DeforestACTION…If a tree is cut down in a forest – does anyone care?

In celebration of World Earth Day (22ndApril, 2013), Polycom APAC Special Events teamed up with Taking IT Global and the Centre of Global Education (both via Canada) for a special global event called DeforestACTION.  

Meet Holly Carroll, Ambassador for The Jane Goodall Institute and Jane Goodall, and learn how special events create global citizens.

Polycom's customer, VUC Storstrom,  received the USDLA International Award for Best Practices for Distance Learning Programming. 

Yesterday 263 2^nd– 4^th grade students from New Jersey, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Montana, Washington and Ontario, Canada interviewed author/illustrator Laurie Keller about her book, Arnie the Doughnut. Arnie is a picture book about a doughnut that doesn’t know he’s supposed to be eaten. Laurie has been working on a series of Arnie chapter books, the first one to be available in June. Ms. Keller’s editor sent advanced copies of the new book, The Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut - Bowling Alley Bandit, to each class so they had a chance to read the book before anyone else. Ms. Keller’s books are filled with humor, puns and funny illustrations that keep the reader engaged in the story.

Thanks to Sue Porter, TWICE,  yesterday we completed our 2nd session of the Polycom Special Event: Giant Folklore. All 10 classes returned to participate with author and writing instructor, Janie Panagopoulos for some guidance on writing their stories.

A big congratulations to Greg Zorbas and Rob Sparks, who team teach 10th grade world history at the Kenai Peninsula School District in Alaska. Greg and Rob will be recognized by BP as a 2013 Teachers of Excellence award winner at their 18th Annual Teacher of Excellence awards event on May 1^st.

Yesterday Sue Porter, TWICE and Elaine Shuck, Polycom  had a packed IVC showcase session, with about 272 students participating.  The connection was with author Margaret Willey on her book Clever Beatrice, a fairy tale set in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan. We had schools from Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Texas. 

My article titled "Video Collaboration; Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century" was published in India Education Review recently.  It discusses topics such as Virtual excursions, how educators are making education exciting, the benefits of video collaboration and describes a study conducted by Diana Newman in 2008 which showed "learners who participate in video conferencing have higher scores on cognitive indicators and are more motivated to learn not just the material being presented, but also related topics". 

Click the link to read the article.

In celebration of Black History month, six classes with over 200 students from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and a class of students majoring in education along with faculty from Bob Jones University in South Carolina connected to interview Dr. Ben Carson, Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. Students read one or more of his books or watched the movie, Gifted Hands.  Each site prepared questions using the ASK process

In the last post from Fed UC, they looked at the newest and hottest educational phenomenon called the Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC for short. They defined MOOCs as asynchronous, open, free courses that are available online for students from anywhere to access. They also looked at the benefits that MOOCs can deliver to students and why they’re so popular in today’s higher education community. See what they had to say in MOOC's - delivering a better prepared student body to colleges and universities (part 2)

The ability to record, store and stream educational video content has given rise to a new phenomenon in education called MOOCs. Check out the latest post on FedUC, they look at what a MOOC is and how it is delivering access to a higher education, and other benefits, to students across the globe.

From the moment I heard Elliott Masie explain "Flip Learning" at his Learning 2010 conference over two years ago, I have been explaining the trend in my keynotes and other presentations. Now, the term, though in several variations, hits mainstream media. Is this something new that technology is enabling us to do or is this a rebirthed pedagogical practice finally named?

Have you ever thought about what kind of impact you can make on on-going humanitarian crises around the world? Today for our first Polycom Special Event, we invited 103 students from 6 states to the One Million Bones challenge- an opportunity to take action to support youth communities living in on-going conflict.

Across North America, August means classrooms are being readied for students, technology is being updated, teachers are attending trainings, and students are anticipating the new school year.

Quite often I am asked to share the latest in trends and best practices in education are from around the world. So,educator to educator, from a trip this year to I made to Denmark, I will share a quick interview I gave on trends and a link to one great best practices I have seen on adult education.

