“I just want mustard.”

One weekend, my grandmother asked me to go to the store and get some mustard for her. I wanted to get the best mustard for her, so I tried to clarify what exactly she meant by mustard. “Mammaw, do you want coarse ground, spicy brown, Cajun-style, Creole, Dijon? What kind of mustard do you want? To which she replied, “I just want mustard.”

I think about this exchange frequently as I see presentations that list so many choices of tools that many teachers I talk with seem overwhelmed. Those of us who support teachers need to be mindful of how we present technology and learning tools to teachers.

“To Make Better Choices, Choose Less” an interview with business professor Sheena Iyengar caught my eye in the June 2010 issue of Money magazine. Her new book is the Art of Choosing.

Here are my keepers from this article.

• Choice is powerful.
• Choice can overwhelm.
• Three tasks involved in choosing
  • You need to know what you want. (Difficult if presented with something new.)
  • You need to be able to understand the relevant options.
  • You need to make trade-offs.
• The “jam study” in the 90s illustrated that more options hamper decision making.
  • 24 flavors drew in 60% of passersby. Only 3% of them bought jam.
  • 6 flavors drew in only 40% of passersby. 30% of them bought jam.
• Brain research from the 1950s indicates that we can manage 5-9 choices. More choices than that created paralysis and frustration.
• 3 x 3 model for scaffolding choice. Present three tiers. After one is selected, then present three choices within that tier.
• Personally, select four or five areas to become an expert. Make the choices within that area. Other than those areas, defer to trusted experts.

Since this was written in a business magazine, she interpreted the results as they relate to investing in retirement funds. The more choices presented to employees, the fewer people enrolled in them.

This makes me wonder about what we do to teachers when we give them so many choices of websites, tools, learning opportunities for students. How can we better structure our offerings so that it is helpful to teachers and now overwhelming?

For the record, I really do like that mustard with the horseradish in it.

Day 20: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Well, here we are at the end of another 20 Day Challenge for videoconferencing. Let’s review, reflect, and look to the future…

Review

• In the first week, we focused on Read Around the Planet, with tips, tricks, and suggestions for a quality experience.
• We spent a few days on responding to projects posted by others, and how to manage “exploding” projects that get out of control.
• We talked about how projects can bridge the gap between idea and actual implementation; and examined the different aspects of running your own projects.
• Finally, we spent some time on best practice for collaboration and managing your work load.

Reflect

Here are some questions to get you started on your reflection:

1. What did you learn in the last twenty days?
2. What is one tip that you plan to implement yet this school year?
3. What is your next step?

It has been a learning experience for me too! It is always helpful to reflect, review, and improve my practice. My take-aways are:

1. Time to review my habits to streamline and clean up my procedures!
2. Best practices for using wikis to manage projects.
3. All the tips for managing email: Day 8, Day 14, Day 16, Day 19.

What about you? Feel free to comment!

Looking Down the Yellow Brick Road

So what is down the road in your future? Where will you apply your learning? Where will you keep learning? Here are some suggested new paths:

Participate in upcoming spring projects

• MysteryQuest USA (Registration opens March 1)
• HistoryQuest 5th (Registration opens March 1)
• HistoryQuest 8th grade (Registration will open in the next couple weeks)
• Texas History Mystery
• Janine still needs some 2nd grade classes for Goods & Services in February
• etc.

Deepen your learning

• Review the templates in the Projects Booklet. Is there a format that you could tie to your required curriculum? Do it with 4 -6 teachers to apply what you’ve been learning.
• Beef up the interaction in your upcoming Read Around the Planet sessions. Don’t just “present” to the other class. Get them involved. Review the interaction tips in the RAP Teacher packet; review the series on applying research based instructional techniques to your videoconferences.
• Look around you. Find a partner to team-organize projects between your schools. Learn with and from each other.

Finally. Please comment and tell us what you learned during this challenge!

Day 17: Sharing Your Computer Screen: Potential Challenges

If you’re new to videoconference projects, you’re bound to run into a problem seeing or sharing a computer screen sometime soon. Here’s the situation and what to do about it.

H.239 / Duo Video / People Plus Content

Many of the manufacturers offer a feature that allows you to share your computer and your faces at the same time. This feature is great when you’re connecting to people on your network. It’s ideal for full length shared courses; making direct instruction better.

However, when you want to use this feature with another class from somewhere “out there” off your network, it’s a different story. There are several scenarios where it won’t work:

• If the other school’s equipment doesn’t support H.239 (a lot of old units out there still)
• If the other school’s equipment has the H.239 featured turned off
• If the other school’s firewall blocks H.239
• If the other school connects through a bridge and the bridge has it turned off
• The bridge you connect through and the bridge your partner class connects through can’t pass H.239 between each other

So now, you realize that the chances of it working in a collaboration with a school off your network is really high! And now you know what can cause it.

