Distance Learning in EE From Start to Success

All right, well, again, a big hello and welcome today. We are so thankful to have you joining us. My name is Lisa Edens, and I'm the program coordinator for the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education. And for today's webinar, we quickly put together something on distance learning and EE to highlight a couple of the programs that we know have started utilizing this platform and have some really great information to share with you all. So I'm really excited to have Catherine and Heather joining us today. Before I jump in, again, if you're just joining us, we'd love for you to introduce yourself via the chat function. I just wanted to say a couple of things about CAE if you're not familiar with us. Our mission is to advance environmental education in Colorado three ways by fostering collaboration, mobilizing support, and driving excellence. And we work with members all across the state, which together reach about 800,000 learners each year. So one of the ways that we hope to drive excellence in the field is through our monthly webinar series. And so we try to choose topics of relevance and of interest to the environmental education community with the goals of really coming together to share and spark ideas, improving practice, and finally connecting with one another. And I think obviously we've all been on probably many, many webinars and virtual meetings in the past couple weeks and will be into the foreseeable future. So again, just really hoping that this platform can be one that we can connect as best as we can and learn from one another. A couple events I wanted to mention that CAE is hosting in the future. One is our virtual conference day. So you've probably heard that we had to postpone our annual Advancing EE Conference from next weekend to September. So stay tuned for more details on that. But in the meantime, we are hosting still a one-day virtual conference, Professional Learning Day, and that's next Friday, April 3rd. And we've got our keynote speaker and several of our planned session speakers for that day. So you can find all of that information up on our website, but we'd love to have you attend that as well. Another great opportunity to learn from one another during this challenging time. We are also working on putting together some April webinars, again, trying to stay up with things that are relevant topics. But if there are things that you all are looking for as far as learning and other professional development needs, then please email me those because we have a huge community of experts in the environmental education field. And I know that we're all in a time where we want to help each other. So if there's some way we can connect you all with other experts, we'd love to do that. So if you have ideas for things you'd like us to host, we're happy to do that. And we'll be sending out other dates for webinars coming up here shortly. And then just a big thank you to our webinar series sponsor, Marathon, for allowing us to host these. Finally, a little bit about Zoom, which again, I'm sure everyone is well acquainted with Zoom by now. But I'll have all lines muted. If you would, please just keep your line muted. So don't unclick your microphone. That just really helps reduce background noise. We have, it looks like, yeah, almost 60 people on today. So we'd really appreciate you keeping yourself on mute. The best way to communicate with each other and with us as presenters and hosts is through the chat function, again, at the bottom of your screen. Feel free to, again, introduce yourself, ask any questions. Both myself and our executive director, Katie Maven, will be monitoring the chat. I know you have a lot of questions. So we'll be trying to pull those out and posing those to our presenters throughout the webinar today. So please use that, again, to connect with one another, share any resources, comments, thoughts, questions that you might have. So without further ado, I will introduce our awesome speakers today. We are so thankful for them. I know they've been busy. But for them to take time out of their schedule to share with us the information that they have. So let me introduce them briefly here. Heather Hubbard joined the education team at Colorado Parks and Wildlife after 14 years as a classroom teacher and district content specialist. As the statewide education coordinator, she works with programs that support pre-K through 12 formal education, including the schools and outdoor learning environments or the SOLE program. More recently, Heather has been exploring the use of distance learning within her programs and is excited to share her journey as she learns how to incorporate virtual learning to achieve program goals. We also have Katherine Ferguson. And Katherine was introduced to distance learning working as a seasonal at Grand Canyon National Park in 2016. Since, she has taken and expanded her skills as the distance learning specialist at Rocky Mountain National Park for the past three years. She's looking forward to sharing her ideas on Rocky setup and highlighting ways to engage with students via virtual platform. So thank you both for joining us. And I will pass the controls on to Heather. Hello, everyone. My name is Heather Hubbard. I'm really excited to be with you all today. As I am getting ready to share my screen, I just want to say I'm working from home. And it's interesting with a nine month old, a two and a half year old and a German shepherd husky mix. So I apologize for any sounds that you may hear in the background during this time. And I was really excited to be able to chat with all of you today. We are just in the beginning of trying out distance learning and being part of this is in our program. So today, I'd like to just share where we're at and what we've learned as newbies at this. And then Katherine will be able to come on and talk about it for much more of an expert lens as well. As you have questions, please feel free to put them in the chat. I may not get to them right in the moment. But we will answer your questions and also give you my contact information at the end. If you have any questions for me. Ultimately, when I look at distance learning, why this is so interesting to us and incorporating into our programs is for multiple reasons. One is access. We work with schools across the state. And we like to do in person programming with them. But we're not able to always do that with all of our schools across the state. So being able to provide access for