Help Us Pick a Winner for our $4,000 Lecture Capture Software (SimpleWorkshop)

Since we had such a tremendous response to our Freebie Man blog contest for SimpleWorkshop video capture software, we've decided to let you choose a winner. A few lucky schools have already been announced as winners... but one more school can win - and we need YOUR help to pick the lucky entry. After reading the 10 finalists' entries, please vote for your favorite.

Finalist #1: Catalina
Not too long ago I had the opportunity to present at a Faculty Meeting and share with my colleagues about all of the things that I am doing to motivate, engage and attain proficiency with my students. Many, many, of the teachers at my school have been asking for a training session but due to conflicting schedules we haven't been able to do it.

At the County Level, The World Languages Department has asked Michelle and I to share the things we are doing with all of the World Languages teachers in the district. The training has been scheduled twice (Michelle and I have developed the entire training for hours and hours) and because we cannot find a day that is convenient for everyone we have not been able to do the training so many teachers could benefit from.

I love the fact that the Video Capture Presentation System takes away the stress of scheduling so many people and allows the attendees to advance at their own pace within an allotted period of time.

My life would be so much easier with the presentation program and the people that really want to integrate ED TECH in my school and at my county would finally be able to take the training and start impacting the lives of our students and their sucess in all of our classes.

Finalist #2 Christina
The Simpleworkshop tool would allow us to:

1 - Utilize our staff time and resources more effectively. Instead of wasting time organizing an event, we could "just do it". This relieves some of the stress and anxiety over an event as well... no more endless waves of emails rescheduling and reorganizing a workshop.

2 - Bring the concept of the "Flat Classroom" beyond our students and right into the staff professional development forum. Put a group of educators together and we naturally communicate/share/reflect to gain insight and ideas from one another. It is a powerful "family". Now bring that energy to a wider audience through Simpleworkshop and the possibilities for connections rise tremendously.

3 - Gives the opportunity to involve parents more fully in the process. We could have workshops on topics such as social networking for parents. It is very likely that they would attend a night workshop like this as opposed to driving to the school to see it. This opens up communications between home and school in a new and exciting way. For that matter, teachers could present classwork to students like this too. What a fantastic way to prepare them for their future in the fast moving technology that they will see!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This could be a major asset to our educational program and have ripple effects throughout the entire school community. We would love to have this system in our school!

Finalist #3 – Cathlyn W
Of all the many school configurations out there, probably none could use Simple Workshop better than ours. Our charter school covers four counties - a huge geographical area. We have students and teachers tucked away in remote areas and unified only by our school-wide vision. Most of our communication is online; a large portion of our curriculum delivery is also online and often taught in "real-time." We also use a huge amount of web-based resources. It would be wonderful to capture a single lecture on how to use a resource, teach a thematic unit, or write a five paragraph essay. The options are endless. Those lectures/presentations could be archived and reused in the online classes over time.

We could also use Simple workshop to share our professional development presentations that are part of regional monthly staff meetings. At this point the staff meetings are poorly attended due to distance, but with Simple Workshop we could share presentations among ALL staff, in all regions, and everyone could participate in the same workshops, or choose those of particular interest and need for their particular situation.

Simple Workshop would fit in so perfectly with what we are already building at our school - a virtual learning community.

Finalist #4 Jason
I think this might come too late, so if it will not arrive this year please exclude my entry. I have a student this year with Cystic Fibrosis who has only been in school two days of 2010. This would help him stay a part of our classroom community.

Finalist #5 Geri
As a teacher trying to prepare her students for the world they will live in rather than the world we live in now, without any map or guide to tell me what that will be, teaching with technology is integral. I can see many many uses for this product within a classroom setting and in a school.

Within my classes, I can see using Simple Workshop to create videos to expand upon concepts and ideas taught in class. The product could be used to allow students to have meaningful "makeup" work from an absence. It could be used to increase effective home teaching when students are on an extended health related absence, or if they are struggling with a comprehensive school site (like mine) but keep them enrolled in their home school to increase the school's ability to maintain attendees (and ADA!). and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Administratively, this could ease the need for substitutes for things like staff meetings and trainings, allowing teachers to complete such events either in groups or on their own without the need for having a sub in their classroom. This could enable school administrators to share ideas with staff, to give teachers choice in training options, give teachers some ownership in training by creating their own workshops and sharing with each other. Again, the tip of the iceberg, I feel as if I could go on for ages, but I've already gone on too long.

This is a piece of technology that, in the right hands, would be indispensible, and my school could absolutely benefit from Simple Workshop.

Finalist #6 Cindy P
As I looked through all of the comments, I found that many of them were similar to what I wanted to say in my own post. The key things I found were:
1) I also work in a small rural school district in North Carolina. Many of our students never travel more than two hours from home in their lifetime.
2) Like many other posts, there is only one me. I am the only instructional technologist to serve a staff of 400+.
3) I see a ton of possibilities for staff development, general training and for student benefit. Many of those uses have already been listed.
4) Our school and district need a tool such as SimpleWorkshop.
The lists continues.

So, with such phenomenal posts that were so similar in content, what could I write that would make this one any different? How could I stand out?

Well, I'm not really sure that I can. It's hard to compete with the other posts, because they are all so great. All I can do is tell you my thoughts.

My mission as an educator is to bring the world to my staff and students. I want them to experience as much of it as possible. I want learning to be seamless and constant. Because we are a bit isolated geographically, that can be rather challenging.

SimpleWorkshop would help fulfill one of our greatest needs. It would help us to create anytime, anywhere learning for students and staff. This tool would diminish the time and distance constraints that we currently face.

Using SimpleWorkshop would mean that a student would never miss information because they had to miss a class due to illness or other reasons. It would mean that busy educators would be able to stay abreast of information at a time and place that is convenient to them. We'd be able to offer learning activities 24/7.

