 Welcome to this week's Wednesday webinar. This week's webinar is on the Nebraska Virtual FieldTrips mini-grant program. These slides can be accessed at this shortened URL. It's a Google slideshow and remember that it's case sensitive. I'm Molly Ashoff and I'm the Digital Learning Coordinator at ESU 8 and I'm happy to present this week's Wednesday webinar. Recently, those who use technology in ways that expand their global connections are more likely to advance while those who do not will find themselves on the sidelines. I find this very interesting that it was in a 2009 horizon report and I believe it still rings true today. The National ISTI standards for students address this very feature. Enter number seven says students should be global collaborators and seven B that I highlighted here says that students will use collaborative technologies to work with others including peers, experts, community members to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints. I think this is right where virtual field trips fit in. What is it exactly? What's a virtual field trip? I'm talking about a virtual field trip. I'm talking about one where there's a live person on the other end talking to your students, asking them questions. Your students are asking the experts questions. They're communicating. This really ups the engagement in your classroom. What does this look like? I have a short clip from a Google Hangout virtual field trip that shows you how your students can interact with the presenter or the content provider. Today we did a virtual field trip. Schools from across the country were able to join us via a Google Hangout. It's really easy to connect us with the whole wide world. What's the first thing you see in color? Ah, very good question. Actually no colorblind. We are for the first time in history with this space station we're leaving Earth. And it is just too good an experience not to share. I'm going to say hello to Maxi. Hi Max. That just gives you a quick little picture of what it's like. And so many teachers ask about is there funding to help pay for these? Many of the virtual field trips do cost. And now through this program that is provided to you by NIDA, the Nebraska Educational Technology Association along with the Nebraska Distance Learning Association which is changing to the Nebraska Digital Learning Association and the ESUs, we have a mini-grant program available to help cover those costs. So that's very exciting to me. Who can apply? Well, the applicant must be a NIDA member. And if you're not sure if you are not, when you register and fill out the application for the mini-grant, that will automatically register you to become a NIDA member. It's a free membership. The applicant must also be a K-12 teacher from a Nebraska private or public school. And you get a maximum of five mini-grants or up to $500 per teacher. And the virtual field trips have to come from either be a Nebraska content provider, be off of the Nebraska Virtual Instruction Source website or the CILC website. And I'll show you those. Nebraska nonprofit content providers, these are like our Nebraska museums, the zoo, and most of them are already free to teachers, but those that are not will now be free. So the Durham Museum and Omaha, Homestead, Joslyn, Mona, those are currently free programs. Morrill Hall or Elephant Hall, there is a cost, but they have their own scholarship program. But Henry Doiley Zoo does cost, and now you can get that paid for through this mini-grant program. Agate fossil beds, Nebraska Extension are both free programs, and hopefully at this fall, Ashfall will be ready to go with their new program. The second place is the NVIS, or the Nebraska Virtual Instruction Source. This lists a lot of the same Nebraska content providers here, but also if there's something that we can't find on the CILC website, possibly we will review it and put it here so it is accessible for the mini-grant. When you come to this site, you don't have to create a login. If you're at the home page, just go to field trips, and they're listed here, you can click on them and get the information you need. The last place, CILC, this is a huge database of all of these programs. So the first thing you're going to want to do, let me sign out, is join. You can search without joining, but in order to request a program, you're going to eventually have to join. You'll have to put in your contact information, your school, and your billing information, and I'll talk a little bit about that later. But I'm going to just do a search here quick so you can see. I searched Halloween, and they have several. There's a Halloween dance party, Halloween slime time, scary art. Let's check out the slime time. So this produces a flyer. All of this information here is very valuable. You're going to need it when you fill out the mini-grant application form. So I would keep that available for when you fill out that form. So for reimbursement, as the school has to pay for the virtual field trip, then you submit proof of payment to NIDA, and they will send a check back. How do you apply for the grant? The grant looks like this. It comes from the NIDA site. Under resources, the bottom tab is virtual field trips mini-grant. They also are known as VFTs. It gives a little background. The eligibility, I already went through those. Where they have to come from. And then it says, go ahead and schedule your program. And after you've scheduled it, before it ever happens, then you can apply for the mini-grant. But they want you to have the date scheduled before you put in the application. So back here, when I was looking here, and I'm ready to request this program, that's when I'll have to have had a login built. So I log in. A couple things here. Video conference is if you're using the DL equipment. There's a drop-down menu here. So go ahead and click Zoom. Zoom is what you would do, because then you can do it from your desktop and just project it in your classroom. I look here, and I can look and view their calendar here, I can choose my top three desired times. I fill out all this information. And the billing information will have been established when you register. And all that stuff will go in here. And then I'll request the program. They'll then email you and say yes, your first time or second time worked. Or you'll email back and forth. So you get a desired time for both. Then you can go and fill out the application here. All of this information here is on the application. So you might want to check and see if you have that. And all that can be found on that program flyer, except you have to link it to a Nebraska State Standards. So that's nothing that we're not used to doing already. It does ask if there's matching funds, if any. And it's okay to put no. Always know that I'm here to help. If you need help in the registration process or filling out the application for the mini-grant, I'm happy to help you there. If you have established a time and you're going to have a virtual field trip, I am happy to help you set up a USB camera that makes the experience better for both the content provider and your students. I'm also happy to come and help you the first time. A lot of times I do a test call. I can be there for that. But just know that you are able to reach out to me at any time. And I'm happy to help you. With this program, I hope that all schools will try to do at least one per classroom in the coming year.