them, not only for our programs, but to give them a chance to see what other parts of the state we'd like to go in the state parks. We've been taking pictures and incorporating that into the programs that we've been doing to help them have some access and see what else is out there. It provides some multiple touch points with our audience. When we do some in class programs, it may be just one time that we get to spend with those students. So incorporating some distance learning is giving us the chance to be able to go back into those classrooms in a different way and continue those conversations with students. We really are enjoying the fact that we can do it live and interacting with students, but we can also record it and have it as something that's available as a resource to teachers in the future that they can go and grab. And then there's so much variety in the way that we can provide distance learning. Not only the types of programs, but the formats that we use. So it's really helped us as we think about our goals and objectives to think about what would be the platforms that we can use. Today I'm going to show the one platform that we've been playing the most with. And this is what our setup looks like. There's a lot of people here in this picture. You don't need a lot of people when you're doing a distance learning. This was our first one that we've ever done, so my team was all super excited and everybody wanted to be a part of it. So we were able to do a little bit more of a production on this one. But ultimately the setup that we use, as we do use Zoom, we find that it's extremely easy for people to access and use in the schools and outside of schools. It has a free component, so if we have three or more participants, it does give us a time limit of 40 minutes. Other than that, we can extend longer than that, but we found the time limit was enough time for an in-class program that we were doing. We created a green screen backdrop that was pretty simple. We used PVC pipes and just created a space that could hold our green sheet, so that way we could change backgrounds and the settings that students were seeing. The way that ours is set up is we have a computer with a second monitor. The second monitor allowed us to extend our screen, so our facilitator, the person in front of the camera, could have things typed out to help them as they were going through their presentation. And then our producer, the person behind the computer, working through any of the technical stuff. When we've done the live, I'm finding the two has been really helpful for us. The facilitator, the person in front of the camera, can really focus on just the interactions and the conversation that they're having, the material that they're delivering. The producer then can really focus on the tech side of it, making sure that we can move between images on our green screen, checking the chat window, you know, having conversations with teachers as needed if they're having any difficulties. So that was something that helped us as we started, was having two people to really be able to focus on that. The other components that we had was the microphone. Being able to really direct that audio made it easier for participants to hear. And then with our video equipment, one of the things that we did learn is because we wanted to use a camcorder and have that external camera system, we did need to purchase an additional piece of equipment, which was an external capture device. And basically what that does is it allows the camera and the computer to communicate with one another in a live format. So that was one additional piece of equipment we did have to buy for this type of setup. But ultimately it was easy to set up. As you can see, we don't have a dedicated space. We used a conference room in our building. And the way that we set it up was to have it where we could put up, take down, and be able to do it in any room where we had some availability. When we looked at our program and we were thinking about engagement, that was something that we started talking about from the very beginning, is how can we engage students on this type of platform when we're not face-to-face and live with them? And what does it really mean to engage online? It does feel a little different when you're talking to a camera on a computer versus to someone face-to-face. So there were a few things that we tried out to see what would work. And then we asked teachers and students for feedback on how that helped with engagement. One of the things that we did is we also thought about engagement not only during the session, but before and after. So we used a simple KWL chart and we sent it to teachers ahead of time based on the theme of the program. So this one that we're kind of talking about today was about adaptations. We sent them a KWL chart where they discussed what students already knew and then what were some of the wonderings that they had about winter adaptations. And we did that in a simple Google spreadsheet, so that way we had access to it ahead of time. Not only did that give us a good framework of what students already knew about the topic, but where there were potential misconceptions. And then we also had a bank of questions that they were already wondering about that we could put into the program and add throughout, so that we were answering things that they truly were wondering about. We used a lot of humor in our program. And I think, you know, it was cheesy humor. It was a lot of fun. We had a person dressed up as a bear and we did an interview with a bear. But that humor, the kids said that they enjoyed that. It kind of kept them on their toes and they were able to laugh during that time. So the humor helped. We also had props, which added to the humor, but also helped make some connections with what we were saying. The other thing that we found with engagement was when we chunked our program into the idea of short segments, that helped with some of the flow and keeping them engaged. And we also used the background with the green screen. We changed the pictures and the locations of where we were at to help re-engage students. And they did mention that they liked that. They saw the different backgrounds that got them interested. They wanted to see where it was. And using that background, along with what we were talking about, really helped keep them engaged. For student participation, we did a few different things. Some simple things of, you know, raise your hand if you've been to a state park near your school. And while our