What to Do

Either you will be the one trying to share the computer; or your partner class might try to share the computer… and poof, it doesn’t work. What do you do?

Forget the wires! My favorite solution is just that. Don’t connect it.

ZOOM!!! You can just set the laptop on a table; zoom the camera in; set a preset.

Voila!

By the way, this solution is at least 4 years old and not my original idea. Complements of Joan Roehre, Kenosha, WI.

Your Turn

Have you thought of any other interesting creative solutions to problems in a videoconference? Please share!

Day 15: School to School Collaborations

This week in our 20 Days Challenge to Better VC Projects, we’ve been talking about how to scale your own projects. Another way to scale projects is to collaborate school-to-school, with multiple teachers from each school connecting with each other.

So how does that work?

Jazz Participants Make Enthusiastic Partners

Finding a school partner

It is very rare to advertise for a partner school and actually get a response. Most people aren’t willing to commit to multiple collaborations with an unknown partner. It’s better to build on a collaborative relationship and expand it further.

• Think about your Read Around the Planet partners from the last few years. Would you like to work with any of them further?
• Think about your other collaborations that you have done. Are there any partners who were easy to work with?
• If your location has participated in the Jazz Workshop, other participants make great partners too.
• If you haven’t done enough collaborations yet, then start building your network of potential partners by responding to collaborations on CAPspace and CILC; participating in Read Around the Planet, and following other videoconference coordinators on Twitter.

Planning Together

Videoconference to Plan Together

After you find someone willing to work with you, plan a videoconference with them.

• Brainstorm possible simple sharing that your teachers can do. (weather, community, poetry, etc.)
• Bring your schedules and compare them.
• Bring a list of interested teachers.

One of my coordinators has done this successfully, and walked away from the planning time with 10 videoconferences scheduled!

Benefits

An in depth collaboration with another school has several benefits:

• Less test calls! If you test once and know how to connect; you can have multiple connections without doing additional test calls.
• More in depth collaboration. Often school to school collaborations expand to each pair of teachers connecting multiple times during the school year. It’s very difficult to get a “cold” / new partner to commit to multiple VCs from the start of the relationship. With school to school, this collaboration can evolve over time.
• Long term relationships lead to more collaborations. As you get to know each other further; and compare curriculum and interests, you’ll think of even more collaborative VCs that your classes can do together.

Your Turn

Please comment! Have you done any school to school collaborations? What made it work? What made it challenging?

Don’t forget! Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course starts Monday January 25. We can still get you registered if you want to join!

Day 12: Where Do Projects Come From?

So now that you’ve decided to take the plunge and run a project for a few of your teachers, where should you start?

First, you need a good idea that you can develop into a project for your teachers. So where do these ideas come from?

The Curriculum

First and foremost, they should come from the curriculum. Sometimes a careful or even cursory review of the required curriculum will inspire some great ideas.

• How will students understand this content better by talking to students in another area?
• How might students share their created work nationally or internationally as a motivation and inspiration (and to meet ISTE Student Collaboration and Communication Standards)?
• Is there content already in the required curriculum that would be perfect to discuss, share, collaborate, challenge another class with?

Teacher Needs

Another great source of ideas for projects is the needs of your teachers.

• What are they struggling to teach?
• What units are frustrating or in need of “jazzing up?”
• What amazing unit might they want to share with another class?
• What student created work is worthy of a national audience?

Viral CAPspace Collaborations

Have you noticed this year that some collaboration ideas in CAPspace have been multiplying like rabbits?

• First it was penpals.
• Then it was Monster Match copycats and Halloween spin-offs.
• Then Turkey Talk…
• Then Weather Buddies…

These collaborations go viral for a reason. They are good ideas and simple to do! Educators create and share great ideas.

Bottom Line

• A great project idea is simple.
• It fits tightly to the curriculum.
• It makes sense to teachers.
• More than one of your teachers want to do it!

Tomorrow, we’ll start talking about how to manage a project with 3-4 or more of your teachers participating. For now, consider what project several of your teachers might want to do.

Your Turn

• What do you think makes a great project idea?
• Where do you get your inspiration for VC projects?
• What is holding you back from creating and running a project for your teachers?

Please comment!

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.

Day 11: Bridging the Implementation Gap

This week in the 20 Day Challenge to Better VC Projects, we will be talking about designing and managing projects for your teachers.

But first, let’s talk about why you should run projects for your teachers.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Have you ever been to one of these types of sessions at a conference or training?

