Managing Virtual Field Trip Requests

For the most part, this is a fairly boring post because I’m talking about how I manage all the requests I receive for Virtual Field Trips (VFTs). Greenville County Schools is the largest school district in the state of South Carolina and the 49th largest district in the United States with over 70,000 students. We’re not New York City, Los Angeles Unified, or Miami-Dade but we do have our own set of unique circumstances that provide challenges each year. There are over 100 sites in the district but we only have around 25 endpoints or cameras which means I do a LOT of driving between schools each week. And yes, I am the only person working with all facets of Distance Learning for the district, including managing our CMS/LMS.

When I took the Distance Learning Coordinator position we had 25 Tandberg 770MXP endpoints and a Tandberg 8×8 MCU. I was tasked with utilizing the equipment we had in place already and to ensure that educational opportunities were be given to the schools through video. I spent my first year, 2008-2009, “begging” schools to look at trying a Virtual Field Trip. I ended up with 56 total requests from the schools for a Virtual Field Trip that tied in with the content being taught in the classrooms. I developed a professional development session illustrating the benefits of the Virtual Field Trip and presented it to schools during the 2009-2010 school year. The added exposure from the professional development session netted a HUGE increase in the number of requests, 272 total for the 2009-2010 school year. The 2010-2011 school year ended with 523 total requests. We will finish this school year, 2011-2012, with over 600 requests.

The last two school years I have sent out a “best of” or “most recommended” Virtual Field Trip booklet to the schools so they are aware of some of the opportunities available to enhance and enrich the curriculum. The booklet is by no means comprehensive and I only put content providers in the booklet if we had a connection with them and the teacher(s) who participated in the program highly recommended the the Virtual Field Trip. My goal was to start taking requests next Monday, May 7, but South Carolina PASS Testing, our high stakes testing, starts next week, so I postponed taking requests until Monday, May 21.

I enter all of the requests into a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. I’ve used the same one each year, adding a new “tab” for the new school year. This spreadsheet is a “living” document in the sense that I continually tweak and change it each year. Here are the fields that I will be including for the 2012-2013 school year, working from left to right…

Requesting Site – this is always the school that will be taking the VFT
Instructional Contact Name – this is always the general instructional contact at the school
Instructional Contact Email Address
Teacher(s) Name – this is a new field I’m trying this year to help easily keep up with which teachers have classes that are participating in the VFT
Teacher(s) Email Address
Requested Program Title – this is always the title of the VFT program
Program Content Provider – this is always the name of the content provider
Date Request Submitted – this is always the date I receive the request and it’s helpful when scheduling programs that are first-come, first-served
Requested Date – this is always the date I submit as the preferred date to the content provider
Requested Time – this is always the time I submit as the preferred time to the content provider
Scheduled Date – this is always the ACTUAL date that the VFT will occur
Scheduled Time – this is always the ACTUAL time that the VFT will occur
Date Confirmed – this is always the date I receive the final confirmation of the scheduling of the VFT
Date of Test Call – this is always the date we will test the equipment and the connection; this is the MOST IMPORTANT date because there is no VFT without a successful test

Once I receive the final confirmation of the program I add it to my Microsoft Outlook calendar and “invite” all of the pertinent people, usually this list includes the school administration and leadership, the teacher, and district level curriculum people. I usually test the connection and the equipment the week before the VFT. All testing is done from my office because we utilize a Cisco Codian TelePresence MCU 4501 bridge in the district; if the connection works on the bridge, it will work anywhere in the district. During the week of the VFT I make sure there is an endpoint setup and ready to go in the classroom and that the “call” is scheduled on the MCU 4501 which will auto-dial both participants, the content provider and the school. The auto-dial feature is awesome on days when we have 15+ VFTs scheduled!

The one thing I’ve learned is that the more requests there are the more there is to keep up with, but it’s all worth it…

The World Really Is Flat

As educators, we’re always trying to find ways to make the content more real and to extend the learning beyond the classroom. One of the best ways to enhance the curriculum is through the virtual field trip. Each spring we connect up with Pacific Historic Parks in Honolulu, Hawaii through videoconference so that our students can learn about the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor from veterans who were stationed on the island of Oahu on December 7, 1941. This is one of the most powerful virtual field trips our students can participate in because they are actually learning about the event from men who were there; talk about your primary sources! The veterans share powerful and engaging stories with our students and always take time to answer questions at the end. Our students and teachers who participate always consider themselves lucky to have had such an experience.

One of the students whose class participated in the virtual field trip with Pacific Historic Parks this spring visited Hawaii with her family over spring break. As the family visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor she was very excited to actually “meet” the veteran who spoke to her class. She returned home to South Carolina with photographs and autographs to share with her classmates. To me, this is an amazing classroom extension that made the curriculum “real” for this student. It’s very powerful.

As soon as I heard about this example I knew I needed to share it on the blog. Although I wasn’t in the classroom while the student shared her story about visiting the USS Arizona Memorial with her classmates, her teacher said that she captivated her classmates as she shared what it was like to meet the veteran, see the museum, and to take the boat out to the memorial.

Sometimes in education we get so focused on the test scores. I know why we have testing and while the testing is important, helping our students make connections with the content they are learning about is more important.

Gearing up for the new school year before the current year ends

Janine Lim was a huge influence and resource in the educational videoconference world. Her blog, Out on a Lim, provided so much information for schools and districts who were just getting started with videoconference.  As she has moved on to a new position that focuses more on all aspects of distance learning, I can’t help but feel there is a certain void left. I read her blog religiously and my goal was always to make videoconference as rewarding for teachers in our district as Janine did for her teachers. I never wanted to blog much about videoconference, even though my boss asked me to, because I always felt that Janine did it best. I’m hoping that this blog will possibly fill that void and be a resource to others who may stumble across my posts.

I started taking requests for the 2011-2012 school year on Monday, May 2, 2011. As of April 2012, we have almost 600 requests for Virtual Field Trips for the 2011-2012 school year. There was a great response from the Greenville County teachers who wanted to incorporate more videoconferences into their lessons. It definitely has been a great year.

The end of the school year is such a tough time for teachers. There is so much stress about the high stakes tests, packing up classrooms, changing grade levels or schools, etc. With all the teachers have going on, it’s hard to think about planning videoconferences for the next school year… but the end of the school year IS the time to start thinking about what videoconferences need to be scheduled for the following school year.

Each year during the month of April I send out an end-of-the-year survey to the teachers who participated in videoconferences throughout the current school year to get much needed feedback. The survey is short and sweet, six questions total and the feedback is used to compile a booklet of “The Best Virtual Field Trips” for that school year. I then send that booklet out to the schools to get the teachers thinking about what programs they would like to schedule for the next school year. Our teachers start sending in their requests for the next school on the first Monday of May. This model works well for us…