Having this type of resource would also provide us the opportunity to expand one of the current goals of my area. Many of the districts in my area are just like mine, small and rural. There has been a greater push to share resources to maximize funds. SimpleWorkshop would allow us to hold up our end of the bargain. We would be better able to share information with those around us.

So, what makes my post different? Why should we be considered? I guess it's how we view a tool such as SimpleWorkshop. While it is a great way to provide online staff development and lectures, we see it as a way to bring the world to us right here in our tiny little corner of the world.

Finalist #7 Margaret R
When you need to be in more than one place at a time or your teachers are also coaches and parents with kids at home, how do you offer the professional development sessions needed to satisfy the district contract? Use the Lecture capture/presentation system

Teachers have taken the time to prepare their Units and lesson plans in correlation with the state standards to ensure students are prepared for the State Assessment test, then Vera virus or Freddie flu enters the classroom. How do you make sure every student gets all information you covered in the classroom? Use the Lecture capture/presentation system

How do you help teachers and students that need you to show them more than once, but you can’t be there? Use the Lecture capture/presentation system

Finalist #8 – Martha R
I have just been handed a really cool side job in addition to my day job (junior high technology applications teacher): district technology instructor. My task in this new hobby/job is to do workshops for our teachers in all of our schools. The plan now is for me to liaison with principals to set up workshop times, for my principal to then get me substitutes, for my classes to meet with my sub...in my computer lab or, if I'm planning the workshop to be set in my computer lab, to go meet somewhere else (and what will they be doing...?...busy work? What will they be able to do without me there?), and so... So far, since we have started this plan in December, not one of our workshops has worked out...something has gone wrong--the principal canceled, I got sick, none of the teachers could make my workshop on their conference periods...etc. So when I saw this video, I'm thinking that our district REALLY needs to get this set up for me to work with. But, of course, we have no money, so winning this would make me very very very very very grateful, and I would, of course, recommend that each campus bought its own setup! ;) Seriously, though, teachers and admin have been asking me about a solution to setting up online lessons for homebound students and students in alternative schools. As soon as I finish this comment, I'm forwarding the video link to our admin folks! Thanks for the opportunity!!!

Finalist #9 Jasper
Being an e-learning pioneer in a country where education is little prioritized and technology in education is rarely used, is sometimes perhaps what is the most stressful situation I experience at the moment. I have to work hard to convince my administrators and colleagues that education must change and embrace technology in order to keep up with the needs of the rest of the society. Just that we lack most of these high-tech and awesome tools and I don't know how I can do this alone. With a tool like this I can bet my aunt Mary that I would impress my colleagues and my boss and I would be able to show them exactly how effective technology can be in education. When this is done, I would enjoy many years of using this excellent tool in order to change the world through my students.

Finalist #10 S Rhodes
The uses for this program are endless.
1- Create courses containing best practices being used in classrooms. Post a PP with guidelines as well as downloadable documents containing journal articles about the practices being used.
2- Admin and staff who attend conferences create courses/lessons to share new learning from the event. Downloadable documents can be conference handouts.
3- Administrative procedures/Policies - lessons to explain procedures for requesting sick leave, personal days, vacation, etc. and other procedures and policies.
4- Substitute training -
5- Planning strategies
6- Instructional strategies
7- Assessment strategies including formative strategies and summative assessments.
8- classroom managegement strategies
9- communication and parent involvement strategies
10- Descroption of initiatives - RTI, Inclusion, Differentiated Instruction, Reading in the Content Areas,
11. Mentor Training -
12. Technology Training - allos the learner to pause the lesson to practice the skill
13. Software package management - Lessons to explain how to manage learning systems in software packages.
14. New Teacher Orientation - with photos of key district and school leaders, overview of personnel policies, etc.
15. Evaluation procedures - informs the employee of what to expect and enables the admin staff to be on the same page
16. Grant writing strategies -
17. Emergency Management/ Disaster plan -
18. Child Abuse identification and reporting -
19. Sexual Harassment -
20. Suicice prevention -
21. Benefits Overview -
22. Bloodborne pathegons -
23. Conflict resolution -
24. Content area skill/knowledge development -
25. Referral process for special education
26. Referall process for behavior management class/Alt Ed
27. Retirement Information
28. Health Insurance information
29. Procedures for administering state assessments
30. New Teacher Course including how to set up a grade book, how to create classroom procedures, etc.
31. Utilizing state curriculum standards
32. Parent Involvement Strategies
33. Webpage managment
34. Web-based application
35. MS Office Applications
36. Workshop Sharing
37. Proactive behavior management
38. School Wide Positive Behavior Support
39. Grading strategies
40. Specific disability training
41. Training for Instructional Assistants
42. Library Procedures
43 Cafeteria Procedures
44. Field Trip Procedures
45.Using district email program
46. Requesting tech support
47. Inventory procedures
48. Fire Escape plan
49. First Aid
50. General and specific health training
51. Homework strategies and procedures
52. Research findings
53. Playground supervision
54. Poverty training
55. Diversity training
56. Understanding assessment data
57. Reporting committee or department meeting results
58. Transition activities for students moving to next grade and school.
59. Functional Behavior Assessment procedures
60. Student behavior contracts
61. Dress code
62. After getting permission to use, create a Course utilizing commercial videos (ASCD for example)
63. Budget planning and management
64. Requesting assistance of Academic Coach/facilitator
65. Training on Blooms Taxonomy
66. Training on Maslows Hierarchy
67. Learning games
68. computer equipment maintenance
69. submitting reimbursement forms
70. beginning fo the year procedures
71. end of the year procedures
72. Professional Learning Communities
Just to name a few.....