Back To School To See French Teacher In Two Places At Once

Transcript

I then spoke to Andy who is in the ICT department, to ask how they connect to the internet through the video conferencing systems codec. He told me that many schools use the JANET system to connect, but they were also exploring other options. He said that sometimes they wanted to communicate with other establishments, such as a London museum to look at artefacts, and needed the flexibility to be able to do this. by Linda Adams I was very excited at the prospect of going back to school. I’d been invited by Peter Beighton, Principal of Branston Community Academy near Lincoln, to see their video conferencing in action If my old French teacher could have been there, she’d have thought she was in a Sci-Fi movie. Technology has indeed moved on, and here was an Academy that was embracing technology and enjoying its many advantages. The first thing I noticed when invited into the classroom (see picture left), was that the door was marked ‘Conference room’, and although there were about 20 chairs around a square format of tables, there was only one pupil, Nick, and his French teacher Karen. Take a look at this picture (bottom left). This is their video conferencing system. At the top is the LG high definition LG display screen which is mounted on a Unicol height adjustable trolley. Underneath the display screen is a shelf that holds their LifeSize video conferencing camera and codec (the box that connects you to other locations). Whilst the lower shelf houses an AVerVision visualiser. I’m not sure where the umbrella fits in, but no doubt is useful on rainy days! The presentation was projected from her computer through a Casio ceiling mounted projector, onto the SMART Board. This was then viewed on the display screen so that the girls in the other school could see what Karen was doing via video conferencing. A small boundary desktop microphone picked up Karen’s voice, and she could hear her students, who were at a neighbouring school seven miles away, through the loudspeakers just above the interactive whiteboard. Setting the students a test for ten minutes, Karen switched off the microphone, and explained about the use of this new technology. ‘When I starting teaching French I used to visit France and come back with bagsful of magazines and newsletters so that my students could read and debate local news stories,’ Karen revealed, ‘now I can find these on the Internet.’ Karen’s emphasis is on teaching her subject, and I was impressed with her enthusiasm and teaching skills. She doesn’t need to understand how the video conferencing system connects via the codec to any one of the other six schools that are involved in this pilot scheme. All she needs to know is that she presses a button to connect the call. As simple as dialling a telephone number. Karen pressed a button on the remote control, clicked a button onscreen to connect over the Internet, and a few seconds later, a classroom image appeared on the screen. Switching her desktop microphone on, Karen said hello to the students. Again, using the remote control, she angled the camera to show who else was in her room, then switched it back to show herself at the interactive whiteboard (SMART Board). The other school that Karen had dialled through to has the same video conferencing system as Branston Community Academy, to ensure compatibility. When Karen looks at the display screen she can see her students in the main image, with a small image of herself at the board, and any data that she is sharing. Karen demonstrated this by placing a document beneath the visualiser. The image then appeared on the display screen. Branston Community Academy and the other six participating schools are utilising their resources. The initial cost of the video conferencing system is offset by future savings. Principal, Peter Beighton, explained that instead of having one teacher to teach a small group of students in subjects such as A Level French and A Level Law in each school, one teacher could teach her own and one another class in a neighbouring school at the same time using video conferencing. Peter said they now wanted to take this to the next level and look at recording their video conferencing sessions. He wants to be able to build a resource of recorded lessons that absent students can catch up on, or view for refresher sessions. He also said that should he ever lose his excellent French teacher, he would have a record of her lessons for posterity. After my visit, I spoke with Wesley Hunt from LifeSize to ask his views on recording lessons held over video conferencing. Wesley informs me they have a product called LifeSize Video Centre, which is an easy way to record and live stream your video conferencing, simply by pushing a blue button on the easy to use VC remote. Whilst you are recording, anyone with a laptop can join onto a simple URL which takes you to a website page hosted on the Video Center and you can watch the live recording as it happens. Or, after the lesson or meeting has ended and you press the blue button again to end the recording, it automatically posts the recording to the Internet and is immediately available for review. The possibilities of using video conferencing within education and public sector are as many as your imagination allows. Council chambers can open up meetings for people to watch real-time over the Internet or at a later time. Under achieving schools can link up with higher achieving schools to exchange best practice. Students can view exhibits at art galleries and museums without the cost of travelling. Oh yes, and students can catch up on missed work by watching pre-recorded lessons. Now I knew there’d be one disadvantage to video conferencing! If you’ve ever held a video call using Instant Messenger on your laptop, and the Internet connection isn’t very good, you’ll know just how grainy and ‘jumpy’ the images are. There was none of this, just a brilliantly clear picture, almost like the girls were in the same room. Karen was discussing techniques for their forthcoming exam, and annotating over the presentation. 26_Wedgwood AV Ltd - 01754 769967 www.teachingtechnology.co.uk_27 FEATURE FEATURE Back to school to see French teacher in two places at once Karen said she also uses email to send documents and other information to her students.