facilitator was not able to necessarily see all of the classrooms, and we had multiple classrooms on at one time, we had our producer in the back being able to kind of do a thumbs up of seeing that kids were raising hands. And we also ad-libbed a little bit of, great, we're seeing some hands going up in different classrooms. So things like that. We had them checking for their pulse, showing them where their pulse was, giving them 20 seconds to find and count how many beats they were feeling, and then relating that to the material that we were talking about. So we had some times where they could do something that then was part of the information that we were sharing. And then we really used the chat function. We allowed teachers and students to type in the questions that they had. Our producer then was going through those. Some of them she could answer online during the program. Others, what we did was we typed them on our extended screen on a big font, and then that way our facilitator could see them, and then she would call them out. Hey, I see that Miss Jones at ABC Elementary has a question about beavers and how they adapt. And then they would answer it. And that was something the students said they really liked because they felt like they were part of it because they heard their class being called out and their questions being answered. The URL at the bottom, the tinyurl.com, is an actual link to the first program we've ever done. So feel free to jot it down. You can take a look. It's about 30 minutes, but you can see some of the things that we tried and that we played with in the very first program that we've ever done. I was really proud of the team. They put a lot of work into it, and they did a great job. Some of the lessons that we've learned just in the beginning, planning ahead was huge. We really needed to spend the time of thinking through that lesson plan. So those of you that have gone through certified interpretive guide training, I think those formats and those outlines for how we develop interpretive programs can really help with laying out an online learning program. Those of you that do lesson plans and in-person lessons with students, those work really great. The thing that we also found helped us in the beginning stages was scripting it out a little bit more. We were all very comfortable talking to people face-to-face, but it felt different when it was looking at a camera. So having that time to first script it out helped us feel a little more comfortable. It also made it easier to think through some of the tech piece of when we wanted to change a background, when we wanted to show a prop, and that helped with a little bit more smooth transitions. I think the more we get used to it, we probably won't need a script as much as we did in the first one, but it definitely made us feel more comfortable when we started. Practicing with the equipment was huge. That was probably where most of our anxiety was in the first program that we did was just making sure everything was going to work. So we would Zoom with each other and then have one room where all the equipment was set up and then a computer in the office so that we could just practice using the transitions, feeling good with the equipment, and that made our first day live feel a lot better. We weren't worried about the technology piece. Video audio quality I think is really important and there's really simple things that we can do for that. You don't need an expensive setup to have great video and audio quality. There are mics that you can get that are pretty inexpensive, but it does help with focusing the sound. Also it helps reduce any of the background noises or if you're typing on your computer in the chat version then you don't have that kind of clicking sound that you may pick up if you're only using your computer audio. The video, even just your handheld phones, the camera systems on them are great. What I recommend is looking at something that you can use to have a tripod for the phone so that you get that stability or something like a gimbal which helps with stabilizing if you're walking around. That way you don't get that up and down movement as you're walking which kind of makes people feel motion sickness at times. So simple things like that can help with the video quality. And the last piece that we learned from the evaluations and talking with students and the teachers was short and sweet was perfect for them. That really worked. 30 minutes, they said, was a good time. Even 20 minutes would have worked well for them and then the teachers could kind of continue the conversations afterwards. But that short and sweet seemed to be the mix of what they liked. The last thing I just wanted to provide were some of the questions that we used as a team as we started talking about what we wanted to do with distance learning and it helped us create a roadmap for what we wanted to do. So what are the goals and objectives for the online learning really helped us not only identify what we could do online and what maybe still needed to be an in-person piece but it also helped us then think about what were some of the best platforms that we could use. Ones that we wanted to do larger programs. Zoom is working great and now we're spending some time exploring other things like social media with Instagram being able to post short videos for learning in that. Facebook live. What are some of the other things that we can create different types of interactions and where would we want to record and have it just as a resource available. So those questions have helped us start to narrow in where we would want to go with our ideas. And then the last one was just what types of resources do you already have. So what equipment do you already have that you can utilize? What staff do you have available? Is it just you that's working on this? Is there two of you or more that can change the way that you set it up? And then what's your space? You don't have to have a dedicated space to it. Like I showed you we move around to different conference rooms depending on what's available that day. And that's worked great but it did change the way we think about our equipment to make sure that was easy for us to move around. Like I said we're in the beginning stages. I'm here to answer questions. You can also reach out to me. This is my email address. Please feel free to let me know. I don't have all the answers. We're still learning but luckily it's kind of nice. I feel like I'm the opening act to the star and Catherine is going to have