Here are my notes from this morning’s session, “Enhancing the K–12 Classroom Through Videoconferencing”

North Dakota is a relatively large, sparsely populated state. Other than the largest cities like Fargo, Bismark, and Grand Forks, most kids attend school in geographically isolated communities. The state of North Dakota has been aggressive in building high-speed Internet connections between all of the state entities (including all K–12 schools) in order to expand opportunities to make connections between schools and to sites outside of North Dakota.

The North Dakota video conferencing network can use analog technology or the H.323 video standard over IP. Using the state video network, any school can make a point-to-point call to any other school in the state any time for free. The network also supports multipoint calling with up to ten sites participating simultaneously.

Some examples of video conferencing in the classroom:

• SeaTrek provides multimedia science programming where students can connect live with persons who might be in a rainforest or underwater and ask them questions.
• The Cleveland Music Institute has music education and professional development programs.
• The Albany Institute of History & Art has programming related to colonial life in America, mummies and ancient Egypt, America after the Civil War, and various art topics.
• The Baseball Hall of Fame has video conferencing programs for 10 different curriculum areas.
• The RAVEN Project at the National Aviary uses a video-enabled robot that moves around amongst the birds at the aviary.

Other video conferencing opportunities can be found at NoodleTrip, a database of sites that provide content over video. I bought a number of Apple iSight cameras recently and I’m hoping to get some of our teachers involved with video conferencing next year.