This interactive session explains research results from a study about how kindergartners form meaning while learning with interactive videoconferencing in kindergarten. The presentation will move quickly through the study's research questions and methodology to a discussion about the happenings of an international partnership between Pennsylvania kindergartners and a rural British primary classroom while learning about astronomy. Topics included the Sun, planets, galaxies, stars, and Earth and its moon. Participants will view several photos that depict artifacts from the collaboration. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss how they can design similar activities for their own classrooms.

1. Connecting Astronomy Content
with Interactive Videoconferencing
ith I t ti Vid f i
in Kindergarten
g
Debra C. Burkey Piecka, Ed.D.
y ,
Contractor, Center for Educational Technologies
Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV
dpiecka@gmail.com
NSTA Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
p y
March 19, 2010

2. Abstract
This interactive session explains research results from a
study about how kindergartners form meaning while
learning with interactive videoconferencing in kindergarten.
The presentation will move quickly through the study's
research questions and methodology to a discussion
about the happenings of an international partnership
between Pennsylvania kindergartners and a rural British
primary classroom while learning about astronomy. Topics
included the Sun, planets, galaxies, stars, and Earth and
g
its moon. Participants will view several photos that depict
artifacts from the collaboration. Attendees will have the
opportunity to discuss how they can design similar
activities for their own classrooms.

3. Purpose
The study’s purpose was to understand
how kindergartners make meaning using
interactive videoconferencing (IVC) technology.
Research Questions
1. What types of meanings are being formed by the
1
kindergartners during interactive
videoconferences?
2. What are the nature of young children’s emerging
inquiries and dialogue surrounding their use of IVC
in their l
i th i classroom? ?

4. Participant Site
• The participant kindergarten classroom included 25 students
(13 girls and 12 boys) a teacher and a teacher’s aide
boys), teacher, teacher s aide.
• Setting: Catholic prekindergarten – 8th grade school in
Southwestern PA
• 4 months of observation, October 2007-February 2008
• Participated in 7 IVCs about
1.
1 backyard birds Red data sets
2. gingerbread and puppetry were analyzed
3. bird feeders and happy holidays in the study.
4. astronomy I
5. polar worlds – penguins and polar bears
6. astronomy II
y
7. shark facts and a shark story

5. Kindergarten Classroom

6. IVC Photos and Artifacts

7. Results
The study mapped examples of the
kindergartners’ meaning making to
ki d ’ i ki
four tenets:
– Social context of learning
– Sign and tool use during mediated
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videoconferences among the two classrooms
of students, teachers, and facilitators
– The role and importance of language
– The zone of proximal development

8. Meaning-making in a social context:
International Videoconference
Cultural connections
Primary classroom
in England
Mathematician and
astronomer from a
leading British
Kindergarten
Ki d t university
i it
classroom in
Southwestern PA

9. Social Context of Learning
• The students conversed about their favorite school
subjects, their ages, the layout of their room, the
location of the toilets, the Atlantic Ocean, time,
weather, astronomy objects, and student-created
th t bj t d t d t t d
artifacts.
• The participants built a rapport amongst
themselves. They observed many things: school
uniforms, “wellies,” differences in language accents,
and the layout of their classrooms including play
areas and rocket ships.
d k t hi

10. Social Context of Learning
Students formed knowledge about the
remote participants’ culture as well as the
content material to further their progress
towards making them global learners
while basing their understandings in the
social context of their virtual learning
environment.
environment This outlook represented a
more diverse point of view than that of
just their local classroom
classroom.

11. Sign and Tool Use During the IVCs

12. Sign and Tool Use Through
Sign and Tool Use During the IVCs
Mediated Activity
Students advanced their knowledge about
astronomy concepts through sign and t l
t t th h i d tool
use in the IVCs. They
– used language skills to learn about astronomy concepts,
– built a human model of the orbit patterns of the Sun,
Earth,
Earth and moon
moon,
– viewed pictures of astronomy objects,
– recited the mnemonic “My Very Excellent Mother Just
Served Us Noodles” to recall the names and order of the
planets from the Sun, and
– used a class poster to describe the moon p
p phase pposter to
the UK students.

13. The Role and Importance of
The Role and Importance of Language
Language
During the astronomy videoconference, students
used their language to:
– meet and greet one another,
– name astronomy objects,
– play a question and answer game about astronomy
l ti d b t t
objects,
– present student-created artifacts,
– recite the mnemonic “My Very Excellent Mother Just
Served Us Noodles,”
– name astronomy objects and respond to forfeits in an
online game,
li
– inquire about the space ship in the UK classroom
room,
– sing songs, and
– countdown by 10s from 100 and yell, “BLAST OFF!”

14. The Zone of Proximal
Development

15. The Zone of Proximal
Development
Examples of tasks students p
p performed in the ZPD
when learning about astronomy with IVC.
• Answered open-ended questions about the solar system
open ended
in a game format.
• Presented astronomy projects.
• Demonstrated technological fluency with IVC equipment
- Speaking slowly and clearly
- Shrinking, zooming,
Shrinking zooming views
• Identified the 8 planets of the solar system using a
mnemonic.
• Poor Pluto. Neptune is the last planet.

16. Implications for Teaching Science
1. Teachers can select science content and adapt and design
curricula to meet the interests, knowledge, understanding,
abilities, and experiences of students using interactive
technologies (Standard A).
2.
2 Teachers can encourage and model the skills of scientific
inquiry and curiosity with primary school children using
interactive videoconferencing (Standard B).
3. Interactive videoconferencing provides an environment for
nurturing collaboration among young students with varied
learning levels (Standard E)E).
4. Teachers can create a community of science learners in a
virtual learning world in kindergarten (Standard A).

17. It s
It’s your turn!
• How can you integrate videoconferencing
into your classroom?
• What kinds of IVCs do you want to try?
y y
• Here are some websites where you can
find more information about IVCs.
IVCs
• www.cilc.org
• htt //
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/vidconf/li
k b ll / i d/ id f/li
nks.html
• http://vcoutonalim.org/

18. Thank you!
Please email me to receive a copy of
the presentation.
Debbie Piecka
dpiecka@gmail.com