K-20 librarians interactive video conferencing

[Susan Allen <>]

Hello everyone,
This looks to be a very diverse group. We are looking forward to learning 
more and meeting virtually. We are located in south central Pennsylvania 
between Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

> 1) Please describe your past experience or interest in using
> videoconferencing within your organization.

We have been using videoconferencing in our district for 5 years to teach 
Chinese to other school districts in south central Pennsylvania. We have 5 
units within our district and are anticipating expanding that to 4 more units 
within the next 2 years. Our equipment is Polycom and we use the MAGPI bridge 
or our IU bridge for multipoint connections for most of our units. We are 
exploring buying our own bridge as we expand the number of units. We have two 
staff members who were MAGPI Fellows who coordinate our program. We blog our 
events at http://einstein.hempfieldsd.org/videoconferencing
 
>    2) What's the most important thing you hope to get out of participating 
> in this group?
We hope to learn more about resources, collaborations and contacts that we 
can develop and use as our program grows. Also we are always looking for new 
people for our teachers and students to interact with as well as how 
librarians are using videoconferencing.
> 
>    3) Are there specific questions, topics, collaborative activities you'd 
> like the group to explore?
We are open to anything. The librarians who are participating have some 
experience videoconferencing but I am excited for them to learn more about 
how libraries are using it.

Sue Allen
K-8 Instructional Technology Specialist
Hempfield School District
717.618.5086