School has started, not just for children, but also for adults. Though we are very active learners and researchers, we have decided to go back to school officially. So this years postings will mix with muses and learnings from our school experiences and how best we can use it to improve videoconferencing.

So getting feedback from the videoconference audience on ideas and projects is very useful, thus the reason for posting on the blog.

This semester I will be creating an action research plan as part of a Classroom Research class. Now I am sure this may seem like a no-brainer for many, but I love the idea of formally researching yourself to make improvements. I am sure that we as teachers naturally do this already, we simply do not formally record the results, force ourselves to look at them, evaluate them and draw conclusions. And then make changes based on these results. I imagine, like for many, we as teachers already have little time to collect and look at results. But when you consider it, we really do this on a subconscious level, so why not simply write the results down? That is what I will be doing this semester.

I will be running an action research plan on how best to create 1 hour quality learning experiences via videoconference. The unusual thing I notice during our distance interactions is the amount of interaction between different classes. We know from experience and research that the more interaction we have during a conference, the more learning occurs and the better experience the students have. The question is then, what exactly must be done to create a consistent learning environment so students have a quality interaction during a video conference. Even more interesting is what level of interaction is most needed by a student (child and adult) to interact at a distance in order to learn? In my experience it has been different among people (both adults and children). Some people only prefer to interact through audio, some through video and some through just text or email. So what must be met in the learning environment for a student to be comfortable to learn in a video conference setting?

Question: What comfort-level (positive learning environment) must be created for students to have the best 1 hour quality distance learning experience? Is it the same for adults as kids? (Comfort level meaning that a student is comfortable enough to interact and learn on a video conference.) (Or is there some level of un-comfort that must be experienced in order for change to occur and thus learning?)

Fact Finding: Research articles about elements of quality distance learning for video conferencing (though a great side bit of research is elements of a quality distance learning over all and then consider how this could incorporate into videoconferencing to build more comfort level.)

Planning: Provide three different types of real-time (synchronous) interactive content for a student and a teacher in 3 different manners; audio, video, text (and possibly a combination.) After interacting with the content, have them evaluate the usefulness of the learning on a scale. Also collect qualitative data on amount and type of interactions during each experience.

If you have thoughts or suggestions on this, share away. (Or if you are having trouble with our comment form below, let us know.)

Last school year, 2009/2010, we experienced our busiest year of programing ever! And, while we are very excited about that, as many of you know, we are just a simple, family run business. There is just three of running the entire operation. We like it that way. It fits the vision by which we started KEA in the first place: to share our combined interests in sled dogs, the outdoors, and education with students around the country to motivate learning.

But we were very concerned that the volume of program request we were receiving was eventually going to effect the quality of our programing. Also, we were simply running out of time in the day to actually run the programs!

So we have done some restructuring to help us serve you better and maintain our own sanity and sustainability.

We have separated our programing into three categories:

1. On-Demand. This is essentially the same type of programing we have always done. You select the program you want, the date you want, and the time you want. Then we work closely with you to meet your needs and you meet with us one on one for the program. We have had to raise our prices a bit on these but they are still on the low end of most private content provides and for cheaper than any other provider who actually takes you outside into the environment that the program content is discussing! (For classrooms that these price increases may create a hardship for, please look into our Monthly Multi-Points.)

2. Monthly Multi-Points. Thanks to our new partnership with Whirlidurb we are now able to offer a monthly multi-point conference of our most popular programs- Mushing Alaska and Meet a Musher. These conferences run on the first Thursday of each month at set times and are offered at a lower cost than the On-Demand programs. We will never meet with more than 3 classes at a time and they have been restructured to incorporate classroom to classroom interactivity, as well as interactivity with us and the sled dogs.

3. Special Events. Like the tittle suggests these are special events that cover unique topics that we only offer once a year. They occur on the third Thursday of each month and are run on the same price and time structure as our Monthly Multi-Points.

We hope this restructuring meets the many needs of all our participants and, as always, welcome and need your feedback to continue to improve our programming!

Virtual Sled Dog Race: The Pipeline 100!

It's that time of year again! Virtual Racing!

Sled dogs, that is!

Every spring, right around Iditarod time, we run our Virtual Sled Dog race: The Pipeline 1000. It's a bit of a departure from our normal videoconference programing but simply a ton of fun!

What it is, is an online, curriculum-based, role playing game where students become the mushers responsible for the raising, equipping, training, and finally racing of their very own dog team!

Along the way they delve into the reading, writing, history, and math skills directly relevant to the care and performance of their dog team. Teams from classrooms around the country compete with each other each year, checking their results daily. It's self motivated learning at it's very best. And the more they learn the better their team runs!

For the teacher:
*Complete, standards-based curriculum with assessments
*Step-by-step video tutorials on using the curriculum
*Flexible timeline allowing for individual classroom pacing of curriculum
*Secure online classroom for teacher collaboration and dialog
*Modification guidelines for grade level adaptations

For students:
*Secure online-classroom
*Tons of online video and photographic resources
*Musher Blog
*Direct web-based communication with an Iditarod and Jr. Iditarod musher
*Live web-streamed events from a working Alaskan racing kennel
*Real-time updates of Virtual Race standings
*Prizes for the top ten finishing teams

The race starts February 22^nd and ends March 5^th so sign up soon... spots fill quickly! $100/classroom or $20/homeschool family Learn More/Register