Videoconferencing Center of Excellence

Transcript

IU1: What prompted you to begin using videoconferencing?

Hixenbaugh: We received the equipment through the Regional WAN and the KITS program. From there, we only had one unit and we decided that we were going to share that unit among the schools.

IU1: Do you collaborate with other teachers?

Wilhere: We do sometimes. I collaborate with the art teacher and we combine our classes together. For one thing it was a little cheaper because we had twice as many kids in one class. And then she works with the art part, I work with the research part and it works out well.

IU1: How does your district pay for the videoconferencing?

Hixenbaugh: Each year, I budget $1,000 for each school building into our budget. We use a lot of the free resources such as NASA, some of the other ones that are out there, and grant money.

IU1: Have you had administrative support?

Hixenbaugh: Definitely. Definitely.

IU1: What was your best videoconference?

Smalara: I'd have to say, speaking for the middle school, it's been the Cleveland Museum of Art. They have been wonderful. They've really have worked, actually the other schools also, really accomodate levels, the different levels of the students and the numbers we needed to work with. They've been great.

Wilhere: I have to agree with that. We did the same one. We did one beginning with Cleveland with fifth grade on Renaissance art and they were so good that we decided to redo it with third grade and it was almost like a totally different project that they adapted so well. It was very nice.

IU1: How have the students reacted to incorporating videoconferencing?

All: They love it.

IU1: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Smalara: I think, especially Bentworth and this whole area of Southwestern Pennsylvania, there's not a whole lot of money to be had, especially for field trips and traveling, and this has given our students an opportunity to really see things that otherwise they never would have seen and visit places they never would have gone and when we tell them, I'm with the middle school, that you're talking to someone in Cleveland or you're talking to someone in Houston, that's really cool to them. They get excited. "Right now? Right now they're in Cleveland?" And they like that. Some of these kids will never leave the area and this is their only chance to travel, even if it's virtually.

Hixenbaugh: I think we were very lucky, very fortunate that the IU included us in this project. It has really turned our district around technology-wise because before we had this project we had a very lousy Internet connection. We weren't offered anything where our district is located, but once we became a part of this project we suddenly had a fantastic Internet connection, technology to use with it. The videoconferencing is great. I remember the first videoconference that we did just to try it out was the megaconference and we brought our middle school kids in and they were talking to somebody in…

Smalara: Somewhere in South America.

Hixenbaugh: It was an Asian country, I think. Singapore.

Smalara: Ok, yes. Yes it was.

Hixenbaugh: And for them to walk in and it was so cute we had these two that were, one was in, a girl was in Singapore and a boy was in the library and they were flirting with each other.

Smalara: They were. And they were asking all of these questions. "What time is it there?" "What's school like?" Then finally she goes, "What's your name?" And it was good, even across the miles middle-schoolers were middle-schoolers!

Hixenbaugh: But we're very fortunate that we were able to become part of this project and I'm not giving it back.

Morrell: I think it's amazing also the different levels that it can accomodate, from the learning support all the way into the gifted program, that they'll work with you back and forth.