Oops! No one asked the kids…
January 24, 2008
Do you ask the students if they enjoyed the videoconference? We think about assessing the content and if they learned anything, but did you ask them if it was as cool as you thought it was?
We finished a session recently and our mic was muted and the school mic was open. I had the powerpoint showing so the students did not realize that people were still in our room.
I overhead the students saying, “Man, that was awesome, not like the other videoconference we did.”
Our projects must meet the curriculum standards teachers must teach AND that it is actually enjoyable and engaging for the students. I have seen a few sessions that I thought were informative and I learned, but the presenter did not connect and engage the students.
What sessions have you seen or participated in that you recommend as highly engaging for students?
Posted in VC Community
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I totally agree that it is so important that the kids are engaged in the VC. Meeting the standards is great, but if they aren’t engaged enough to “get it”, the purpose is defeated!
I attended a workshop recently where the presenter said, “Too many of our students, especially those in poverty, do not have life experiences to draw from to make the connections they need to make learning relevant. It is our responsibility to GIVE them those experiences and help them to make the connections.”
I wanted to jump up and shout “AMEN!”
To emphasize my point, I’m going to paste an email from one of our Region 16 school districts’ technology coordinators about a videoconference session their students attended:
“Today, I think for the first time, I was privileged to see what videoconferencing is really supposed to be. If your students have any reason whatsoever to learn about Alaskan sled dogs, this is the videoconference of choice, IMHO.
http://www.cilc.org/search/content-provider-program.aspx?id=1318
I was so impressed. They had a high quality setup where they did both indoor and outdoor activities. They “took” our kids outside to the kennel at 5:30 AM Alaska time to hook up the dogs (we did it again at 9:30 their time–still no sun). They had interactive audio both inside the cabin and outside with the mushers. They then proceeded to mush three dogs through the snow, allowing our kids to give the commands to start, turn right, turn left, and stop. It was the coolest thing.
I liked this videoconference so well because we can’t give our kids the experience they got this morning using local resources. Some videoconferences read a story or tell about a culture and do a hands on activity, but we COULD do that here. It’s neat that someone far away does it, but we COULD be the ones doing the same thing. We CAN’T take our kids on a sled dog ride at the foot of Mt McKinley. This videoconference did that. It would have been worth it for 3 times the cost, yet it is actually one of the lest expensive videoconferences offered, I believe. They use the videoconferences to help pay to keep the dogs ($1000 a month for dog food).
Last, but certainly not least, the connection was amazing. I have had two other videoconferences this week, one of which was an ISDN connection and never could get connected and the second of which had some audio problems for about half of the conference. The two we had today with Mushing Alaska! were as close to perfect as videoconferencing can get. Very impressive.
I hope some of the other schools get to experience this videoconference. I highly recommend it.” Angie Cox, Tulia ISD