The Blended Virtual Ecosystem at DEN

This is an eleven part video series. Each video is approximately five minutes long. In the series, Dr. Bryan Setser presents the Blended Virtual Ecosystem at the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) in Second Life on July 29, 2009. DEN is part of the Discovery Channel. This presentation looks at how NCVPS discovered a blended virtual ecosystem in Second Life this past year. The session focuses on sandbox approaches, lessons learned, and new clients that resemble second life for the purpose of advancing virtual learning among all p-20 stakeholders in education.

Bring Russian to Your School!

Meet Roman Bouchev, one of NCVPS's Russian instructors for Fall 09. Roman met with some of North Carolina's distance learning advisors in a Wimba live classroom. He gave a detailed overview of our Russian 1 course. This is part of that presentation.

Second Life Event: PD in a Virtual World

NCVPS Hosts Second Life Event

Check us out in Second Life today, July 28, at 2 p.m.

Log in to Second Life and then follow this slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/North%20Carolina%20Virtual/139/156/32

Dr. Setser and Dr. Weeks will be working with the multi-state e-learning for educators grant - improving teacher quality in virtual worlds all over the southeast.

DLA E-Lert for July 24, 2009

Registration Users Manual V2.0

See the users manaul online! Check out other resources here.


LC Virtual Office Hours (VOHs) for DLASs

The regional Virtual Learning Consultants (VLCs) host Virtual Office Hours (VOHs) most Wednesday mornings at 9:00. This is an informal opportunity for the DLAs to participate in mini-training demos, hot topic discussions, or simply to entertain questions or discussion in a Q&A open forum. Some weeks will feature agenda items while other weeks, the agenda will be driven by the participants.

On Wednesday, July 29, 9:00 AM, Connie Joyner and James "J" Bell will be your hosts. One agenda item will be the new features in the version 2.0 Registration System. The VOH sessions are presented virtually via the Blackboard DLA Spa. The VOH session can be accessed using four optional methods:

Option 1) Follow this string: DLA Spa > Virtual Office tab > Wimba Classroom > Enter Classroom (so long as the necessary downloads have been processed). A headset with mic is recommended so you can interact with vocal audio.

Option 2) Once in the classroom, there is a phone icon on the tool bar - when clicked, a phone number and pin number is displayed to dial into the session using a phone.

Option 3) All participants can use the text chat in the lower left section of the screen, and the participant emoticons for session "click responses."

Option 4) The dial-in phone number and pin ID can also be called for audio and talk only (no visual) if your participation is not convenient to participate via computer.

We look forward to your participating in this excellent weekly collaborative opportunity!

Communication Leads to Community

Rollo May once said, “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” How does your school leadership build the capacity to change, build the capacity to grow? Are there weekly learning communities where all e-learning stakeholders gather to communicate key processes, key learnings, key discussions about results? How do you determine successes and opportunities for improvement for students? For yourself? For your program? How do you communicate those? Is there shared decision making toward a shared vision for what e-learning looks like in your school?

Effective communication flow builds understanding, connection, collaboration, and value. The process begins with establishing a teaming structure to support e-learning in your building. Many DLAs and/or lab facilitators may see themselves functioning in a silo, or on the proverbial island, fighting the isolation of challenging the status quo, supporting students, connecting with parents, analyzing student enrollment and completion data, etc. What can you do? Ensure that you are connecting and collaborating weekly with a leadership team; establish a non-negotiable, uninterrupted time to discuss and do the work; by doing this, you are sending the message that student support is important and critical. Who is included in this strategic team? The Principal, the AP in charge of curriculum, a counselor, the Distance Learning Advisor, the lab facilitator, chair of the EC department, chair of the School Improvement Team, Instructional Technology specialist, and Testing Coordinator

Continue reading . . . .

Study Russian with NCVPS

Click here for more information.

High Performing Districts

Congratulations to the following school districts!

For Spring 09, they had the ten highest passing rates of any of the 115 schools districts with 50 or more students enrolled in the North Carolina Virtual Public School.

Those districts had 50+ students enrolled in block courses for Spring 09.

In total, 12 districts had a 100% pass rate. 31 districts had a 90% pass rate or better!

As a school, NCVPS had an 81% pass rate and a 91% completion rate.

