Archive for October, 2008

We The Kids – new TWICE project

Published October 29, 2008 General Leave a Comment

TWICE is offering a new videoconferencing project for the 4th (or 5th) grade social studies curriculum – We The Kids. The project takes place November 19, 2008, and there is no cost to TWICE members. The project is open only to TWICE members at this time.

WHAT IS WE THE KIDS?
This project focuses on the Constitution, particularly the preamble. Students read the Preamble and develop definitions for the six key phrases in the document, then present non-linguistic representations (i.e. drawings or skits) to a partner class, explaining the parts of the preamble. TWICE provides a matching service for the point-to-point videoconferences, and each connection is 30 minutes. Teacher materials for the We The Kids videoconference project can be found at http://www.twice.cc/WeTheKids/preparation.html, as well as more information about the complete process, an agenda, and preparation tips. If you have project questions, you can contact Debbie Glasgow,  We The Kids Project Organizer at dglasgow@mcesa.k12.mi.us.

HOW DO I REGISTER?
Registration for verified schools is open October 14 – November 5, 2008. Teachers register in CAPspace (http://projects.twice.cc), using their CAPspace account. If you’re new to CAPspace, you’ll need to create an account. Teachers who registered for Read Around the Planet or the Michigan Exchange project will already have an account. All questions about CAPspace accounts can be directed to Sue Porter: sue@twice.cc.

Prior to registration, your videoconferencing equipment must be verified by TWICE, to help prevent technical incompatibilities between matched classes. TWICE Verification occurs annually in the fall and continues as needed throughout the school year. Sign-up for Equipment Verification is also done through CAPspace. Information about the Verification process can be found here: http://www.twice.cc/verify/index.html. Verification questions can be directed to Janine Lim, TWICE Verification Coordinator, jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us.

TWICE is excited about the We The Kids project, and is pleased to offer our TWICE members another wonderful learning collaboration – encourage teachers in your area to sign up today!

CAPspace Scavenger Hunt for Workshops

Published October 13, 2008 CAPspace Leave a Comment

How well do you know the TWICE Collaborations Around the Planet website? Try the new CAPspace Scavenger Hunt and see if you can solve all the clues!

Are you doing training on Collaborations Around the Planet (projects.twice.cc) with your teachers or videoconference coordinators? If so, you might want to use the Scavenger Hunt as a way to get everyone involved and exploring the site.

Re-Verification

Published October 13, 2008 CAPspace , RAP Leave a Comment

It’s getting time to start thinking about verification for Read Around the Planet 2009. Also, we have a new project that will be announced soon that will also require verification.

If you have equipment profiles in CAPspace from last year’s Read Around the Planet, you should have recently received an email about reverification. To sum up,

…instead of requiring verification test calls again for all of your equipment for Read Around the Planet, we are implementing a new procedure.

First, ask yourself these questions:
1. Did anything change on your school network?
2. Did the IP address for your videoconference system change?
3. Have you had any problems connecting with your videoconference equipment recently?

If you answer no to these questions, you can self-certify your equipment in CAPspace without doing another test call. Go to Admin, My Equipment, and click the equipment name to self-certify.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will need to edit your equipment profile(s) to indicate the changes, and then wait for someone to contact you for a test call. Go to Admin, My Equipment, and click the equipment name to edit it.

If you’re completely new to all this, read more here: Read Around the Planet and TWICE Verification.

We’re not totally ready for an onslaught of test calls for Read Around the Planet, but you can get started by re-verifying equipment profiles that haven’t changed.

New Friends Management Feature in CAPspace

Published October 6, 2008 CAPspace Leave a Comment

Have you logged into Collaborations Around the Planet lately? Are you getting the email announcements? Some really cool projects have been posted recently!

There’s also a new feature. Now from your profile you can edit the different sections of your profile, including Friends.

Just click on the icon as shown to edit that section of your profile. (You can also get to these options from My Settings).

Manage Friends
In the Friends tool, you can retract a pending friend request. You can also remove a friendship. Just click the checkbox next to the name, scroll down and click Update Friends List.

Add Friends
Just as a reminder, to add friends, Search for them, then click Add as Friend. Your friend will need to login and click your friend request and also click Add as Friend for the friendship to be confirmed.

While You’re There….
While you’re looking at your settings, please double check your phone number so that it’s right for Read Around the Planet this year. Make sure your narrative is filled in (My Settings, About Me) and your subjects and grade levels selected (My Settings, Personal). Take a moment to add a picture too.

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