With a short flight out of New York I dropped into Syracuse to visit the Central New York Regional Information Center (CYNRIC), an entity that serves as educational support for 50 school districts and four Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) across eight counties in the central region of New York State. Everything from technology integration, flipped learning consultancy to digital media loans is covered plus in addition to this they help schools get connected with video conferencing equipment and help teachers learn how to use VC in a variety of situations.
During this visit it was fantastic to meet Amy Spath, who apart from many things is the Coordinator of E-Learning and Special Projects at CNYRIC and the Chair of the ISTE SIGIVC (bit of a mouthful here…the International Society for Technology in Education Special Interest Group for Interactive Videoconferencing… phew!). Amy has been heavily involved with getting schools involved in distance learning and champions the use of interactive technologies to prepare students for the digital economy. Apart from providing IVC professional development through conferences such as 123VC, Amy works closely with schools looking to connect with remote instructors who can act as surrogate teachers to teach units of work that may not be available to the school on-site. There is even an option to learn American Sign Language, presented by a qualified teacher to students across the State.
Amy and me with little ‘RIC’, plus some Vegemite for the staff!
It was fun to chat about how connecting remote sites enriches participants lives from both a lesson and cultural point of view. I was very interested to hear how a remote science class, maths class and french language class combined their expertise in a collaborative project which called for an artwork to be sent around the country so that each site could contribute to add to the final shared project; science for clothing dyes, maths geometric designs and French art using mud paints. Plus we had time to chat about the geeky side of video conferencing – the gadgets, social media integration and how H.323 services to tablets and desktops will continue to grow in this connected century. I loved the chance to finally see the Swivl, a product I had seen a year ago that transforms an iPad into a movable camera which follows the speaker’s voice as they move across the room. Want one 🙂
Swivl-iPad-tool
After a quick trip to Zebbs for some local burgers, it was time to head off back to New York.
The next stop on this Winston Churchill Fellowship will be at the New York Hall of Science. Can’t wait!
All the best,
Calendar of Events
HIGH SCHOOL Science@Home 4-Week Membership 12PM: March 2024
Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 29, 2024
12PM - 12PM
Price: $50 - $900
PRIMARY Science@Home 4-Week Membership 2PM: March 2024
Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 22, 2024
2PM - 2PM
Price: $50 - $900
Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 PM
Jan 18, 2024
2PM - 3PM
Price: $50
Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 AM
Jan 18, 2024
9AM - 11AM
Price: $50
Lego Robotics, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024
Jan 24, 2024
9AM - 12PM
Price: $50
Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024
Jan 24, 2024
1PM - 4PM
Price: $50
Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park July 11 2023
Jul 11, 2023
9AM - 4PM
Price: $100
Fizzics Education STEAM Day: Robots vs Dinosaurs, Lalor, Apr 14
Apr 14, 2023
9AM - 12PM
Price: $45 - $50
Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park April 14 2023
Apr 14, 2023
9AM - 4PM
Price: $100
Science@Home After School 4-Week Membership: March 2023
Mar 06, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023
4PM - 5PM
Price: $40 - $1200
Featured Articles
Topics
- Club [4]
- History [4]
- Pop Culture [4]
- Toys & Gadgets [1]
- project-based learning [5]
- Science & Technology Camps [1]
- Lesson ideas [1]
- Comedy [2]
- Philosophy [1]
- Coding [14]
- Indigenous [3]
- Preschool [24]
- Video Conferencing [40]
- family [2]
- Design [2]
- Lab Tech [1]
- math [1]
- Pakistan [1]
- Cooking [3]
- Kids [36]
- Remote Education [18]
- Virtual Excursions [9]
- Inclusive education [6]
- Oceans [6]
- Leadership [1]
- Electricity [1]
- Agritech [1]
- Dinosaurs [7]
- Kids Parties [5]
- Robotics [12]
- Edutech [26]
- Classroom management [1]
- video conference [1]
- special needs [1]
- scholarship [1]
- Botany [1]
- Apps [11]
- Distance Education [52]
- Kitchen Chemistry [7]
- Safety [2]
- Distance Learning [19]
- Student encouragement [2]
- online [5]
- image [1]
- Africa [1]
- English [1]
- Agriculture [4]
- Eastershow [2]
- Maker Space [11]
- Scicomm [141]
- primary education [46]
- STEAM [10]
- virtual [2]
- gamification [2]
- Asia Pacific [1]
- Art [17]
- Edchat [223]
- Maths [14]
- Scied [34]
- literacy [8]
- Higher education [4]
- Child online safety [1]
- Esports [1]
- Easter [1]
- Augmented Reality [4]
- Edtech [68]
- Media [18]
- Science [6]
- secondary education [45]
- teacher [1]
- dis [0]
- biotechnology [1]
- curriculum [2]
- AussieED [1]
- Education [215]
- Museums [31]
- Science News [4]
- Christmas [1]
- Vacation care [1]
- Film [1]
- computational thinking [2]
- high [1]
- Awards [14]
- Educhange [5]
- Music [3]
- Social Media [8]
- experiments [6]
- middle school [2]
- Inquiry-based learning [5]
- digital technologies [5]
- Earth science [1]
- Big History [1]
- Environment [39]
- NASA [6]
- Soils [1]
- seasonal [1]
- Artificial Intelligence [4]
- List [1]
- Games [1]
- Medicine [1]
- Biology [44]
- Events [45]
- National Science Week [3]
- Space Science [34]
- competitions [13]
- Sustainability [12]
- Student investigation [2]
- Social Emotional Learning [3]
- CAST test [1]
- Books [3]
- Farming [1]
- Outdoors [36]
- Sport [8]
- careers [11]
- UN SDGs [4]
- collaboration [1]
- Engineering [4]
- US Education [1]
- China [1]
- Food [5]
- Outreach [35]
- STEM [230]
- Physics [6]
- Global [2]
- K to 2 education [1]
- Virtual reality [2]
- citizen science [1]
- Churchill Fellowship [19]
- Gaming [8]
- Ozscied [2]
- Teaching [267]
- Chemistry [5]
- International [1]
- Photography [1]
- Play [1]
- numeracy [1]
- Cleveland [1]
- Gifted [7]
- Podcasts [119]
- Television [2]
- design thinking [8]
- Chinese student visits [1]
- Parenting [4]
- preservice teaching [5]
- Higher order thinking [1]
Comments