less stress.
Ok, this was what caught me! Guess what was the University best conferencing experience? The University conferenced a Holocaust Survior and a six grade class. The conference was a one hour dialogue for the survior but a life changing experience for the six graders. Can you imagine how many lifes were changed that day! Can you imagine how many racial prejudices died that day! Awesome lesson.
The University is able to conference with more than one site, increasing their benefits of the project and experiences for participants.
Ms. Jan Zanetis is one of the pioneers in the program. She also wrote a excellent book that assist educators with video conferencing and provide easy lessons plans to implement with classes.
The book also provides real life stories of teachers-students conferencing experiences.
Ok, Ok, the book is called Video Conferencing for k-12 clasroom: A program development guide by Cole, Ray, and Zanetis. I checked, Amazon.com it's selling for $34.95 new and used $24.95.
I know what you are thinking! And the answer is I wish, I am not getting any money for the promotion of this book. I am just hooked and have a lot of ideas where this technology can be used.
I am on a panel for Conflict Resolution. We have taken so many students to the jails, but some parenst won't allow it, and the students miss out. That one experience might change that students path. But, if I had the conferencing in place, no one misses out. The seed is planted in everyone.
Read this great article called, Video Conferencing deserves a second look!
www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat127-2.shtml
4 comments:
All I can say is wow! I have to admit that I have never thought to use video-conferencing. It just was something that did not occurr to me. After reading the article and your thoughts, it is definitely something I would like to be involved in. I would love to propose this idea to my principal next year and she if she would fund it. Now I have the information to bring to her. The idea about bringing students to jails is great and I can understand how some parents would be resistant to the idea. With video-conferencing that elemenates the problem and students can still get the experience.
-Janine
Hi Making Waves,
Such a resourceful web site! I appreciate the information on how to set up a videoconference as well as the links at this site to find out how other teachers have applied this technology. Your idea about using videoconferencing from a prison to the classroom would certainly enlighten students about the pitfalls of making poor decisions. There is so much technology that can be applied in the classroom/school media center, however, that it seems that it would be overwhelming if one tries to do too much in a short time. As a future librarian I will first have to become more familiar with the technology to which we are being introduced in class and in our blogs. I think the key is to plan carefully for its implementation and to do so in moderation.
I really like this article and I will definitely refer to it because on the last day of school at our final faculty meeting the principal announced that he had gotten a grant that he is going to use to install TVs in every classroom and get our school ready to do videoconferencing!
I was not privy to this information before, that is I had no idea that he had even thought about this but I am happy. I am going to go to him this summer and avail him of all the resources I have gathered on the topic from blogging with you. I feel that I can show him how tech-savvy I am and I will have lesson ideas to share with him and the faculty. Again, thanks for the info!!
Hi Lena,
I also agree that schools must take a pro active role in educating our students about Cyberbulling. I also think that the education should begin at home because many of our students are allowed to use their computers unsupervised for hours on end. The HR 5319 Act is very much needed in todays age.
Mary
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