The Regional Innovators Award highlights innovators throughout the state of Texas who have made unique efforts to develop content and create educational programming for students. These innovators understand that our network is defined by its content. Without innovative content, the importance of our statewide and regional networks is greatly diminished. By continuing to develop unique educational opportunities for educators and students, these innovators help to ensure the continued success of distance learning initiatives throughout the state.

JoAnn Roe is an Educational Consultant in the Education Technology Department at Education Service Center Region 11. JoAnn is an innovator in remote broadcasting, utilizing a satelite trailer to bring previously unreachable locations to state and regional classrooms. Programs such as Live from the Dairy Farm and Live from the Dublin Dr. Pepper Bottling Company are successful in large part because of her efforts to coordinate use of the satellite trailer and market the events throughout the state.

Perhaps more notable are JoAnn's personal appearances. Coordinating with experts at the Arlington Archasaur Site, JoAnn took on the persona of Indiana Jo and taught students about the catastophic wildfire that ravaged the Texas coast. Later in the year JoAnn became Jingle Jo, a holiday elf who gave students a global perspective on holiday celebrations.

Whatever the situation, JoAnn's commitment to educating the students throughout Region 11 and the State of Texas has set her apart as an innovator in distance learning content. TETN would like to honor her contribution by highlighting her as our first Regional Innovator. Thank you, JoAnn, for your hardwork and dedication.

Today’s world of video conferencing, like everything else, is changing faster than anyone can imagine. We are a long way from the days when the only way people could talk over video was using two radiofrequency video links running in each direction. (a setup employed by NASA and other government agencies as far back as the early 50s) In today’s world of video someone in New Zealand can have a video chat with someone in Alaska in a matter of seconds if they have a laptop, access to Skype, and a good internet connection. For a network like TETN that supports H.320/H.323 multiparty video conferences, software like Skype will not work, and that presents a significant problem as clients want to participate in large conferences without having to travel over 30 miles to do so. Luckily all of the various video conferencing companies have been developing Desktop Video Conferencing Applications.

A Desktop Video Conferencing Application is software that can be downloaded to your computer that enables the user to connect to an H.323 video conference from their PC through a SIP gateway. To use this software all you need is a computer with preferably a 2GHZ processor, an internet connection, a webcam, and a microphone. Applications like these are essential to expanding TETN’s current video structure. These applications will enable teachers without video conferencing equipment to participate in trainings, kids without equipment to participate in virtual field trips, and enable those on the go to participate in a TETN session from anywhere with an internet connection. This blog series will cover the solutions available from companies such as Cisco, Polycom, and Lifesize. We will look at the computer requirements needed to run these programs, and what each program offers the user that others don’t. Please check back here next week when we take a look at CISCO’s JABBER, formerly TANDBERG’s MOVI.

April 26, 2012 12:30 - 1:30 PM CT

Musical Storytelling

Audience: Grades K-3

The Bush Library Education Department will be hosting “Musical Storytelling, Character is the Key”-a storytelling event for grades K-3. Featuring presenter Bobbee Pennington accompanied on the guitar by Ed Young. Songs include: Hello Everybody Action Song, Billy Goats Gruff Participatory Tale and Millie’s Song. Registration will close Tuesday, April 25.

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April 26, 2012 10:30 – 11:30 AM CT

The Adventures of Peter Rabbit

Audience: Grades K-3

The Bush Library Education Department will be hosting “The Adventures of Peter Rabbit”-a storytelling event for grades K-3. “Miss Teresa” Maurer is a talented storyteller affiliated with The Beatrix Potter Society. Registration will close Tuesday, April 25. Please visit http://www.peterrabbit.com/en/ for crossword puzzles, games, and coloring sheets. Registration form is located at the bottom of this email.

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To register for the Storytelling event, please select the appropriate link below.

Texas Schools Registration for Musical Storytelling

Non-Texas Schools Registration for Musical Storytelling

To register for the Peter Rabbit event, please select the appropriate link below.

Texas Schools Registration for Peter Rabbit

Non-Texas Schools Registration for Peter Rabbit

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These programs will be available by videoconference , by live stream, and by viewing the recordings after the event. Please note: to be considered an “interactive” site, you must choose the videoconference option and you must have students submit up to 5 questions on the registration form by April 11, 2012. All interactive sites will be notified of their questions chosen by April 19, 2012. Most sites will be “view only”.

If you have any questions, please contact Erika R. Tijerina , TETN/IVC Facilitator at Region 6 Education Service Center.

