New ISTE SIG: IVC

At the end of the day today, I attended the Proposed IVC SIG meeting at NECC facilitated by Camille Cole and Jan Zanetis and Ruth Blankenbaker.

As we started, Ruth Blankenbaker provided a way for us all to sign the charter on a fancy antique poster.

The mission statement includes “advancing collaboration, information dissemination, research, and practices.” Of course my main interest is advancing collaboration and that clearly was happening as we networked with each other and talked to “old vc friends” even before the meeting started!

People attending came from various categories including universities, vendors, non profit organizations, educational service agencies, k12 teachers and administrators, content providers, and more. In these areas, we came to consensus on the top three issues that we face in our sub-group.

I was in the educational service agencies group, and we came up with a lengthy list of issues that we narrowed down to sharing information, supporting technology, supporting districts, and funding and equity. The longer list included: sharing information, connectivity, lack of direct control, coordinating projects, locating and matching content and opportunities with interested teachers, equitable access, non-homogenous populations, funding and spending, assessment/evaluation and justification for videoconferencing, economic impact, technology issues, bridges/MCUs/gateways, proprietary and disconnected technologies and professional development.

The other sub groups developed great lists as well. It’s clear that as this SIG gets started, it will be worth joining the conversation as a ISTE and SIG IVC member. ISTE’s goal is that by October 2005 people can sign up to be a member of this new SIG.