On March 6th about 200 students from 8 classes from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, and Michigan participated in two sessions of our Polycom Special Event with author Jim Stovall and his book “The Ultimate Gift.” The students prepared questions for Mr. Stovall using the ASK process. The depth of questions and interaction is always incredible.

Polycom helped to power the kick-off event for the 11th annual Read Around the Planet, the international video conference program that enables teachers and students around the world to celebrate literacy and reading. For this event, thousands of students connected with Former First Lady Barbara Bush, who was in-person at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. 

Today students representing several states connected with Jim Stovall, author of The Ultimate Gift.  This was the last Polycom Special Event for 2011.  For the past 5 years, Jim Stovall has been one of Polycom’s most popular events.  For many of the schools reading the book The Ultimate Gift, is part of their curriculum. 

Elementary students explored French-Canadian Christmas traditions in their interview with Margaret Willey and her book, Clever Beatrice Christmas. This is the third Clever Beatrice book, that are all based on French-Canadian folklore and set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Join Polycom for an exclusive discussion and learn how local experts are using collaboration technology to revolutionize the delivery of education and healthcare services, increase productivity, extend expertise to distant areas, and educate individuals.

A few weeks back I posted a blog asking readers to share unique ways educators are using videoconferencing in the classroom.  Houghton Elementary Students Share Monsters was the title of the article sent to me by one of my educator friends.  What a fun collaborative project!!!

Students connect with Author Sue Stauffacher to discuss her Animal Rescue series.  Whatever the dilemma, if it’s got fur or feathers, the Carters are the ones to call! Meet Keisha, age ten, and her family: Mama, Daddy, Grandma Alice, Razi, and baby Paulo. Together, they’re Carter’s Urban Rescue, and they specialize in helping out when there’s a wild animal where it doesn’t belong.

In this American-Arab student cultural exchange, American students from diverse geographic locations in the U.S. had a unique opportunity to converse with an Arab minority school in Israel about their similarities and differences, as well as their shared commonalities in an ever-shrinking 21st century world.

You know you are at an amazing conference when Dean Kamen, inventor of Segway and developer of current day prosthetics, falls in line as a speaker at 3rd behind President Bill Clinton and John Lithgow. And so my 3 ½ days began at Elliott Masie's Learning 2011 Conference.

Here are just a few highlights.

How many of us use open educational resources from great places like the National Archives and Library of Congress? The trouble is, as educators, we don't have time to go find all of the content available. What if access is all brought together in one place linking the many portals from one location to make research and grabbing much more manageable?  At least, it is happening in the United States.

Read the press release from the U.S. Federal government.

There is a lot of history surrounding toilets.  Today, students from Pennsylvania and Michigan interviewed Elizabeth Raum, author of The Story Behind Toilets. 

Polycom Special Event:  Do Unto Otters

Ten elementary schools from around the US and Canada connected today to author/illustrator Laurie Keller, to discuss her book Do Unto Otters. Watch Laurie as she shows the students how to draw an otter.

View the video from NZ News at the bottom of the BLOG.

produced by Polycom APAC Special Events

Green Cross Australia & Green Cross Japan brought the concept of this wonderful story to me back in May of this year.  Read the story, view the pictures from the event where students from Fukushima Japan, Christchurch New Zealand and Milton, Queensland Australia shared their stories of devistation from this years natural disasters.  Learn how they are helping the planet, and trying to move on from such an ordeal.

Join us on 21 March, 2012 - World Forestry Day, for a Global event spreadking across 114 countries LIVE from Borneo!

DeforestACTION is a global movement of youth and schools taking action to stop deforestation and create a permanent habitat for organ-utans and other species that depend on the forest ecosystems.

Yesterday, Polycom, United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), BecomeALeader, Internet2 and Brainshark completed  their Fall 2011 Leadership Series: Wisdom, Innovation, and Self-Knowledge in Tubulent Times.Each of these interactive sessions featured a nationally recognized speaker addressing key aspects of leadership and personal development.  If you missed this series you can view the on-demand archived video. 

I took a few minutes today to look at some videos posted on You Tube that a colleague from a university in Puerto Rico, Eric Barrios shared with me. In this one, I wonder what level of smart phone integration into today's classroom is happening.