• 101 Best Tools for Teachers
• 50 Tech Tips for Teachers
• 200 Free Web Sites for Teachers
• Templates for Collaborative VC Projects

The Implementation Gap

Besides a bunch of ideas, how does a regular busy teacher jump from “101 ideas” to actual use in the classroom? Have you noticed that it is difficult for teachers to integrate “ideas” to actual classroom use? What are some of the barriers that create a gap between idea and implementation? Time. Of course. What else? Think about it.

Bridge the Gap

Roxanne and I have discussed this problem often. One conclusion we’ve come to, is that teachers need assistance to bridge the gap. Designed projects (like Read Around the Planet and MysteryQuest) can help a teacher bridge the gap. How so?

• The idea is developed.
• The materials are created.
• A partner class is provided.
• Correlations to required curriculum are completed.

So, this week, we challenge you to design and run your own project for your teachers. Tomorrow we’ll start with how to find an idea to morph into a project.

Your Turn

• Do you see an implementation gap in your school?
• What barriers are at the bottom of the gap in your situation?
• Do you think designed projects that teachers can register for are a potential solution?

Please comment! We want to hear your voices during this challenge too!

Day 10: How Do I Work with a Wiki?

Why Not Email

I hate email. While it is so easy to shoot off a quick email to someone, it is not always the most efficient way to manage or participate in collaborative projects.

In the beginning of large matching projects, I used email for everything. Registration was done by emailing me. Confirmations were emailed to the teachers. Teachers emailed descriptions to each other and copied me on those so I could keep track of them. I emailed other people to participate in their projects.

Many times not everyone is included on the email. Some people don’t have their email programs set to include the original text with the reply, so when I get the message, “Yes, that date and time will work for me” with no original text, I would have to begin the email excavation to try to determine the context.

Why Wikis

Currently, there are three different ways that we are using wikis to support projects. You will have to trust that the people running the project are really watching the wiki. Wikis are monitored by using RSS feeds or getting emails.

Weather Buddies (all one page project)
http://disdvideoconferencing.pbworks.com/Weather-Buddies

• Click edit.
• Use guest username and login.
• Add your details for you teachers.
• Click save.
• You will get a confirmation email when the project manager is notified that the wiki has been edited.

Goods & Service (need 5 classes) (one wiki project – participating classes)
http://goodsvc.wikispaces.com/

• Click Participating Classes
• If you see a spot that will work for one of your teachers, click “Join this Wiki” at the top left.
• Enter a comment. “I have a class that would like to participate in this project.” and click Request Membership.
• Once you have access to the wiki, go back to the participating classroom page. Click EDIT and add your teacher’s information. Click SAVE.
• You will get a confirmation email when the project manager is notified that the wiki has been edited.

Matching Projects (page to edit)

Wikis ROCK for matching projects because it helps me make sure all the descriptions are exchanged in a timely manner.

• Go to the Participating Classes Page.
• Find your last name. Click it.
• Look at the top right and click the EDIT button.
• Copy your description from a word processing document and then paste it into the page.
• Click Save.

Day 9: Multiple Section Collaborations for Middle and High School

One of the challenges of using videoconferencing in the curriculum is the middle and high school schedules. High school structures make it difficult to be creative; and the cost of scheduling content providers for each section at the high school level is prohibitive. Many great high school content providers are guest speakers scheduled at specific times, and it doesn’t take long for teachers to get annoyed when the schedule gets disrupted. Time for preparation for a videoconference is challenging as well. These are some of the reasons that middle and high schools tend to use VC less than elementary schools (for curriculum videoconferencing purposes, that is.)

So, one of the ways that I’ve been trying to address this challenge, is to schedule collaborations for each section/class period. This way each section gets the same experience, and since it’s a collaboration, it’s free!

Steps to Success

1. Start with the curriculum. The project has to fit tightly into the curriculum to be worth the precious instructional time.
2. Define it. I work with the teacher to define exactly what each class will do, to make sure it’s focused to the instructional goals.
3. Set the dates & times. Save yourself some negotiation time and just pick the dates and times. Some of my teachers like to have all the sections on the same day; others want them spread out a bit.
4. (Optional) Make a web page or wiki. I like to make a web page or wiki for the project so that interested schools can easily see which times I still need to fill.
5. Logistics: If you have a mobile cart, the teacher may prefer to have the system in their room for all of the sessions. Some of my teachers prefer it in their classroom; others prefer to participate in the library.