a lot more information and some great ideas to share. So I'm going to pass it on to her so she can show you all the work that she's been doing and then we will have time at the end as well for more questions. Awesome and while we're switching over to Catherine we did have one question while the presenter or the participants have been good at answering each other's questions. So thanks everyone for your engagement. But there was one last question posted about have you discovered what works best to record and post what works best to record and post a video to Facebook? We are just starting with Facebook. So right now what we're looking at we're getting ready to create some of those posts. We're looking at using our phone. We did purchase a simple gimbal which will help stabilize it. So if we're walking around it won't have that jumpiness to it. And using the phone to connect to our Facebook page that we have for our SOLE program, Schools and Outdoor Learning Environments. So right now that's where we're going to try first and that way too is a little bit easier access for the the team and not having to try to take out all of the bulky equipment that we have. So that that's currently what we're going to try. Great thank you. All right can you guys see my screen? We can. Thanks Catherine. Okay it looks like hold on. Oh it just went away. See I'm not an expert. We're all learners. Awesome. Okay can you see that now? Yeah we can. Okay perfect. And let me go ahead and turn on my video if I can navigate back to that. There we go. All right can you all see me? Yep looks great. Perfect. Awesome. Well I'm really excited to be with you guys here today to share a little bit more about what we have learned here at Rocky Mountain National Park. I feel like I got some big shoes to fill here. Again I'll say I'm not an expert on distance learning although I've learned a lot over the few years that I've been here between Grand Canyon and here at Rocky. So I'm excited to share a little bit of what our setup looks like. It is pretty similar to Heather's too. So we use some similar platforms. So I'm excited to delve a little bit more and share what we've created here at Rocky. And hopefully you all can find something you can take back to your site to share. But I wanted to also preface that my first year doing distance learning at Rocky I did a lot of research that first year trying to figure out what was going to work. I tried a lot of things. You can see here we even did iPads out in the field. Right now I'm in a studio for a lot of my distance learning. But at one point I had a laptop stacked on a bunch of books connecting with the school with a TV monitor behind me. So things can look, distance learning can look very different based on what you have, what setup, what access you have, what platforms you have. So keep that in mind that it doesn't have to look like what Heather's or my setup looks like. So just keep an open mind with distance learning. We all are definitely getting more comfortable with keeping an open mind right now in this time. So what I also wanted to share Rocky Mountain's focus has been one-on-one connections with classrooms. So instead of multiple classrooms on the other end we focus with one-on-one. And we're kind of focusing also on our pre-site virtual visits. So for students that come up on field trips when school's back in session we'll be doing more of those pre-sites before those schools actually come up to the park. So they have a little bit more background knowledge and I'll share a little bit more about that as we go along here. But I wanted to get a feel for what your, what your guys' experience is with distance learning. So if you all want to drop the number in the chat here, how comfortable you are, how familiar from one to five, just to get a feel for that. Let's see if we can check out that chat. Awesome. Cool. So we're kind of on the beginner stage for most of us. Awesome. So hopefully we can help you propel and feel a little bit more comfortable. You guys are already doing great. You're already on Zoom which is what we both use. So you're still learning. So we're getting there. So I wanted to start us off with some basic things that you're going to need to start a distance learning program. These are things that I started researching when I first started trying to develop Rocky's program here on a smaller budget than Grand Canyon's whole setup. So you need a camera and a microphone. You need that platform like Zoom or Skype. Some kind of content presentation for both Heather and I. It seemed like those pictures of PowerPoint is going to be what we mostly use. And then of course connectivity to internet. Your presenter and then thinking about your audience as well, who you are connecting with. And that can look different based on what your goals are. So thinking about who your audience is, a lot of different content providers connect in different ways. So here at Rocky we have our presenter and then we connect with that one group. But other places can connect to many groups at a time or they connect to many individual people or like we're doing today with a bunch of individual connections. Or you can do a live stream as well. And I just wanted to share that Channel Islands National Park does a really cool distance learning program underwater which is really awesome. So if you guys want to check that out I highly encourage it. So Rocky right now and the way we started has been that presenter to the group. So that one classroom. But now with this new world we're living in and distance learning kind of taking a new name all over the place, we are diving into thinking about that presenter to many individuals. So we're going to be piloting a new connection next week where we are trying to connect with schools or students at their homes and trying to facilitate that through the teacher through our marketing platform which I'll get into a little bit later. But we're trying to adapt to this new world that we live in now. Still trying to connect to those students because it's still a very important time to do that. So think about who your audience is going to be, how you want to connect and who you want to connect with. And then I wanted to show you all what that kind of looks like for Rocky's programming up until now. So we created a little bit ago this short little video sharing some clips from students and just sharing what programs we offered. So I'm going to go ahead and play that for you all so you have a bit of a feel for what it looks like here. Have you ever