Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Beyond the Virtual Fieldtrip and the Collaborative Project…KC3: A National Challenge

These are my notes from Jan Zanetis’ presentation at MODLA 2008 titled, “Beyond the Virtual Fieldtrip and the Collaborative Project…KC3: A National Challenge.” MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I am recording this session with permission and will post it later here as a podcast. This is a GREAT project and exactly the type of interactive collaborations we need more students and teachers doing!

The official session description was:

The KC3 Project is a national project designed to empower students to direct their own learning. This standards based project seeks to tap into the creative nature of students as they look at their own communities with new eyes and explore ways to share their findings with others using videoconferencing and other technologies. In its first year, the KC3 students developed an informational program geared toward a specific audience educating them on their topic. Each project team used the CILC Program Posting Format as they developed their content program. Topics submitted by teams from across the U.S. included: Astronauts and Limestone; Lawrence County Indiana History; Texas Black Gold: Oil; Fire Ants: The Real Ant Bully; The Haunted Mansion by the Bay; The Underground Railroad and the Ohio River; Low Bridge: Clinton’s Big Ditch; Wind Power; Linear Relationships in the Texas State Capitol; William Joel Bryan and His Legacy; Hawaiian Food and Diet: Past and Present; The Origins and Culture of Hula Participants. This session will provide video clips of the winning teams’ virtual fieldtrips. This project is a clear demonstration of Constructivist pedagogy. The Project is in its first year and will expand to include elementary teams as well as teams outside the United States.

Jan has worked for Tandberg for the last 3 years. Prior to this she wrote a book on videoconferencing collaborations, helped start the Vanderbilt Virtual Schools project

The evolution of Video Applications in Distance Education
1- distance classes
2- accessing content providers (this like Jim and Tim’s preso last session)
3- collaborative student projects
4- content creation in the classroom

this is a pyramid, more people are doing the things at the top than the things at the bottom
– purpose of this session is to bring you up the pyramid

CILC is great resource to access over 150 videoconferencing content providers

we are turning the technology over to the kids
– asking them to use the tools and create a project
– constructivist learning is going on

we see a blend of these different things going on now with video in classrooms
– interactive distance learning continuum: a blend of the 4 uses stated above

as people become more comfortable with the technology

A Texas Tale
– Tommy Beardon in Texas
– Tommy tending to his cotton crop
– Tommy has had his students create the “Cotton Plant: Many Uses” virtual field trip
– geared toward middle school students
– addresses history, science, math
– students do 4 or 5 of these every month

A challenge from a Legend: story from Alan November
– took the idea from Alan November to create the KC3 project: Kids Creating Community Content

The nuts and bolts of this project
– marketing
– website (with CILC)
– Pre-Production
– Showtime
– Evaluation
– Awards

Schools had 3 months to put together their projects
– then sent out an “all call” via the AT&T Videoconferencing listserv and the CILC’s listserv
– within 24 hours, we had over 150 teachers saying they wanted to receive and participate
– we were streaming and capturing all of this too
– had participants with their own bridges and content servers

Schools from Hawaii to New Jersey were sharing content

developed a rubric which was utilized by educator-raters to determine winners of the content

1st Place: “The Mound Builders: They Myth, The Legend, A Tale of Historic Treasures”
– teacher: Tammy Parks, Howe, Oklahoma

2nd Place: Fire Ants: The Real Ant Bully
– teacher: Deborah Birdsong, Stamford, TX

3rd Place: The Fascinating World of Aquaculture
– Lynne Sueoka, Honolulu, Hawaii

Winning teacher will be at BLC
– 1st – 3rd place winners

What worked well in this project:
1- clear and concise program requirements
2- small teams: 3-6 students per team
3- ease of scheduling videoconferences and technology support with Lance and Mike
4- projects aligned with school subject matter and standards
5- incoprorated 21st century student outcomes: information ,media, and technology skills, authentic audience

Limitations and possible needed changes:
1- perhaps make two categories: middle school (6-8) and a high school (9-12)
2- would love to add international students and add that element of cross-cultural exchange
3- provide helps/tips on using/incorporating various technologies

Outcomes
– hands down it was the student ownership and excitement of sharing with a group in another geographic area
– students repeatedly said that they learned the contnt at a much deeper level because they wanted to be prepared for questions from the remote audiences
– relationships formed which are leading to additional plans for more projects this year

Questions: Ask –
– jan [dot] zanetis [at] tandberg [dot] com
– mcougan [at] cilc [at] org
– bmattocks [at] cilc [dot] org

KC3 website: http://kc3.cilc.org

Permissions:
– we didn’t think about this on the front end
– I just share these videos now except during PD sessions

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