ICN News

Lyneé Casper is the ICN/RTC consultant for Heartland AEA 11. She visits with schools about courses and ICN curriculum-based sessions, including ICN multimedia classroom technologies and supporting Internet Web 2.0 technologies. Casper is also available to provide personal, customized ICN training and ICN related staff development. Casper promotes new and developing ICN networking capabilities, such as bridging an ICN classroom beyond our Iowa borders to national or global connections through Internet IP video conferencing, or via desktop IP videoconferencing. Casper is currently collaborating with the ICN to further promote this area. She communicates ICN awareness through web-based communications, such as the Heartland ICN Distance Learning Web Site, at http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/tech/icn/. She is involved in planning and promoting news for the ICN News Blog, and is currently developing online ICN resources, such as online training, courses and a collaborative Wiki.

Casper feels strongly that the ICN, together with new technologies, can continue to bring significant benefits to education in Iowa. Read her reflections and thoughts concerning the ICN below:

In 2008, the World Future Society predicted that virtual education and distance learning would be one of the emerging top 10 breakthroughs transforming life in the next 20-30 years. (http://tinyurl.com/cnoo53) In addition, 32 states currently have virtual schools and 44 states have significant virtual schools policies or programs. (Watson, Keeping Pace, 2008) More than 50% of all school districts across the U.S. offer online and distance learning. (America’s Digital Schools Report) The Iowa Communications Network is the infrastructure poised to meet the many learning needs for our teachers and students as this shift in education occurs.

With financial constraints and teacher shortages prevalent in school districts, the ICN offers low cost alternatives and cost cutting options. Iowa Learning Online continues to build a quality list of high school online course offerings, just when schools may be struggling to provide classes in needed subject-areas. Schools can seek economical ways to work or collaborate in this area. The ICN video classroom, the Internet, desktop videoconferencing, or even telephone conferencing are connectivity options available through the ICN. In addition, many Iowa schools get their Internet connectivity through the ICN. Did you know that the ICN is the Internet provider for all but nine Heartland AEA 11 public school districts and some private schools? Heartland pays for the aggregation services to connect these schools to the Internet via the ICN. The Iowa AEA Online Databases provided to Iowa schools, their students, and their parents (for home use as well), also opens up great opportunities to enhance online learning.

Educators should look at online learning via the ICN in new and innovative ways. Web 2.0 tools, online course offerings, or videoconferencing sessions can be combined in various ways, bringing together 21st Century learning opportunities unique to Iowa. An ICN Learning Scenario starting with the planning and carrying out of an ICN session at a distance takes on new possibilities. In this new scenario, teachers and their students’ can communicate with each other about the shared topic using the Internet before and after an ICN session. Teachers might upload and share online student resources or facilitate online exchanges to help students learn more about each other and their communities. This can be done via a wiki, blog, or other Web 2.0 collaborative online tools. Following the ICN session, teachers can moderate the posting of students’ reflective comments to the wiki or blog, and create surveys using Web 2.0 tools to compile students’ responses using of cell phones. Results can be shared on that same wiki or blog, or right on the cell phone. The sharing of ideas, the exchange of different points of view, and the resulting conclusions about what has been learned together results in higher-level learning for students. Teachers can foster 21st Century Learning through the application of real world, collaborative learning skills through a teaching model such as this. This blended learning scenario, meeting via ICN and the Internet in flexible ways could take place in Iowa, nationally, or globally. Read the ISTE Publication, Interactive Videoconferencing: K-12 Lessons that Work, edited by Kecia Ray and Jan Zanetis, for more excellent examples.

Learning with the ICN and/or the Internet no longer has to be scheduled as synchronous, or in real time. An a-synchronous example, such as an online Webinar, offers individuals the opportunity to meet and collaborate via the Internet through desktop videoconferencing. The communication and collaboration takes place from computer to computer. The meeting can be archived, with necessary documents and resources uploaded so that a learner can return to the archived session at any time. Individuals can access and assimilate online content at their own pace and convenience. Our students as digital natives are motivated to learn in this way. Iowa is clearly set apart from other states with the ICN communications infrastructure already in place, ready for learners seeking flexibility. Teachers and schools should take full advantage of this flexible, valuable technology resource.