The 2010/2011 school year marks a turning point in KEA's videoconference programming. The last 6 years have seen a nearly 100% increase in requests each year. As a rule KEA has always provided “on-demand” style conferencing. Thus, during the 2009/2010 school year, Kigluait, on repeated occasions, was overloaded with requests.
In light of the fact that KEA is a small, family owned business, with no desire to become anything different, the 2010/2011 school year will see some changes designed to meet customer needs while at the same time preserving the quality of programming, sanity of Christina and Rich, and level of customer service and flexibility that KEA prides itself on.
On-Demand Programming: On-demand programming is the standard, point-to-point; type of programming KEA has always done in the past. During the registration process the individual schools (technology coordinators, etc) request a specific date and time and KEA do it's best to schedule the program at the requested time. The conference is between KEA and a single school/classroom.
For the 2010/2011 school years, KEA will continue to do this type of programming. As a strict policy however, no more than 2 per day will schedule, and none before 7:00 am Alaska time. This is distinct change from years past where as many as 5 per day were scheduled and much flex was given regarding the start time.
The important ramification of this policy is that during the months of January, February, March, and April KEA will be booked. KEA cannot stress enough if you want to visit us during this time frame- plan ahead and book early.
A final, not insignificant, change to the on-demand programming is that due to continued increases in the cost of maintaining a sled dog kennel- particularly dog food costs- KEA will be increasing the costs of these programs to $150/classroom. An additional $50 charge will be added for each additional classroom participating in the same program. (See “policies” for a definition of 'classroom').
Multi-point Sessions: In order to meet the increasing volume of program requests for the popular Mushing Alaska and Meet A Musher programs, and to provide a more economic option to the on-demand programming- KEA will offer a monthly multi-point session. These sessions will generally occur the first Thursday of each month (specific schedule to be published in May 2010).
There will be 4 sessions per day and they will begin at 6:00am Alaska time. Cost will only be $100/classroom. Classes will connect with no more than 2 sites besides KEA.
KEA strongly believes in the interactivity of videoconferencing and is currently in the process of adapting the Mushing Alaska and Meet A Musher point-to-point curriculum to meet the needs of a multi-point session.
Special Events: In addition to the above multi-point sessions, KEA will again be running their monthly Special Events. These are multi-point events and will cost just $100/classroom. Generally they will be run on the 3rd Thursday of each month. A tentative event topic schedule can be seen below.
· September: The Dogs of the Gold Rush
· October: Adopt a Dog
· November: Sled Dogs- Facts and Fiction!
· December: Sled dogs with Santa
· January: Race Ready!
· February: Virtual Sled Dog Race
· March: Iditarod
· April: Survive
· May: Lines and Patterns
All and all a lot of changes are happening in the coming year. But one thing that will not change is KEA's dedication and passion to sharing with students their unique lifestyle with sled dogs and the Alaskan landscape. Neither will their dedication to providing the best possible learning experience to each and every student they meet!
Only time for a short post here today but I thought I would talk a little about training, goal setting, and adapting to changes once a plan has been devised.