Examples

Sharing a water bottle race car in EcoConversations

Here are some examples of projects that I’ve been working on for middle and high school:

Point to Point Collaborations

• EcoConversations for middle school science classes.
• I really want to pull off a Black History Month set of VCs for my high school English teachers this year, but I’m not done writing the wiki yet. I am at stage 2 – working with the teacher to define what each class will do.
• Another high school English one I’m hoping to run in April is Poetry Month. I’ve had some high school English teachers really enjoy performance poetry videoconferences. I want to systematize the idea to reach more teachers.

Multipoint Collaborations

These can easily be adapted to more simple point to point collaborations as well.

• I’ve been running MysteryQuest World for a few years; and this year have converted it to a one hour session to fit into one class period. I actually will have a few more spots in this one either Friday or Monday, so check back if you’re interested.
• HistoryQuest 8th grade has worked great for the 8th grade schedule this year. Civil War is scheduled for April.

Your Turn

• How are you meeting the scheduling and curriculum needs of your middle and high school teachers? Please comment and share any other tips you have.

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.

Day 8: I Responded to a Collaboration and It Was Already Filled!

So what do you do when you send a great idea out to your teachers; 3 of them respond; but then when you contact the person who created the collaboration, they already have a partner. No worries; you can manage this too!

• Be a fast email checker. If you have too much stuff coming into your email, trim it. Route the junk to junk and the trash to trash so that you can process it quickly.
• Check with your teachers. Do they still want to do the collaboration. Find out what date & time is the best for them to participate.
• Email colleagues  or schools within your area. I like to start with this strategy because we know we can connect our equipment and I can generally get a quick response. Put a date of when they need to respond by. ASAP is a bit vague. Do you mean ASAP today or ASAP by the end of the week? An actual date is better than four exclamation marks.

If you need to post the collaboration back to CAPspace, use good etiquette.

1. Change the title to be sure you don’t confuse anyone involved in the first project. For example you could call the collaboration “Southwest Michigan Weather Buddies” instead of just “Weather Buddies.” Or think of another creative title.
2. Give detailed times. Save yourself the negotiation time and just list the date & time you want to do the collaboration. Be specific. Example: April 22, 23, and 24 at 1:00 or 2:00 PM Central.
3. Give credit to the educator who created it. If you choose Collaborations–>New–>Detailed, there is a field at the bottom for giving credit to another person.

To collaboration creators: As soon as you have partners, log back into CAPspace and change the status to FILLED. (Login–>My Projects –>My Current. Scroll and change the radio button under registration to “FILLED”.)

Your Turn:

1. How do you deal with this issue of getting into a popular collaboration?
2. How do you organize your email to be able to deal with it in a timely manner?

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.

Day 7: I Posted a Collaboration and Got 500 Responses

Guest blogged by Janine.

One of the fun challenges of collaborations on CAPspace is the large number of interested people. There are 5000+ active videoconferencing educators (ever noticed the count on the front page when you login?).

This past fall, I heard that while some people found the perfect match and only one person responded, many collaborations quickly gathered much more interest. These fall into two types:

1. You post your project and you need 1 partner; 20 people respond.
2. You find a cool collaboration; 3 teachers want to do it; the person who posted it has found a partner already.

Now what? Let’s talk about how to handle these situations!

Too Many Responses
So what do you do when you post a project that’s clearly a popular idea; 20 people respond. Here are some suggestions:

1. Wait. I prefer to wait a bit and see what responses I get in the first day. Sometimes the people who respond have very little to contribute; other times they have additional ideas to make the project better. Read them over and choose from among them.
2. Save all potential partner information. Save the contact information for everyone who responded as you may be able to use them as a partner for future projects.
3. Check with your other teachers. If you think other teachers might want to do it as well, you might want to add another session or two, but don’t feel obligated to connect with all twenty partners.
4. Email each potential partner. Thank them for their interest. Let them know you’re keeping their contact information for the future. Don’t just ignore their email. Make a nice little “no” template and then copy & paste it to respond to each one. This will save you time, but will also courteously let the others know that you no longer need a partner.
5. Close the collaboration. Once you’ve selected a partner, log back into CAPspace, and mark it filled. See: My Projects, Collaborations, My Current. This way others will know that you are no longer looking for partners. When you are finished with the project, login and mark it Past. Don’t delete it, as this builds your reputation in the site. Others can click the stars on your profile to see the collaborations you’ve created.
6. Don’t forget to Say No Nicely!

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what to do when a collaboration someone posted is already filled.

Your Turn:

1. How do you handle collaborations that get out of hand?
2. What tips do you have these situations?

If you are totally new to collaborative projects and/or would like step by step assistance making a collaborative project happen, from start to finish, sign up for Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections, a six week online course beginning January 25.