considered visiting Rocky Mountain National Park from your own classroom? Well now you can. Invite a ranger into your class virtually to share the resources of Rocky Mountain National Park through several live interactive curriculum based programs. Programs are customized to fit seamlessly into your curriculum. Current programs available find students discovering the amazing adaptation of a few of our wildlife, exploring the four ecosystems of Rocky as ecosystem explorers, and uncovering the meaning and the importance behind the National Park Service emblem. Connecting couldn't be easier. Most classrooms already have the necessary technology. Required equipment to connect include a computer, projector, camera, speakers, and a stable high-speed internet connection. To learn more and to schedule a virtual visit to your classroom, contact our education program manager at 970-586-1338 or visit our website. We hope to see you soon. Awesome so that's just a short little clip of what our programming has looked like up until now. And another big thing to think about when you're starting a program like distance learning is thinking about what you want to offer and why you're offering that. So in our education program here we really focus on those curriculum based programs. So a lot of our programs were created out of those standards and what those teachers are wanting for those different age groups. So this is what we offer based on those age groups and also thinking about our interpretive themes here of Rocky, what we're sharing, what we want to highlight about our location. And then also on there are virtual pre-sites for all of our field programs or what we are kind of focusing on now as well to try to add those multiple touch points before they get to the park and then following up with them after as well in some of our programs. So think about what content you want to deliver before you even think about your setup too because you want to come in with some good content for those schools and students. And then I just wanted to share a little bit why Rocky is doing this one-on-one connection. I really found it super beneficial for an opportunity to tailor the program to the class's needs and then you have a way to connect with their local NPS site. So I guess I didn't mention that here at Rocky we connect with schools all over the country. So we kind of started our broad and we're reaching out to the East Coast and Hawaii and even in Canada and China. But then we started to tailor into that virtual pre-site visit as well. So this one-on-one really provides a nice opportunity to get really connected with these classes and what they're interested in. And it's a time, it provides a time for students to ask a lot of personal questions too. And you also get that one-on-one communication with the teachers just to really solidify that you're going to have a great connection. So getting into our equipment, this is what our studio looks like. I'm actually in my office right now with the door closed. Everything's Clorox and I clean everything. But I've been running the distance learning program kind of on my own when I started. So everything had to be super easy for one person to use. So you see here I have an AV card. I have a laptop with a couple monitors and a document camera on that bottom shelf to show props up close. But a lot of this stuff was either provided to me at work that they just had lying around or cost less than a hundred dollars to acquire. And I also will give a shout out to the Rocky Mountain Conservancy. We have a few people on now from there who have supported this program a lot. So they were able to provide some of this equipment for us as well. So our platform is that Zoom video conference. What we're using right now is what I use and then in conjunction with the excellent video broadcaster software, which is free, which allows us to do a green screen, which you see next to me. I painted my wall green for that to work because I do have the benefit of having a dedicated space in my office. I can close the door and not be distracted and make sure I keep that six feet distance nowadays. So that's just a little bit of the equipment. And then I just wanted to show you what it looks like when someone is standing by the green screen. The ranger is actually looking at the school on that top monitor. When we connect this, the whole class will be on that top monitor. So the camera is up there too. So it kind of looks like you are looking at the students when you're connecting, which is great for that natural interaction when that virtual platform is a little uncomfortable outside of being face to face with students in the field. So just to get a feel for our virtual pre-sites and what our outlines look like for our rangers. These virtual pre-sites, which maybe you all want to do as we'll get back in session, it's a great option to really prepare the students for not only what to pack and what to bring with them, but also to give them a little bit of content preview. So they're coming in to that field trip already knowing what their ranger looks like, having that connection, and having a little bit of background information to kind of propel them for their field trip. So it's required for all of our groups now. And it clarifies any questions for the students or teachers ahead of time too. So we see Ranger Nicole here preparing our Winter Explorers snowshoe field trip by exploring what tracks the animals are going to leave behind to help them find those tracks in the field when they're up with us. And then we have our content, we have our setup, but how are we going to deliver to a virtual audience? So I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about techniques that may be similar, may be different though to what you're used to in the field. So I want us to think about first how is teaching in the field different than a distance learning platform? And if you want to drop some ideas in the chat, feel free. Is anything popping up to you that you're like kind of scared it's very different or it's not different at all? So think about that. And then I want you to think about your favorite teaching technique. And if everyone could maybe write their favorite teaching technique in the box that you use or you love to use with students, go for that. I'll wait till I see at least a couple. I want us to think about how you can transfer that favorite teaching technique into distance learning or a virtual platform because there are a lot of ways you can utilize the same techniques. So