What an amazing day! I met a gentleman named ‘Gordon Booth’ who is the VC Coordinator at GYRD.
Agenda:
- VC presentation by a Rabi from Israel with a grade 7-9 class at Niton Junction School.
- Presentation by a teacher (Magi) from Grande Cache and her experience with teaching Math 31 (VC) to students at Jasper High School.
Some key points of interest:
- Gordon Booth has been the VC coordinator for approximately 10 years
- Every year his budget increases as requests for VC increase
- Budget funded by Regional Office/Central Pool not at the school level
- 640+ VC’s have occurred in the 2010-11 school year
- Various content providers services are used to supplement learning in the classroom
- Approximately $150 dollars per session
- Set up endpoints at various locations (Hawaii). This gives GYRD a deal on programming from those sites
- Some content providers will create assessments/programs based on the Alberta Program of Studies
- They have developed a document that pairs various VC presentation’s with the k-9 curriculum
Gordon’s Key Points:
- He does not believe in multipoint connections as students loose interest due to less interactivity
- Should have a printer/scanner in every VC classroom
- Online application to supplement course ie. teacher pages
- Must have a lead teacher at every school that undergoes training which includes VC setup, test connections and content provider searches.
- Must provide those teachers who are interested in learning PD time by covering the cost of their release time.
PHRD
As a division we are ready to take VC to the next level. We have the infrastructure and staff in every building who have tried Videoconferencing.
-Train key individuals at the school level to promote the use of VC (how to connect and book VC programs).
-There needs to be financial support available for release time and the booking of content provider programs.
-We are ready to try Team Teaching Via VC within our division
Buffalo Trail School Division Tour: Stay tuned
