Archives 2010/2011 - News And Events - Contemporary Issues Through Videoconferencing

Gerda Weissmann Klein's message of no child should go hungry along with our goal of contributing within our own community spurred our class to fund raise for the local food bank. We held our fundraiser in the school's cafeteria for one week (the week of 2/7/11-2/11/11) and we collected monetary contributions. We asked students and faculty for change, even pennies! We succeeded in collecting $500 by week's end! We worked in collaboration with the Amnesty International Club at PV. We chose this fundraiser because we participated in a service project that challenged students to go out and make a difference in their own communities. Our class has been in contact with a Volunteer Coordinator from CUMAC: Feeding People & Changing Lives located in Paterson, New Jersey - a city located very near our school. They definitely need money to continue their work and we are determined to give our money to a local food bank, meaning we want it to go to somewhere that we all know and within our county of Passaic!

The CITVC class created a Facebook event page to attract attention on campus.

For more information on this organization, visit: http://www.cumacecho.org.

Classroom Reset 2011: Innovations for All at Montclair State University, May 20, 2011

The Center for Pedagogy and The Montclair State University Network for Educational Renewal held its annual conference titled Classroom Reset 2011: Innovations for All on May 20, 2011 at University Hall on the campus of MSU. This day was a showcase for teachers, college faculty and some k-12 students to model how they successfully "reset" their classrooms by utilizing emerging technologies. Matthew Conforth, Director of Educational Technology at Passaic Valley co-presented with Kathleen Menake, CITVC teacher at Passaic Valley at the following session: Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing. Several current CITVC students presented as well via videoconference. The students did an professional job of communicating their experiences to the higher education community.

Here are some quotes from attendees (teachers):

"Actually listening to the students reveals how videoconferencing impacted their lives."
The highlight of the presentation was "the live videoconference with the presenter's students in class. Very beneficial and inspirational."

For more information, please visit: http://cehs.montclair.edu/academic/cop/crc.shtml

NJEDge.Net 12th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase, March 11, 2011

NJEDge.Net 12th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase Videoconference

A committee of faculty and academic professionals accepted applications for this event. Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing (CITVC) was accepted; we were thrilled! The day was hosted by The College of New Jersey, and CITVC presented from PVHS via videoconference. Our focus for this presentation was our use of 21st century technology that includes videoconferencing, interactive virtual field trips and Web 2.0 tools such as an interactive website and social networking.

The Best Practices Showcase is a forum for New Jersey faculty and academics to share their innovative teaching method with their peers. The students will be co-presenters via a virtual connection and they discussed their experiences in the CITVC class using 21st-century technology.

For more info, please visit http://www.njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2011/index.php

CITVC visited Global Nomads Group (GNG) headquarters in New York City in December, 2010. Global Nomads Group is a prestigious videoconference content provider that Passaic Valley has worked with for many years.

The trip provided an opportunity for PV students to dialogue with GNG executives about the potentials of educational technology and videoconferencing.

CITVC would like to thank GNG for hosting us! We had a blast!

For more info, please visit: www.gng.org

We had a very successful year in the videoconferencing class this school year. Ms. Menake received the School Leader award plaque for her CITVC in Trenton at the War Memorial building near the State House on May 14th from Ray Wiss, president of the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA). He described the contents of my course, Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing, and praised CITVC extensively. There was only one other awardee from Piscataway H.S. We were the only two schools in the state to be selected for the School Leader Award for 2011.

This photo is courtesy of Janet Bamford.

Ms. Menake proudly presented the plaque to Dr. Joganow, Passaic Valley's Superintendent, who congratulated her and was very happy about this honor his school has received.

CITVC is very proud!!!

Here is a link to the online newsletter:
http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20110524/leader.html

To view the article from the July/August 2011 issue of School Leader Magazine, click here

CITVC participated in several videoconferences re. Haiti since the January 12, 2010 earthquake. As part of our commitment to one of our providers, Global Nomads Group, we have become a team member of the StudentsRebuild challenge put forward by Architecture for Humanity, the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group. The goal is to raise as much money as you can to help rebuild school in Haiti.

This is an ongoing event for our CITVC class, so last year and this year we will return to raising money for this cause. We have raised over $300.

