Belated Announcement re a Huge Opportunity for USN

I recently received a query from the Director of Products and Services Development at the National Association of Independent Schools, Susan Booth, for information on innovative projects at my school, University School of Nashville. It was accompanied by flattering encouragement from our school's Diversity Director (yes, we have one, do you?) Caroline Blackwell, a dear friend and colleague, so I responded to that query in the following manner:

Tandberg International Education Market Manager Jan Zanetis has awarded a $14,000 Tandberg Edge95 System loaner unit to University School of Nashville Lower School Technology Coordinator Scott Merrick in exchange for Professional Development program offerings to Tandberg education market customers over the coming academic school year. Details of the programs are being fleshed out over the month of October. When ready, Interactive Videoconferencing sessions-on-request will likely center around the use of Virtual Environments, including Second Life and Open Sim, for building professional learning networks; Web 2.0 tools for the same purpose; and K12 computer programming instruction with Scratch and Alice. Look for these sessions to be offered and promoted soon through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration.

Network Administrator David MacLean and I are working hard on making sure we have clear and reliable throughput with the unit and I'm in touch with several longstanding collaborators to ensure that my content offerings meet existing needs for teachers and also provide programs that will be attractive and respectful of the investment of everyone's time and interest. Stay tuned! And thanks to Ms. Zanetis for her confidence in my work. (pic courtesy of ivci.com and tandberg)

Videoconferencing To Bring the World to Students

T.H.E. Journal today published a tasty little article on old friend and colleague Janine Lim's pioneering and persevering work to promote and facilitate the adoption of Interactive Videoconferencing in education. I'm so proud of her I must share here.

My own school has recently been granted the loan of a marvelous Tandberg Edge95 codec by Tandberg Education Market Director (and another dear friend) Jan Zanetis. We are currently working on configuring it to get through our newly revamped firewall (an issue mentioned by Janine in her interview); and with any luck, we'll be embarking on some more distance learning adventures of our own. You might stay tuned for that, but in the meanwhile do treat yourself to that article!

Videoconferencing To Bring the World to Students, by Denise Harrison.

Innovate---Journal of Online Education Redesign!

I'm pretty proud of my very first peer-reviewed professional journal paper, released in the October/November volume 2, 2005, issue number 1 of innovate-Journal of Online Education; and this exraordinary resource for educators K-20 (and learners of any level) has gone on since then to release issue after issue of valuable research driven papers and webinars. It's just this month released a GREAT site redesign. Hence this post. See my paper, "Videoconferencing K-12: The state of the Art," at the new site. Check out the one hour webinar (a condition of publication, and a free archived continuing resource for both authors and audience) I subsequently delivered. If you're not impressed yet, check out the "About this Journal" page.

Bookmark this site! And sign up for the listserv for once-a-month receipt of new publication announcements; I've just been approved to submit an article for a future special issue on education in Second Life--more news on that later...