TEL.A.VISION | It's Your Story

Summer Update From TEL.A.VISION

Posted on 26. Sep, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Supporters

Dear Friends,

This past three weeks, with the start of school, we had a record number of new accounts and over a 1000 new TEL.A.VISION  videos created. We have had a very busy summer preparing for the new school year. We will shortly be introducing new school pricing that will allow schools to buy TEL.A.VISION for a classroom, school or district without using a credit card.

We have realized one of the best uses for TEL.A.VISION is in Special Education. We are just finishing a new Special Education Curriculum, written by Special Education teachers from McHenry County, Illinois under the direction of Dr. Christy Chambers. The curriculum will show Special Education teachers many ways to use TEL.A. VISION in the classroom including using it as part of a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). We have been accepted to speak at next years Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) conference.

We are just finishing an agreement with Best Buy for a contest on their @15 web site, www.at15.com. The contest will start in January and build on their research on empowering youth. There will be winners for an individual video and classroom project. The winners will show their work at the ISTE/NECC Conference in Denver in June 2010.

We have been accepted to give a presentation at the TIES Conference and will be working with TIES to offer special pricing to their member schools.

We have received a donation that will allow us to take TEL.A.VISION to the 155 students at the Dunwoody Academy in Minneapolis. We had planned to introduce TEL.A.VISION into all Minneapolis Schools this fall but because of budget cuts are now looking for donations to help make this happen.

We are in the process hiring a telemarketer to call on School Principals and Special Education staff. The position would be working from home and include salary and bonus. If you know of anyone with sales experience that you think might be interested please have them contact me, george@telavision.tv.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Teachers Driving Web 2.0 Use in Schools Says National Research Survey

Posted on 30. May, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Web 2.0

While many stakeholders are involved in developing policies on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 education, new research suggests that teachers are the most important group driving adoption. This is a finding of a recent commissioned by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize Inc.

There is a persistent gap between how today’s “digital” kids learn in school and how they work and interact outside of school, a trend that underscores the critical need for districts to keep pace with technological advances and adapt to students’ learning needs.

“The research indicates that the movement toward Web 2.0 use to engage students and address individual learning needs is largely being driven in districts from the bottom up – starting with teachers and students,” said Dr. Jay Sivin-Kachala, vice president and lead researcher for IESD. “Furthermore, the results show that many districts are using or planning to use Web 2.0 tools in teacher professional development, which suggests that teachers will become increasingly comfortable with these technologies and better able to teach students how to use them safely and productively.”

Other key results of the survey include:

* The three most frequently cited reasons for adopting Web 2.0 technologies are: addressing students’ individual learning needs, engaging student interest, and increasing students’ options for access to teaching and learning.

* Online communications with parents and students (e.g., teacher blogs) and digital multimedia resources are the Internet technologies most widely used by teachers, and a majority of districts have plans for adopting these technologies or promoting their use.

These results reinforce what we have found with TEL.A.VISION. Teachers find that TEL.A.VISION is a technology that addresses student’s individual learning needs, engages student interest and teaches them about digital multimedia resources.

The full survey is available here.

TEL.A.VISION Adopted by all Youth

Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Vision Videos

We started piloting TEL.A.VISION by working with 120 5th graders at a suburban school. The students and teachers readily adopted it. One Teacher said,”I can think of nothing I could have done to get to know my students better.”

Next we took TEL.A.VISION to a Junior High and 350 7th graders completed TEL.A.VISIONs. The students were near unanimous in calling the project their favorite homework assignment of the year. One girl, who hadn’t completed an assignment all year finished her video and in her diary said “Its about time someone asked us what we wanted.”

We created a Vision for an alternative School in Switzerland and the teacher said ” This is the best behaved I have ever seen our children.”

A class of slow learners did TEL.A.VISION  videos. The teacher said ” These are kids who don’t read, don’t right and don’t participate. We were blown away with what they accomplished.” ( One of there videos is shown below.)

Recently a group of teenage girls of color, the Divas, completed beautiful TEL.A.VISION  videos. They did a beautiful job and the teachers are already using the videos as a way to reinforce studying habits and appropriate behavior.

A few weeks ago I was at the Red Wing Juvenile Corrections Facility. The warden loves the idea of having the residents create TEL.A.VISION videos. I asked one resident if he would like to do one. He said he already knew what he would say in his:

• I make my mother proud
• I get my GED and graduate from High School
• I find a full time job
• I hang with friends that appreciate me

What we have seen is that all youth regardless of economic status, age, race or personal circumstances want the opportunity to dream of their futures of hope and possibility. Please help us spread the word.