Conference with Austria

Conference Summary

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The Cnidr K12 reflector was reserved for this conference and a Conference ID was set.

Sprint was able to set up a Conference Bridge for the sites in the United States for our session. Many thanks to Marti Kiser for helping us set this up! The Austrian site was relying on Maven and so we held the microphone from the Macintosh up near our speaker phone and the machine's speakers so that the other sites would be able to monitor our guest's comments and questions.

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We scheduled the conference to begin at 12:30 pm EST which was 6:30 pm Middle European Time.

The sites showed up on the Cnidr K12 reflector shortly after 12:30 pm EST. The Austrian site was having difficulty with its camera and so was a little late arriving. We began the conference with introductions from the sites which were present.

• Long Branch School - Arlington, Virginia

  Fifth graders from Long Branch introduced themselves and their school.

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• Canyon Crest - Provo, Utah Colleen Densley and her students joined in on the audio bridge.

  Unfortunately Colleen's video connection was down.

• Springman - Glenview, Illinois

  Joanne Trahannas' students introduced themselves and their school. They told us that Ms. Trahannas was out for the day, but that they would be joining us. We were glad to have such experts running the equipment and handling the conference in her absence. Many thanks to Todd and the other students at Springman.

• Jeff Jewell and Tom Tivnan from Issaquah in Washington state joined us. They introduced themselves and let us know that their students were having a late arrival due to the icy roads. Jeff and Tom teach science and math with a focus on technology and so they have been interested in joining in with our cluster's activities.

• Steven Adams, a scientist from the Jet Propulsion Lab, joined in as well. Steven gave us a brief weather report for the midwest and told us about a building which he heard had its roof cave in due to heavy ice and snow. We gathered from his report that two of our conference members might have been unable to join us due to the weather conditions in their areas.

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After our guests at the Austrian site arrived we began telling them about how the students in the Global Schoolhouse Project were using CU-SeeMe and the Internet tools which they had been learning to use.

Long Branch students talked about some of the important people they have met during videoconferencing and how CU-SeeMe facilitates meeting those we might not otherwise have access to or be able to meet with on a face-to-face basis. Roland Foss and Jean Hecker told the group that students at Long Branch have talked to students in schools across the United States and in other countries including Germany, Australia, Great Britain and France. They mentioned having conferences with Bob Ryan and Harry Volkman - meteorologists, Congressman Rose of North Carolina, Steve Ambrose - a NOAA scientist, and scientists from the Jet Propulsion Lab. They also mentioned taking a tour of a hospital in Texas and watching the solar eclipse while using CU-SeeMe.

Students at Canyon Crest spoke to the group about working in teams with students at their school and how the schools within the cluster groups work together over the Internet. They explained a little about how we collaborate during videoconferences and get to know more about each others' schools and research on our projects.

Students at Glenview told the group about downloading the Wireman program over the Internet using FTP. Then they explained how we had learned to use the program during a videoconference with the scientists at NERSC. They esplained how students at each school were able to watch the science expert at NERSC using the program and how we followed along and used the Wireman program on our own computers.

Jeff and Tom in Washington State commented that they learned more about using a phone bridge to assist during videoconferences. They commented that they see the Internet as an adventurer's playground and that they were eager to have their students become more involved in future activities and the collaboration they saw as part of the Global Schoolhouse Project.

Then Hans Mittendorf, a professor at the university in Austria shared some information with our group. He showed us the three cameras he had connected through CU-SeeME and switched on each in sequence to show us its vantage point. He had prepared a map of Europe which he held up to one of the cameras to show those at the conference where Linz was located. He then gave us a video tour of the campus and showed us the various buildings and told us some of the interesting things we were seeing about each scene as he narrated during the tour. Hans had an audience of colleagues and students but only one was able to interact with us due to the difficulties with transmission there in Astria. The audio started breaking up and they were having difficulty hear us. We were able to hear the comments they were making and ended up backing up our verbal responses by typing in replies on the screen when the audio was too difficult for them to understand.

Hans shared with us that most of the use of the Internet in Austria, and especially at his university, was involved with using email. He had heard about the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software and was able to get it set up. He was glad to hear how educators in the United States were using the program and other Internet tools. He was hoping that he and his colleagues could help further the use of these tools in his country.

Before the conference concluded, a student at Glenview took the microphone to talk to the Austrian site in their own language. The conversation continued back and forth for several minutes between the student and the Austrian site. The young man who was speaking to Hans in Linz, Austria, was Ricardo Indacochea from Springman who lived in Germany for 8 months last year and learned to speak German.Their discussion was about where the man was from and how both were doing. Ricardo said after the conference had concluded that they didn't have enough time to cover much so he hopes they have a chance to talk again soon.

At about 1:20 pm EST we concluded the conference. We agreed that it had been highly sucessful in spite of some of the audio the problems we experienced (using Maven from Austria to transmit the sound ) and decided to meet again after we had an opportunity to make the arrangements through email.

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Post Conference notes:

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Holly Lester from Gilbert Jr/Sr. High was supposed to joining us as well but schools in her area were closed due to the arrival of 10 inches of snow and slick, icy roads. She sent email the next morning and said they were back in school but were experiencing freezing rain and slick roads. She did not think they would stay in school the entire day if the rain continued. Although she felt it was a big coincidence she did not blame the weather group. But she noted that this was her first time meeting with the "Weather CLuster" and the first snow of the year. Was she hinting that we had something to do with this??? :-)

Jerry Shedlosky at Holmes School in Nebraska was also unable to make the conference due to weather. A snow storm closed their schools for the day.