April 13, 2012 - 11:30 AM -12:15 PM CT

Audience: Grades 2-5

Have you ever been to a historical museum? What about one that actually talks to you? Watch as figures from Texas come to life right before your eyes. Learn from Cleburn ISD fifth graders about Austin, Houston, Travis and more!

http://www.tetnplus.net/event_Details_email.aspx?eventID=362

If you would to register on the TETN site, please use the above link to gather details about the event and use it to market the program to your schools.

If you have questions of would like to request more information contact JoAnn Roe, Educational Consultant at Education Service Center Region XI. Questions for the presenting students can be submitted via

http://www.todaysmeet.com/texashistory.

On March 28, 2012, high school students from across the state went on a whirlwind tour of potential colleges throughout the state of Texas. Students learned about the history, mission, demographics, admissions requirements, financial requirements, degree plans, and campus life at colleges all over the Texas. Throughout the event students were allowed to text questions to the various college.

This day long video conference event was offered through a collaborative effort between state colleges, local education service centers, and the Texas Education Telecommunications Network and was free for Texas Schools that receive video services from their ESC.

All total we had 18 colleges present. Two of these colleges presented multiple times, and filled 20 presentation slots throughout the day. Presenters had 15 minutes to tell us about their college and then a 5 minute transition time was provided between each university.

Questions from participants were sent to a TETN office cell phone (we have an unlimited texting plan). Additionally, we allowed participants to send questions to the TETN phone via email by using a carrier specific email address. (I've included these at the bottom of the blog post. You will need to adjust them to fit your carrier specific needs) We had a lot of success with this feedback method. Everyone of our presenting colleges received questions via text. About 95% were delivered via text and only about 5% of the feedback came from the email option. During some presentations, the TETN office was overwhelmed by the sheer number.

One draw back to the text message option was a host of juvenile texts, some requesting the presenters phone #, some asking about the party scene, others wondering whether or not a shirt was required on campus, etc. For the most part, the TETN office simply ignored these texts. Strangely, enough those same students would turn around and ask a legitimate question later.

I want to thank Tommy Bearden from region 14 for suggesting we obtain filler questions for those presentations that did not receive a lot of quality feedback from participants. We only had to resort to this method on a couple of occasions as we waited for questions to come in but having those questions on hand proved invaluable.

The 5 minute transition time and 15 minute presentations definitely made us have to stay on our toes. Rob, our video tech, did a great job of checking in with the next presenter to make sure they were connected and ready to go before their time slot. And regions 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 20 did a wonderful job of testing with the colleges they recruited for the event. Thank you again service centers for all the time and effort you put in to make this happen. It was suggested that we consider extending presentation and transition times. (TETN would like to hear the your feedback on this)

It also helped that we ran either a recruiting video or powerpoint on a loop during the transition times. This freed us up to do some back end troubleshooting and helped minimize interruptions as new sites joined the conference.

The presenters all did fairly well considering it was the first time video conferencing for many of them. We provided an outline to the presenters, but I definitely think it would be beneficial to identify some best practices for future presenter as they develop their presentations. A few of our presenters simply sat in a room and spoke to camera without any visuals. Some of the presentations were by actual college students. These seemed to get a lot more feedback, when an actual student was presenting text messages started to pour in.

So that's the long and short of it. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have. Once again thanks to everyone who helped make this possible and don't forget to check out the carrier specific email a text options below. They are great for teachers utilizing mobile devices in the classroom.

AT&T: number@txt.att.net

Qwest: number@qwestmp.com

T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net

Verizon: number@vtext.com

Sprint: number@pm.sprint.com

Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com

U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net

Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com

Alltel: number@message.alltel.com

Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com

Powertel: number@ptel.com

Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com

Inspired by the journey of Philadelphia-area hero Alex Scott, the Alex's Virtual Lemonade Stand Project celebrates the idea that just one kid can make a difference. Join schools from around the world to raise awareness and money for pediatric cancer research, all while participating in standards-based projects that make the process both inspiring and fun. It's all about kids helping kids - - and we want you to get involved!

As part of this two week program, each participating school will hold their own lemonade stands to help raise funds for pediatric cancer. Schools can hold one big lemonade stand day or a series of lemonade stand events throughout the two weeks. They will be able to communicate and interact with one another through a project blog, student-created videos, poster contest and special videoconference events!

Target Audience: K12, College/University

Requirements for Participation: This FREE videoconference project is open to any interested MAGPI or non-MAGPI member school with H.323 videoconference capabilities and connectivity to their state/national research and education network.

