Teacher $1000 Award Announced

The Invent Tomorrow Education Consortium, in partnership with ACELINK, IPFW Division of Continuing Studies, and Comcast Cable promotes, encourages and rewards excellence in the integration of the Allen County Education Network in instruction. Through the “Building a Learning Community Award” program, educators/teams from qualified schools will be supported in their efforts to identify and design a student collaboration project with community and/or city leaders, other classrooms, experts, etc. These projects must utilize videoconferencing to connect students to external resources. The project must align with Indiana Academic standards and focus on an important community issue such as urban renewal, the digital divide, workforce literacy, economic development. Students and educators should use problem-based learning strategies to identify, research, and investigate solutions to their chosen issue.

ACELINK will support and reward selected educators/teams for designing and implementing bold classroom projects that elevate the level of interactive experiences and problem-based learning of their students using two-way interactive videoconferencing.

Funding Focus
All K-12 educators or teams within Bishop Dwenger High School, East Allen County, Fort Wayne Community, Northwest Allen County or Southwest Allen County School districts are eligible to apply. Priority will be given to collaborative projects that identify a specific need, include authentic problem solving and utilize two-way interactive videoconferencing. All projects must be educator-led. Both individual and team proposals will be accepted. There will be no distinction between individual projects and team projects.

Grant Range
There is funding available to provide (8) awards of $1000 each. The award will be divided and presented to the individual applicant/team and school building as follows:
1) Substitute pay will be reimbursed to the building for the teacher/team to attend a Project Planning workshop at IPFW during February 2006.
2) A cash stipend for the remaining amount will be paid to the educator/team after the educator/team attends a Teaching with Technology 2006 Summer Institute at IPFW to complete the project.

In addition, awardees will be provided an option to earn 3.0 graduate credit hours from IPFW for their completed project. An evaluation team made up of school administrators, IPFW faculty and staff, and community leaders using criteria developed by ACELINK will be used to select the awardees.

Application Process
Interested teachers must attend a Project Planning Workshop at IPFW in February 2006. During this workshop, teachers will be provided with the skills and strategies to identify and develop a classroom project. After identifying an appropriate project, applicants can submit a proposal for funding. Proposals are due to IPFW by May 12, 2006.

Contact me at 481-0747 or schaufes@ipfw.edu if you have questions.

ACELINK encourages high school students to take up Innovation Challenge

As part of Mayor Graham Richard's Innovation Initiative, high school students are invited to participate in an iTeams Essay Contest that encourages them to think creatively and come up with new ways to use broadband (high-speed Internet) in our community.

The Allen County Education Network (ACENet) delivers broadband access to schools in Greater Fort Wayne, and other networks are bringing this technology to homes and businesses. We are already seeing the impact of broadband with virtual field trips and digital streaming video in schools, remote diagnosis of patients by doctors, scientific web-based applications, data sharing, and more.

Students are encouraged to day dream-- think of something new, think of something they wish could happen, something that will make life easier, more enjoyable-- something that could help the underserved in our community or the world.

Essay submissions are being accepted through January 13, 2006. To learn more about the Allen County Education web site, click here. For more information about the City's contest and Innovation programs, go to the City of Fort Wayne iTeams web site.

E-Rate News from Funds for Learning

Form 471 Window Opened on December 6, 2005

The SLD announced today that the Form 471 window will open on December 6 and close on February 16. January 18 would be the last date anyone could post a Form 470, however, it is recommended that E-rate applicants do not wait until the last few days to post Form 470's as the SLD will review those applications with more scrutiny to ensure that a fair, open and competitive bidding process took place. Schools need to wait 28 days after they post a Form 470 before they can sign contracts and waiting the last minute may not give you enough time to evaluate bids, negotiate the contract and possibly get Board approval before the Form 471 window closes.

Important reminders and tips about this process can be viewed at http://www.eratemanager.com/mkt/2005-11.pdf

The 2006 Eligible Services List can be found at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-197A2.pdf

Participate in Read Across America with video equipment!