I see props, think-pair-share, anything hands-on, turn-and-talk, awesome. Puppets, I definitely use puppets. Those are fun. So how can these be transferred to a distance learning program? Pretty easily if we take a look at some of the favorite techniques that I use. Think-pair-share, I use that a ton during these programs because you still want to have that discussion amongst the students and be a part of that discussion. I use total physical response where I actually have the students acting out. And in that short little clip we saw earlier, the kids were acting like bears. They were hibernating. They were waking up. They were climbing up trees. So I love to use TPR in a lot of my programs just to get moving. And then we also have experiments with role-play and mock town hall with some of the older students that we connect with and having that discussion-based time and me as the ranger being there to answer any questions while they're discussing with their groups. And then we also do student presentation. So engaging those students beforehand with a pre- lesson before we connect. In our Ecosystem Explorers program we have the students research an ecosystem and then they present during that program. So they're already coming with a little bit of background information and then that ranger is able to elaborate and expand on it a little bit more. And then question and answer time is always so valuable in these programs because a lot of these students that we connect with may never see a ranger or may never visit a national park. We may not even know what a national park is when we start. So I always try to make sure I provide at least five minutes at the end if not more for Q&A. That's so valuable in all of our programs. But I wanted to show you with a little bit of time we have left maybe just a few seconds of these clips but just to get an idea of what it looks like for one of these virtual pre-sites and some of those techniques that are used. So I'll go ahead and play this one from our Winter Explorers pre-site with Ranger and Michelle. What he does is he puts two pieces down. That's really how he did it. So one more time I want to show you now both actors and artists and also artists. of there. But that was just another technique that we've been experimenting with is having the students actually act out these animal tracks, draw them, and then share with the ranger. So that's giving them a little bit more background on those tracks before they come up for the snowshoeing field trip, which is a lot of fun. And then I'll go ahead and skip this one. But we show videos too, flyover videos of Rocky. That's always a great connection piece as well for them to actually see where I am and what it looks like here when it's different from their local environment. And then I want to really want to touch on the marketing piece because I know that's a big deal to trying to get the word out there. So what Rocky has been using and actually a lot of other national park sites are using the CILC, which is the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. And they are basically a one stop shop for all virtual experiences for students and teachers, even retirement homes I've connected with before. So it's a place for everyone to find experiences like this. Aquariums, zoos, museums, really anyone can use this. And it's free for students and teachers to search. And there is a cost for content providers to advertise on there. So some of those content providers charge a fee and some of them are free. So you can navigate through that CILC website to advertise, which has been super successful for us. When we started using that we saw a huge uptick in the amount of programs we were delivering. So it's been a great benefit to us here. And then we also advertise on our website at nps.gov slash romo under our distance learning tab. And we also utilize Facebook to get the word out there. And hopefully we'll be able to use that a little bit more during this whole season that we're in. I can see us using Facebook and Instagram a little bit more heavily. And then just wanted to provide some feedback from teachers. They are responding really well to this platform and they are really enjoying those interactive activities and they're loving being able to invest a little time before we connect virtually with their students and really making the connection. Not just a brief 30 minute thing and then they forget about it but really integrating it into their curriculum. So that's been the goal for Rocky Mountains distance learning is to really weave that into their curriculum. So it's kind of a seamless experience for them. And then I just wanted to share a few lessons that I've learned. Some of those similar to Heather's. One of the big things I learned. I'm an introvert so having a high energy all the time is really hard for me. But distance learning has really helped me with that. You are on camera the whole time. So there is a different feel for how much energy you're going to have. The lights are on you. So the energy level is high. You gotta be smiling the whole time. I also learned that using the in class teacher is super important and super valuable to call on students instead of me trying to like point to the camera at a student. That doesn't work. But having that teacher there to help facilitate and repeat questions and answers from students is invaluable. And then just making sure you're keeping track of the challenges that you're overcoming and any hiccups that you face because that's those are all great learning opportunities. So keeping track of all that has been really helpful for me. And then just remembering that DL looks different everywhere. And it's you got to find what suits you. You can use a little camera and iPad and iPhone. It's all distance learning. It just looks different. And then most importantly you got to have patience with technology. A lot of people think I'm an expert in technology. I know everything there is to know. But I have bad days with technology too. So just be patient with yourself and with the teachers as well because this is often a new experience for them too. Although it's becoming more and more normalized. Just remembering the patience is key. And then you can ask me any question you want. Here's my contact information. The first slide had my personal email because I have been teleworking. But this is also an email you can reach me at in my office phone number too. But I absolutely love doing distance learning. It was kind of weird initially to be on camera but