Look for celebrations for year-long and Fall 08 block courses soon.

Thank you for the outstanding support and achievement from your districts!

Staying Focused on WHAT Needs to Be Done

If you haven’t read Next Generation Leader, by Andy Stanley, it’s a good read for leaders at all levels. Andy uses a quote that has led me to write this blog and relate it to the business of e-leadership and the work of NCVPS/Learn and Earn Online.

"The only way to figure out HOW something can get done is to refuse to take your eye off WHAT needs to be done."

Great leaders stay focused on WHAT needs to be done so much that the how becomes the actions that they take, the risks they overcome and the results that they achieve. So how can NCVPS and NC school districts work together to figure out “how” to get the “what” accomplished?

The School Support Team has put together a few items that we feel 21st century school leaders (at all levels) need to focus on as we work together to make a difference for our students.

Continue reading . . . .

DLA E-Lert for July 17, 2009

New Registration System Opens

The new registration system is open. Here's the manual.


Midterm Grades

Click the Reports buttons in the registration system.


Projected EOC/VoCAT Scores

Teachers will be reporting projected EOCs and VoCATs scores in the Progress Report being sent out on July 17th. The scale for the projected score is 1-5 (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, 5=F.) Please share the projected scores with the staff who would benefit from receiving this specific information.


Healthful Living Permission Forms

DLAs, students you have enrolled in NCVPS's Healthful Living Course need to have their parent's permission as the course contains "Human Sexual Content." Completing this form is a requirement of DPI. Although you have registered your student(s) for the summer course, s/he (they) will not be put into the summer course until you have submitted the Parental Permission form. You can fax this form to 919-513-2557 or you can photocopy the form to Robert Belton at rbelton@dpi.state.nc.us. See the DLA Spa for more details.

Click here to download the permission form.

Please, make sure if you email the form to the parents of the students whom you have enrolled that they are aware that you have emailed them the form. This past semester the emailed form to the parent went into the parent's spam of her email account. It was by accident that this situation was discovered.


DLA Spa

See the E-lert in the DLA Spa for additional details.

State Virtual Conference: The Genius of 'And' versus the Tyranny of 'Or'

Our first ever state virtual leadership conference is almost complete, and I wanted to take time to share some reflections with you this morning in regards to the genius of both/and versus the tyranny of either/or for your students as you evaluate today's first ever virtual leadership conference.

Pre-Conference Planning

Local school districts and schools were provided with technical requirements and testing prior to the event. In additon, support phone numbers and twitter accounts were provided to keep up with just in time support. Did your site technology directors pre-test? Did they prepare for bandwidth constraints? What did they learn from today's event? Will they never do a virtual conference again as an either/or decision and/or will they look at the data from today - uptime, downtime, audio, video issues and plan strategically for how to make such as session better in the future? The issue here is not either/or blame on either the state level or the local level. The issue here is how do we brainstorm both/and options to make things better for future virtual conferences.

Continue reading . . . .

Director's Blog July 13, 2009

21st Century Learners and Leaders:

We hope you will join us online at the state's first ever school administrator's virtual conference here on July 14, 2009. The theme this year is Transforming Education to Prepare Tomorrow's Leaders and the fact that the conference is virtual in tight budget times really provides leaders across the state with an innovative platform to hear virtual updates from state leaders including Governor Perdue and Dr. Bill Harrison, experts like Michael Horne of Disrupting Class, and a host of breakout sessions to help you with your work in these difficult times. If you have any questions regarding support or help with the virtual conference, please do not hesitate to contact the support personnel on the website.

For your learning this week, I have summarized a presentation from the National Education and Computing Conference https://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/ from my time in DC before the July 4, 2009 holiday. The summary is on the learning applications of cell phones and the presentation was done by Lesley Riley of Ed Tech Leaders Online: http://www.edtechleaders.org/ . I think you'll find it very informative as you consider going mobile with learning application in the coming years.

Continue reading . . . .

DLA E-Lert for July 10, 2009

NCVPS Handbooks

Follow the links below:

DLA Quick Reference Guides

Student-Parent Handbook


Registration System Outage and Upgrade

The Registration System will be unavailable from July 2nd at 5pm through July 17th at 5pm. The system will be closed for maintenance and a software upgrade. During this time no adds, drops, or data access will be available.