What? TWICE annually organizes a special celebration of the national NEA event “Read Across America” by providing the opportunity for schools in the continental United States to connect using two-way interactive video to both read to and be read to by another class. ACELINK will be working with 6th grade teachers from Carroll Middle School to implement this project, and other teachers in Allen County are welcome to join us.

Schools must have equipment verified in November, 2005 and register to participate in December, 2005 for the project. All Allen County schools have access to the videoconferencing equipment and bandwidth needed for this project, but if you have questions, contact me.

Why? The purpose of this celebration is to have students reading to students. What they read is your choice i.e., a Dr. Seuss book (this event is in honor of his birthday), a book about your community, a poem or an original story your class wrote. Just pick something you and your students love!

When? All connections will take place during March 1-3, 2006. When you register, you must choose a time and date to connect. This information will be used to match you with another class. Schedule the connection for an hour. You must commit to participate the full hour.

• 15 minute audio/video check
• 30 mintues: each class presents for 15 minutes
• 15 minutes to exchange information about your school and community and to ask each other questions.

Contact me at 481-0747 if you'd like more information, or go to the Twice website at: http://www.twice.cc/read/index.html.

7th Grade Virtual Field Trip

ACELINK helped connect the 7th grade team at Carroll Middle School to the Center for Puppetry Arts on October 13. The program was on Africa (Mali) and Blake Williams' students made Malian Rod Puppets. They also learned about African culture and geography, as well as climate, customs, puppet making, etc.

The program was highly engaging and very hands-on-- two keys to success in any virtual field trip. Check out the ACELINK website soon for pictures from the event. The Center for Puppetry Arts does a wonderful job of presenting content by two-way video, and their instructor connected well with a large group of kids.

Carroll Middle School participated in this program at no cost, thanks to generous support from Tandberg USA through the Connections program.

Mote Marine Lab Field Trips

The Mote Marine Lab in Florida provides some of the most interactive and exciting virtual field trips that I've ever seen. Their content is listed by grade level, and they provide teacher materials for each session. They offer programs on sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, coral reefs, and many more.

Check out their listing of content at: http://www.seatrek.org/programs.htm

Allen County Education Network teachers can use the new ACELINK mini-grants to underwrite the cost of a program with a provider like Mote Marine. Give me a call at 260-481-0747 if you'd like to discuss the opportunity or just send an email and I'll forward the application to you. We'll even help make sure it all works!

Sites from Keystone Conference

We've been attending the 2005 Keystone Conference, which is devoted to interactive videoconferencing topics. Bishop Dwenger High School is our remote site host, and we've enjoyed being one of the 250 remote sites around the world. In a presentation yesterday, several web sites were listed for teachers to find/search for collaborative opportunities. We couldn't read the slide, but I've located most of the references. I've worked with these sites and agree with the presenter that they are an excellent resource. I'd love to hear any feedback from users who are trying these resources.

Here are the sites:

1. http://www.iEarn.org - Started in 1988, iEARN is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to collaborate on projects that both enhance learning and make a difference in the world. Membership fees may be required for this content.
2. http://www.global-leap.com - The Global Leap website is a resource for teachers around the world, enabling them to get help, advice and support to develop videoconferencing in the curriculum, and to find videoconferencing partners and to book interactive videoconference lessons. Also includes an international classroom exchange listing.
3. www.gng.org - Founded in 1998, the Global Nomads Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to heightening children's understanding and appreciation for the world and its people. Using interactive technologies such as videoconferencing, GNG brings young people together face-to-face to meet across cultural and national boundaries to discuss their differences & similarities, and the world issues that affect them. Check our their yearly themes.
4. http://www.indiana.edu/~global/giant.htm - The Global Interactive Academic NeTwork project (GIANT) is dedicated to the creation of a virtual academic community of scholars and students from around the world. This project is part of a multifaceted effort by the Center for the Study of Global Change at Indiana University to aid in the creation of an environment for technological innovation in International Studies.