we're still learning. I'm still learning and we're really trying to expand and try to adapt to this new world. So I'm trying to experiment along with you. I know a lot of you are trying to integrate a little bit more distance learning during this time where everyone's at home. So I'm still learning and I'd love to share what I find out once I kind of pilot this next string of programs next week with students that are in their own home. So still going to try to use the same platform and see how it goes. But I'm excited to have had the opportunity to share a little bit with you all. And hopefully you'll find a little something you can take home with you to kickstart your distance learning or whatever it looks like. So I will pass it back off to Lisa and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Great. Well thank you both again for sharing your experiences thus far. And yeah I think we'll just open it up for questions. One that came in while you were talking Catherine were just are your virtual pre-site activities available to the public. Is that something that they could maybe take a look and see what that looks like. Yes. So our virtual pre-sites a lot of my communication with teachers is really one on one. That's delivered to the teachers via email before their program. So it's not really made public but I'd be more than happy to provide an example of that to this whole group or one on one. But yeah it's not fully public. Yeah that would be great. I'm going to with the follow up email maybe I can email a link out if you have one. Yeah absolutely. Great. And there's another question. What is the difference between Zoom and XSplit that you talked about. Yeah. Good question. So Zoom is the video conferencing software. So what we're using and then XSplit is the it's really a gaming software that we're using that provides us the ability to use a green screen. And I'm not sure what Heather uses for a green screen. So we actually just use Zoom. They have the green screen. It's it's not where you can do as much as like an XSplit but you can upload a few pictures and then you can in Zoom change your background to pull up that for your green screen. So that's what we've started with. It was really simple to use in the program that we did. We had three different pictures from three different sites. And so we were able to easily transition between those and just paste them up on our on our green screen. Yeah. We actually now that you say that we did use that to start. And if you guys looked down at your video the little carrot you can choose a virtual background down there. So it's super easy. But with XSplit we're able to actually put up a whole PowerPoint and click through it. So that's the difference. I guess whereas XSplit you kind of have to go in and manually change the picture for each one. Great. Here's another question. Are you two using Wi-Fi or directly or connecting directly to Ethernet? Do you often have issues with connectivity when working real time with classrooms? Good question. I here in my office I have an Ethernet cord so I'm connected to the network here. So connection has been pretty stable on my end. I do have some issues with schools on their end because they're oftentimes on Wi-Fi. So there have been issues on that end. But for us we're connected to the network. We were actually through Wi-Fi because we go and find a conference room that's available. We weren't able to connect into our Ethernet. So we went through Wi-Fi. Our program we didn't have any connection issues. We had at one time five schools all on at once for one of the programs. So we were we were lucky. We knew the Wi-Fi we may have some issues. So we played and tested it out. It looked like it was doing all right. So we went ahead and gave it a try and it worked. Great. Another question was around people having access variable access to different platforms like the Internet. So can the principles that you're using be applied to kind of like the self-serve lessons or videos that can be pre-recorded and taken on the students own time kind of that on demand learning? Yeah I think so. I mean I've started playing with Zoom a little bit more because I wanted to see if I could take some of my things and record over it. I've done other programs like Screencast-O-Matic where I could take a PowerPoint and record over that. Zoom I was able to do the same thing where I didn't have anybody else in the meeting. I just opened it up like I was going to do a meeting hit record and played around and I even use like they have a whiteboard feature so you can draw and write. I was able to do that use my camera connect with my PowerPoint and record it and then it downloaded it straight to my computer. So that's one of the things I'm playing with right now for the recorded programs is just using our Zoom account and using the features that I feel comfortable with instead of trying to use a bunch of different things and trying to figure out a ton of other programs. Yeah we definitely use the recorded feature as well. We haven't really recording anything and uploaded it but we have been using it as a training tool to train new staff on these programs. So it is super easy to record and download. So if that is an avenue you want to use it has been working really well. Any other questions? I had a question just about your communications with teachers during this time. Have you been able to communicate with them to continue what you had planned or how have they been receptive? I'm just kind of curious what that communication has looked like in the last couple of weeks with all these changes happening. Yeah it has been kind of interesting. I we ended up canceling our programs more so because of the schools have closed. So the teachers have been contacting me and saying we have to cancel. We're closed until this date but would love to reschedule. And they haven't really reached out to connect in this like individual way. And I think everyone's still trying to figure it out. But I'm hoping I'm going to try to blast some of those teachers with this new opportunity that I'm going to share on the CILC for students to connect in. So we're still working on it. Connection is still kind of iffy. You know teachers are trying to scramble to figure out what this looks like. So I'm hoping it sounds like this is going to be a normal for a little bit. So I'd be happy to share any successes that come along with communication and how things are going as we move forward. We're very similar to Catherine. Right now with our distance learning