eLearning eVolution

Came across a great blog entry from Anne Mirstchin who teaches IT to students in grades 3-12 in Australia. She’s used Elluminate Live! for the past year for staff meetings, conferences, and professional development as well as with her students. I’m with Anne when she says that Elluminate is the way to go for 21st century education.

Along with sharing a cool project that involves connecting members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with several remote rural schools to teach about their instruments, Anne also provides a number of tips that have increased the successful use of Elluminate with her students, like having a code of conduct for chat and having a timeout room (breakout room) for offenders. Check it out and prepare to be inspired!

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard from some that online learning may be good for classes like reading or language but not for science or math. At Elluminate, we know better because customers tell us everyday how they are transforming teaching and learning by using our enabling technology for a wide variety of courses and programs.

Today, I was happy to find some proof! Here are some statistics from Florida Virtual Academy, a K12 Inc. school and Elluminate customer that show that students at their school got significantly higher FCAT test scores than the state average in reading AND math and science! Check it out.

So there, you naysayers!

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

I always get a little giddy on Fridays, looking forward to the weekend after a week of hard work at Elluminate from my home office in Arizona. However, this Friday was extra special.

One of our sales reps sent a few execs the link to an NBC affiliate story about an autistic boy in Philadelphia who is using a webcam with Elluminate Live! to train for the Special Olympics. The sessions include virtual exercises and lessons on sportsmanship. View “The Teacher Says: Special Olympics Training.”

Within seconds, our president had sent the link to the entire company, and the response emails started pouring in. Even though a significant number of our employees work virtually, the feelings expressed in the emails were mutual. We are all so proud to be working for a company that makes a difference!

We also had another great news clip this week from NBC World News with Charles Gibson. This video showcases Elluminate customer Georgia Virtual Academy, the state’s largest public school. View “School 2.0: Kids Go Online to Learn.”

Enjoy the videos. We sure did!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Georgia Virtual Academy is the state’s largest public school with 4,400 students, and they use Elluminate Live! to add real-time interaction to their online classes. Recently the school was featured on ABC World News with Charles Gibson, who asked, “It’s a way for school districts to cut costs but does online education work?” The answer is a resounding YES! Read article/view video.

Plus, you may also want to check out the academy’s “Myths About Online Schools” page.

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

The Elluminate Center of Excellence program recognizes achievement in live eLearning and web collaboration, highlights best practices, and showcases those organization on the “learning-edge” of adopting synchronous pedagogies for teaching, learning, and related business processes.

This year’s 2009 Elluminate Centers of Excellence include:

- Broward County Public Schools for utilizing Web 2.0 and distance learning technologies to manage organizational change while implementing a structured approach to training to reach a large volume of individuals needing just-in-time training.

- Center for Distance Learning and Innovation for providing equitable access to educational opportunities to almost 1000 students in 113 schools throughout Newfoundland and Labrador in a way that makes distance transparent.

- eLearning Broward for significantly increasing attendance of live and recorded online workshops to include thousands of adult students, enabling them to improve academic skills, increase proficiency and confidence with technology, and increase number of diplomas earned.

- McMaster University for achieving an accelerated adoption rate of live eLearning and web collaboration technology system wide for distance education, research, and administration, while increasing efficiency and reducing costs for a number of high-profile projects on a global level.

- University Alliance for delivering professional development programs that lower training costs and reduce loss of productivity, while meeting or exceeding traditional face-to-face programs and maintaining level of excellence required by a Fortune 500 company.

- University of Hertfordshire for upporting mission of Blended Learning Unit to motivate and enable academic staff to transform their teaching and learning, engage with colleagues across the higher education sector, and participate in professional development activities.

Click here to read all about their individual achievements and view their recorded submission sessions. Prepare to be inspired!

Have you achieved real-world results using Elluminate technologies? Apply now for 2010.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Teri and Aaron attend Tricentia Academy, a small school in rural Newfoundland. Because they are the only two students in their class taking French, their only option was to take an online class through the Center for Distance Learning & Innovation, an Elluminate customer. The students’ experiences were chronicled in a video by Elizabeth Murphy of Memorial University. Get the whole story and hear what Teri and Aaron have to say. Enjoy!

PS. Click here to view other videos by Elizabeth Murphy about learner-centered e-teaching.

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

In these trying economic times, it’s important for brick and mortar schools to look for opportunities to extend their reach and offer additional services in a cost-effective way. For Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas, the answer was their new Online Campus. The cool part is that they used their new Elluminate virtual classroom as a promotion medium to reach more students and parents, giving them an opportunity to try the new technology for themselves. Pretty clever! Learn more by reading this new case study.

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

A few days ago, I conducted a interview with the Northwest Kansas Regional Prevention Center for an Elluminate success story. We were joined by New Media & Prevention Specialist LaDonna Coy, who is also what I would call a back channel specialist. During our interview, LaDonna recapped what we were saying in the Elluminate Live! public chat window. This ongoing dialogue helps her retain session content, re-enforces key points for other participants, and will certainly help me when I use the recording to write the case study. Great idea!

Looks like George Siemens agrees in today’s posting, “Educational Uses of Back Channels.” He says that the back channels during live online events may be even more valuable than the actual presentation.

Here’s some more food for thought in this blog entry from last May, “Understanding the Back Channel.”

What do you think? Any innovative use of back channels during an Elluminate session you’d like to share?

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

New Career and Technical Education Teachers’ Blog is a blog space for teachers enrolled in the New Teachers Institute at Georgia State University, an Elluminate customer.

Here’s a recent question posed by Dr. Burns: If you were designing a course that was going to be delivered via Elluminate Live! (a) what types of things would you need to consider and (b) what types of activities would you use and why? Well, multiple student posts ensued. You’ll find all of them on the blog.

One of my favorites was the student who thought Elluminate was boring and would try to think of ways to infuse it with life and excitement. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of any ways to do that! LOL, because he went on to say he’d have a scavenger hunt game for students to search for images or links on the Internet that conveyed a certain feeling, for example, and then post them on the whiteboard for discussion. What a great idea!

Other suggested interactive activities included group breakout sessions and presentations, video clips, case analysis, quick quizzes, safety videos, group assessments, using a webcam to demonstrate proffiency, game simulations, foreign language instruction, demonstrating CAD software, and even translating morse code. Lots of good stuff here. Enjoy!

And keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

This eSchool News article, “Teclnology Empowers Differentiated Instruction,” caught my eye today. Turns out “differentiated instruction” is what we at Elluminate call personalized, individualized, or student-centered learning. The idea is the same: tailor instruction to individual abilities, needs, interests, and learning style. The part I like is the promotion of 21st-century skills and the reiteration that technology has the power to facilitate DI or whatever you call it.

The article provides a good summary of and lists some practical tools from a recent ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) webinar. So check it out and get some ideas, like having students create something called a webbe.

Here also are a couple of Elluminate stories about K12 teachers who are using technology to provide student-centered instruction. Teacher Raven Sundahl at EBUS Academy developed Wacky Wednesdays as a way to include modalities for all types of learners. Social studies literacy coach Cara Coffina of NYC District 75 developed an online debate program to meet the needs of special needs kids.

Do you have any examples you’d like to share about using technology for DI?

Keep on Elluminating!

Beth – Elluminate Goddess of Communication