Please stay tuned for announcements concerning training on the new system.
Healthful Living Permission Forms

DLAs, students you have enrolled in NCVPS's Healthful Living Course need to have their parent's permission as the course contains "Human Sexual Content." Completing this form is a requirement of DPI. Although you have registered your student(s) for the summer course, s/he (they) will not be put into the summer course until you have submitted the Parental Permission form. You can fax this form to 919-513-2557 or you can photocopy the form to Robert Belton at rbelton@dpi.state.nc.us. See the DLA Spa for more details.

Click here to download the permission form.

Please, make sure if you email the form to the parents of the students whom you have enrolled that they are aware that you have emailed them the form. This past semester the emailed form to the parent went into the parent's spam of her email account. It was by accident that this situation was discovered.


Fewer Courses from Outside Providers

AP Mico/Macro Economics (FLVS) and all German Courses (Ok State University) are the only courses outside of the NCVPS Catalogue for which NCVPS will asume payment. Students and/or schools which register for courses outside of these are responsible for tutition fees and will deal with the provider directly.


Projected EOC/VoCAT Scores

Teachers will be reporting projected EOCs and VoCATs scores in the Progress Report being sent out on July 17th. The scale for the projected score is 1-5 (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, 5=F.) Please share the projected scores with the staff who would benefit from receiving this specific information.


SAT Prep

We have discovered that middle school students have been enrolled in SAT Prep and we want to make sure these students have the prerequisite skills to be successful. SAT Prep is a course designed to help prepare students for the SAT test. Only students who are enrolled in or who have completed the following courses should enroll in this high school-level course: Algebra I, Geometry, English I. Please make sure all student meet these specific requirements before enrolling them in SAT Prep.


Culture Café

The Culture Cafe is a new social and educational setting that brings together current, former and future NCVPS world language students in an online environment in order to immerse them in the culture of online world languages. Former students can stay connected to the language they have learned, current students will get to practice the language and future students can gain a sneak peak at our robust world language courses. Look at our upcoming sessions at (http://tinyurl.com/ncvpsculturecafe).


Middle School Students

FYI: There is legislation being presented that only high school students can take NCVPS courses. Currently, a middle school student can take the first 3 years of a World Language; can take Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and AFM; can take Earth/Environmental Science, Physical Science, and Biology; and now can take Civics and Economics, World History and US History. LEAs are using NCVPS to differentiate instruction for their AIG (Academically Intellectual Gifted) Students. If the legislation that only high school students can take NCVPS courses pass, then these AIG students will not be able to take NCVPS courses. Please ask the LEAs to contact their Legislators to voice their dissent to this legislation.


NCVPS Student Video Contest

Stay tuned but the winners have been chosen and will be announced very soon. Thank you for all of your submissions.

Building a Better Organization

Often within an organization, there is a disconnect between the leaders and the followers.... Exactly where does this disconnect come from? How do we find the missing link? What part will each person play, from the top down, to ensure everyone in the organization is on board, knowledgeable, comfortable with the processes, and constantly monitoring and providing feedback for what is and is not working?

The greatest of ideas can become dead within minutes if there are no tried and true processes in place to carry out the vision. People want to know what works and how it works...and many individuals need a gentle nudge in the right direction....SOMETIMES you just have to meet them where they are...then guide them into the direction you want them to go using baby steps, if necessary.

So how does this apply to us at NCVPS?

Continue reading . . . .

Twitter Mania with NCVPS

Student Orientation

To go through our orientation and preview our sample courses, do the following:

1) Go to our Blackboard login page:

http://ncvps.blackboard.com/webapps/login/

2) Click on the Preview button on the left of the screen:

3) Under "My Courses" on the right, click on School Support Services Orientation:

NCVPS Culture Cafe July 8 & 10

The Culture Cafe is a new social and educational setting that brings together current, former and future NCVPS world language students in an online environment in order to immerse them in the culture of online world languages.

Former students can stay connected to the language they have learned, current students will get to practice the language and future students can gain a sneak peak at our robust world language courses.

Follow the links below for further details and access information:

July 8: Living in Spanish Speaking Countries

July 10: French Storytelling