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Steps
in Organizing a Video Conference
There is a lot of coordination that needs to be done in order to have
a successful video conference.
Before you start
planning ask yourself if your project would really benefit from a video
conference or if the project can be done within the school using another
medium. If you cannot see a benefit, other than, it would be cool, then
you may want to reconsider.
1. The
first step is to come up with a project idea that would truly benefit
from video conferencing. With video conferencing being fairly new to the
K-12 arena, this may be the hardest step.
2. The next step is to find partners to participate in your project.
Depending on the content of your project, you will want to invite either
additional classrooms to participate or an expert/content provider. There
are a few directories of video conferencing sites available on the Internet.
If you are interested in doing many projects using video conferencing,
you may want to sign up for a couple of listservs dedicated to discussing
projects and finding partners. The Learning Space listserv is dedicated
to K-12 educators. Another listserv is hosted by Pac Bell. You can also
find content providers at their site:
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/directory.html. The Pac Bell listserv
is open to anyone interested in video conferencing. The majority of users
are people from higher ed, however.
3. The easiest way to share information with other participants
in your project is via the web or email. Be sure to get email addresses
as well as other contact information from all of your participating classrooms.
4. Set a date. Sometimes it is easier to do this before you get
your partners, as their first question will often be "When?"
5. If you are scheduling a multi-point (more than two sites) conference
you must schedule it through a bridge. In the St. Louis area many schools
use CSD. In out-state Missouri, many schools use MoreNet. Be sure you
know what rate your partners are able to connect. The industry standard
is 384k. Be sure you know how to contact all partners.
6. If you are working with other schools, be sure to include a
project timeline. If participating classrooms are going to be responsible
for sharing information, they need to have plenty of time to prepare.
7. Create a conference day agenda. You want to be sure to give
everyone involved an opportunity to participate. You might even want to
rotate the order in which schools present so everyone gets a chance at
being 'first.' An agenda should include:
Start and stop time
Who is responsible for each part
Example Agenda
8. Be prepared for the worst and have paper copies of all materials
in case your equipment fails in one way or the other.
9. Have a good time!
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