CBS News Highlights Virtual Field Trips

CBS News recently did a spotlight on virtual field trips for their morning news program. This is a great clip to show to people who don't understand what videoconferencing is or haven't had a chance to try a program. The clip has a 30 second commercial first, and then the main clip is 3:33 minutes. You'll need a media player to watch the program.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2507464n

Please share this clip with others who are interested in videoconferecing field trips! Thanks to Bob Dixon from OSU for sharing this link with me.

Virtual Knee Surgery Debuts at Anthis Career Center

Today, students at Anthis Career Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana, were the first in their building to observe the Total Knee Replacement surgery from COSI Columbus by two-way interactive video. Students were given a powerful learning experience by interacting with the surgeons and medical personnel in the operating room. Students received an information guide on knee surgery and the careers associated with the operating room. Celeste Burns, the teacher, received an information packet and materials for pre-and post-experience activities for the classroom.

"This program was unbelievable. Career exploration, skill building and connecting to community (our mission) were all there. Thank you for this opportunity! Our teachers and students were excited. We are just beginning, but these types of opportunities are going to make our programs even more rigorous, relevant and help us connect better with community." --Larry Gerardot, principal at Anthis

ACELINK supported the program with funds from our Foellinger Foundation grant.

Franke Park Teachers Create Excitement for IVC

After another successful experience with the COSI Columbus program, Gadget Works, the teachers at Franke Park Elementary are all getting excited about videoconferencing. Pam Ghaffarian, building technology coordinator, helped her fellow teacher, Patti Kring, and they both took the initiative to share this event with others in their building. According to Pam, "I pulled in other teachers and called the administrators to see what was happening. The kids loved it, and they were talking about it again today. The other half of the class can't wait for their turn."

After Pam and Patti's experiences with Gadget Works, seven other teachers at Franke Park have submitted applications for ACELINK program support. They're not only going to repeat the Gadget Works program in other classes, but some teachers are also going to share the Butterfly program from the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thanks, Franke Park teachers, for your enthusiasm. We'll follow your progress and include pictures from your events in future blog postings!

What is the hottest 'new technology' in your school?

Keeping up with emerging technology can be a full time job, or a full time headache! Every school has teachers who keep themselves as close to the cutting edge of new ideas as possible, and then there are those that still cannot open their email. Share your thoughts on one of the questions below with this group to give blogging a try:

What technology tools (not software) have teachers been asking for in your school/building?
What is the "next big thing" in technology that will be a focus in your school?
What technology tools are teachers using that you haven't supported (free web tools, etc.)?

Kindergarteners at St. Joe Center Connect to Puppetry Center

Originally uploaded by sschaufe.

Mrs. Runyan's afternoon Kindergarten class connected to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, GA for their first ACELINK-supported videoconference. The Gingerbread Boy program that they joined is one of the most popular programs offered by the Center.

I was very impressed with the level of interaction and engagement for such a young group of students. Deborah, the presenter from Atlanta, does an excellent job of keeping the kids' attention. She understands how to do this via distance, which is a special talent, and she offered just the right mix of physical, visual and verbal activity.

Mrs. Runyan, the classroom teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana, said, "It went so well! The children had a great time. I'd like to offer this to my morning class, too."

The Center for Puppetry Arts offers programming at all grade levels, and they are well-known for their enthusiastic presenters and engaging programming. For more information about this program or others, you can contact me or visit their website at http://www.puppet.org.

Click here for more photos from St. Joe Center's classroom. ACELINK supports the content for two-way interactive videoconferencing through our programming grant from the Foellinger Foundation.

Remotely Operate an Electron Microscope

I recently learned about an excellent resource for K-12 science teachers and classrooms. It allows students to remotely operate a scanning electron microscope using the Internet. Bugscope offers magnified images of specimens of beetles, spiders, and other insects and anthropoids viewed through an electron microscope. Classrooms remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image "bugs" at high magnification. The microscope is remotely controlled in real time from a classroom computer over the Internet using a web browser.

Bugscope provides a state-of-the-art online microscope resource for teachers that can be readily integrated into classroom activities. The classroom has ownership of the project - they design their own experiment and provide their own bugs to be imaged in the microscope. The Bugscope project is primarily oriented towards K-12 classrooms and there is no cost to participate in the project. Read more about participating in Bugscope here...

Weisser Park 3rd Graders Work the Gadgets

Ms. Kathy Gordon's third grade class at Weisser Park Elementary school engaged in a hands-on learning session by two-way video on Thursday, Dec. 20. ACELINK supported the Gadget Works program from COSI Columbus, which features having students reverse engineer two simple gadgets to learn about the simple machines that make them work.

COSI provided a teacher's kit in advance, which Ms. Gordon had her class review and complete a pre-conference hypothesis. During the program, students related their hypotheses to Professor Gadget and then learned if their predictions were accurate by examining the toys. While working collaboratively in groups of three, students took part in scientific investigation and had fun at the same time.

High praise goes to Ms. Gordon for having her class EXTREMELY well prepared for the program. Professor Gadget complimented the class on their excitement, prior knowledge and responsiveness during the program. The kids were also very well behaved and represented their school very well. Way to go!

To see additional pictures from Weisser Park's third grade on my Flickr site, go here. For information on this program, contact me at schaufes@ipfw.edu. ACELINK still has funds available to cover the program costs for partner schools.