For more information, please visit:

http://studentsrebuild.org
http://www.gng.org

CITVC creator and teacher, Kathleen Menake, presented twice at Rockefeller Plaza, renamed Learning Plaza, for NBC's Education Nation on Sunday, September 26, 2010. She presented her course, Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing, and she highlighted the content provider, Global Nomads Group, with which CITVC has a strong collaborative relationship for 8 years now. She presented a "live" lesson that demonstrates how your use of technology is improving the way students learn and are taught. In particular Ms. Menake focused on CITVC's work with StudentsRebuild, which is a year-long program , including 4 videoconferences, an educator videoconference, webcasts, and several online forums for students to dialogue directly with their Haitian peers about the rebuilding efforts in Haiti after the January 12th, 2010 earthquake. Ms. Menake was invited to attend this event by Global Nomads Group, who chose her due to our high school's excellent performance in videoconferencing.

For more information, visit: http://www.educationnation.com

CITVC was featured in the Nov/Dec 2010 newsletter of the Garden State Distance Learning Consortium (GSDLC).
Click here to read the newsletter. The GSDLC is located at The Southern Regional Institute (SRI) and the Educational Technology Training Center (ETTC) at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

CITVC is proud of this news feature!

For more info:
http://www.gsdlc.org - "The Garden State Distance Learning Consortium is a nonprofit organization formed by educators to promote the development of distance learning (DL), and foster the application of video conferencing within the classroom setting. The Garden State Distance Learning Consortium is embarking on innovative ways to incorporate instructional technologies that validate and punctuate what the teachers are doing inside the classroom."

http://www.ettc.net/aboutus/index.html - this link will bring you to the information page on The Southern Regional Institute (SRI) and the Educational Technology Training Center (ETTC) at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

In September CITVC's teacher Kathleen Menake participated in an educator session for the StudentsRebuild project. Our partner school is École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele' Haiti. We follow info about our school at the following website: http://studentsrebuild.org/blog/1056/ivc-prep-bon-berger-pele.html

For more info about rebuilding efforts at our partner school, visit: http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/node/7636

Grace Lau, Manager of Programs at Global Nomads Group, facilitated the conference. She has made many trips to Haiti and moderated all our videoconferences with our partner school. Ms. Menake spoke with several other educators from around the country; they discussed their goals for their students and plans for projects involving Haiti.

Grace wrote in an e-mail to all the educators before the educator-only session: "I went to Haiti last week [early September, 2010] to meet with the local educators and partners, visit the schools on the ground, and work out the general logistics for our October Videoconference launch. All this being said, I can assure you your Haitian peers are very excited about this opportunity to connect their students to yours! I have attached several pictures of your educational counterparts at the schools we will be working with. I look forward to meet with you in the coming week to share more."

Passaic Valley Regional High School has partnered with Montclair State University with the program Teaching For Learning I. Once a week, meeting at Passaic Valley, college students enrolled in the education program take this course the semester before their student-teaching assignment. In November, 2010 CITVC students presented to these college students about the use of educational technology in the classroom on a daily basis. The CITVC students did an excellent job presenting to their older peers!

For more information on this course, please visit this site: http://cehs.montclair.edu/academic/popups/CURR451.shtml

On March 16, 2011 four CITVC students and Ms. Kathleen Menake presented to the incoming 8th graders about the powerful use of educational technology.

The students prepared a brief video and talked about their personal experiences with educational technology and its impact on their lives.

The incoming 8th graders were excited about coming to PVHS with all the school has to offer!

The Contemporary Issues through Videoconferencing class attended a conference at the United Nations on March 21, 2011. The United Nations conference that CITVC attended, which is titled International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, is observed annually on March 21. It was a conversation between students and experts on racial and other forms of discrimination that people face and a discussion on ways we can fight to counter them. It was organized by the Department of Public Information at the United Nations and it was held in the ECOSOC Chamber at the United Nations headquarters.

CITVC was invited to join this conference by Global Education Motivators, a non-profit organization that helps schools connect on issues emphasizing human rights and human responsibility. CITVC has worked with GEM on several UN-related videoconferences over the last several years.

GEM was founded in 1981 as a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization to help schools ... Emphasizing human rights and human responsibility,

The students were treated to a mini-tour of the United Nations after the conference.