Key Project Dates:

Registration Open: Now through April 13, 2012

Make a Difference Commercials Due: May 1, 2012 (optional)

Videoconference Testing: April 16 - 27, 2012

Kick-Off Virtual Pep Rally: May 8, 2012 11am - 12pm EDT via videoconference

School Lemonade Stand Projects: May 8, 2012 - May 22, 2012

Poster Competition Entries Due: May 17, 2012 (optional)

Wrap-Up Celebration Videoconference: May 22, 2012 11am - 12pm EDT via videoconference

Registration: http://magpi.net/Community/Programs/Alexs-Virtual-Lemonade-Stand

To learn more about Alex’s amazing story and donate to the cause visit http://www.alexslemonade.org

Date: March 28, 2012 from 8:00AM-4:00PM

Join high school students from across the state on a whirlwind tour of potential colleges throughout the state of Texas. Learn about the history, mission, demographics, admissions requirements, financial requirements, degree plans, and campus life at colleges all over the Texas. Throughout the event students will be allowed to text questions to the various college presenters and contact information will be provided for follow up questions.

This day long video conference opportunity is offered through a collaborative effort between state colleges, local education service centers, and the Texas Education Telecommunications Network and is free for Texas Schools that receive video services from their ESC.

Schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u06V6Lig9jShQN9C3xFa_7spjhw9ZdctCdE3tkRNJ7E/edit

Registration: http://www.tetnplus.net/student_event_registration_ESC.aspx?eventID=361

Registration Deadline: March 26, 2012

For more information please contact your local education service centers distance learning department or contact jkorb@tetnplus.net.

Beginning February 10, 2012 TETN Plus began using LEARN DFW for Internet2 services and for access to the Texas higher education intranet. Texas A&M had provided these services since the inception of TETN Plus in 2006. “It was a hard decision to make since Texas A&M has provided connectivity and technical assistance to TETN from the beginning of the project,” stated Carol Willis, Manager of TETN.

After analyzing the traffic patterns, it was discovered that TETN Plus traffic was utilizing higher education’s free caching services for things like Microsoft updates. “IP traffic takes the shortest route with BGP, therefore we saw spikes of 200 Mbps going to Akamai caching servers located at the University of Houston and UT instead of using commodity internet bandwidth” reported Lee Williams, TETN Network Engineer. The connection to the Texas higher education intranet was designed for better quality video classes with higher ed institutions and for access to I2. “The move was necessary since the amount of traffic on the intranet far exceeded the amount in the Texas A&M contract. LEARN DFW was offering more bandwidth for less costs, therefore it was a decision based upon financial necessity,” said Ms. Willis.

In addition to cost savings, Ms. Willis said TETN is seeing unexpected benefits from the Texas intranet. “ESCs and their schools are realizing quicker response times for Microsoft updates, and commonly used sites such as Yahoo and Apple, and saving their commodity internet for digital learning.” Overall, the cost saving and added bandwidth from the transition to LEARN DFW has strengthened the TETN network.

March 9, 2012 - 9:30 – 10:20 AM CT, 10:30 – 11:20 AM CT, & 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM CT

Audience: Grades 9th- college sophomores

The Education Department of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will be hosting three free videoconferences entitled, “The Biography: Writing Techniques by James McGrath Morris, Biographical Author”. This Distance Learning program is a collaboration with the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference and provides an opportunity to enter the national student essay contest by participating in these programs. This event and contest is for grades 9th – college sophomores. Join us in an interactive presentation by James McGrath Morris.

Here is the registration form: The Biography: Writing Techniques, March 9, 2012

Please note: In order to be considered an “interactive” site, you must choose the videoconference option and you must submit up to 5 questions on the registration form by February 29, 2012. Have your questions ready before filling out the registration form. All interactive sites will be notified of their questions chosen by March 5, 2012.

If you have any questions, please contact Kim Taylor, IVC Facilitator at Education Service Center Region VI.

February 21, 2012 - 9:00-9:50 AM

Audience: Middle School and High School Students

Region 7 will be connecting with representatives from Stephen F Austin’s Agriculture program on February 21, 2012 from 9:00am-9:50am. We’ll explore education requirements, career opportunities, recommendations for preparing in high school for this field, and give students the opportunity to ask questions to our guests. This is a FREE videoconference opportunity for schools who are a part of their local ESC videoconference service agreement.

We’ll explore education requirements, career opportunities, recommendations for preparing in high school for this field, and give students the opportunity to ask questions to our guests. This is a FREE videoconference opportunity for schools who are a part of their local ESC videoconference service agreement.

To register for this program click here.

Additional information can be found on the Region 7 website by clicking here.