we've been focusing a little bit more specifically with one of our programs schools and outdoor learning environments because we have direct connections with teachers. So that's that's helped. We've had already kind of our group to test and try things out with seeing using them to see what their needs are. And then kind of our next steps are now how do we start communicating and expanding outside of that small network that we know. But it's been great just to start with the network of teachers we do know and working with them and then using that to help us decide where do we go with this and how can we be expanded. Looks like there's no other questions that I see coming in. I just wanted to thank both of you Heather and Catherine for again sharing your knowledge and your experiences with the rest of the group and all the participants on today. Thanks so much for your time and your comments. There were so many good comments you know back and forth helping one another. I think that's what we really need right now is just that social connections and knowing that we're all there to support one another. So as I mentioned I'll be following up with an email either tomorrow or early next week with just a short evaluation the recording here today and any other resources that Catherine and Heather mentioned as well. And again if there are other webinar topics that would be timely and relevant for you all in the next month or two as we navigate this new situation. Please let us know. We're happy to try to get those resources to you. And just remember our professional development day next Friday. And I just wanted to throw in there as well. I was on a call yesterday that the Children in Nature Network happened to be on. And one of the things that they mentioned that they were working on was guidance for what does it look like to connect with nature indoors. And as you're thinking about these types of programming I think this several of you mentioned in your favorite strategies it was really using authentic nature materials and thinking about that. So know that that guidance is being worked on and might provide some even more helpful tips for how to utilize online learning and thinking about what that might look like to connect with nature indoors. And I will just add my thanks to Lisa's thanks in that both Heather and Catherine turned this around in record time when they're also slammed with trying to modify their own programs and all of the things that have resulted from the changes we're facing. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being willing to take time to share with the whole community above and beyond and amazing. Great. And there was also just a comment that Children Nature Network also offers some helpful webinars during this time. And there was one last question since we have a couple of minutes. If you guys don't mind. One person had asked what what do you think has been the greatest added value of distance learning that you found for environmental education that's maybe hard to get in the classroom. If you don't mind answering me with that one last question then we'll let people go. Yeah. I have found there's a connection that can be made although virtually it's kind of weird. But I always try to connect students to their backyard too. So their local national parks comparing what they're finding out their backyard with what we have here at Rocky and just really trying to make that personal connection. Which is why I love this this one on one setup that we have. And there are students that may never get to a national park. So I've also gotten e-mails from students saying that they're planning a trip with their family to visit a national park now. So it's there's a connection and valuable. And it's not a traditional EE experience but it's what we have and it's what has been been really valuable to a lot of these students. But always trying to encourage them to get outside and check out their own backyard is like in all of my programs. Oh. Ours is very similar. I think it was really fun. Some of the feedback we got from students with ours is we had pictures of Bar Lake State Park and Staunton State Park. And some of the kids were like what. That's in Colorado. That's amazing. Like they had no idea that this was what part of our state looked like. So just their excitement of seeing places that maybe they hadn't seen before in their own state was really fun to hear and see. And then also I think the other thing that is really appealing to me with distance learning is it is hard right. It can't have them necessarily touching all the stuff by lawn and being out their doors with them. But it gives them a viewpoint into it and it also gives us the ability to work with schools that we may have never been able to connect with before. And it's hopefully helping us spread out and expand a little bit more and reach schools that typically in the past we haven't. And providing them with some experiences that hopefully build some excitement and curiosity for the outdoors. Great. And just as a follow up Catherine do you have any activity examples that combine that distance classroom learning with the localized learning that you mentioned. Yeah. So in one of our programs for spring and fall it's called the Great Ecosystem Adventure. And they are trying to uncover which ecosystem they're in when they're in the field. And they use a log that we've created for them in the field. And then on the back side there is a part for them once they get back to the class to explore their own backyard. So that's more of a localized so field trip distance learning connection where they're taking what they've learned up at the park to their backyard and comparing how things are different how the ecosystem looks differently. So I guess that's more of a field trip based example. But a lot of times it's pretty informal when sharing with the students that are in other states just to think about what animals you have in your backyard and think about what adaptations they have based on the animals we explored that live here in Rocky. So a lot of times it's not as tangible. But it's also time for the teacher to solidify that and maybe facilitate that too. Great. Well thanks for answering those last couple of questions. A big thank you to Heather and Catherine and to everyone for joining us today. And look for that follow up email from me and other chances to connect virtually in the coming weeks. Stay healthy and we'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thanks everyone. Thank you everyone.