New to Video Conferencing? New to Motivate?

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Frequently asked questions
Other useful information
Cost and cancellation policy
Technical information

About our conferences

Our main conference models are:

We also organise VCs with other formats from time to time.

Elements which are generally present in our VCs:

  • Introductions:We ask all participating schools to introduce themselves at the start of the first VC session together so that everyone knows who else is participating. This should be led by the students rather than by a teacher, giving students an active role in the VC right from the start. They could include interesting things about the school or local area.  Photos are definitely a good thing!
  • Activities: short activities, experiments or discussions for students to do in their own groups and then report back on to everyone else - these help students to stay focused on the topic. They also provide an opportunity for the teacher with the students to clarify things with them or for the students to raise questions with their teacher. These questions can be fed back into the VC during the feedback immediately after the activity if desired.
  • Active listening to the speaker and other schools: There are times when students need to listen in a focused way to the speaker or to other students - we feel that this is as important as the times when they are being more obviously active. Our conferences contain material not familiar to students (and often not familiar to teachers either). If they are to find out about the topic, they need to listen carefully to the speaker, as worthwhile content generally requires more than a sound-bite.  We don't expect students to sit still for longer than is reasonable for their age and concentration levels, but it is helpful if teachers can explain to students the value of listening carefully to whoever is speaking - whether that be the presenter, or students from another school  It is particularly important that students listen to what other students have to say when they are feeding back on activities or giving presentations on their work just as they would wish to be listened to by the other participants when it is their turn.
  • Project work: During a day conference, there are periods where everyone works together on camera followed by periods when students are given longer tasks to do off camera, which they then report on to everyone else.  With the 2-VC conferences, project work is set on our website for students to do between VCs 1 and 2, on which they then give a short presentation in VC2.
  • Presentations: We ask each participating school to make a short presentation on the project(s) they have done. This gives a real purpose to the project work and it is good for students to have an audience from outside their own class/school. It is better for students to do something interesting with a small area of the project work than to try to cover a wide range of projects in a very superficial way.  In a 2-VC conference, this takes place at the second VC.  In a day conference, the presentations normally take place towards the end of the day.
    More about presenting through VC
  • Questions / comments to other schools: After each presentation in a 2-VC conference, we ask the other schools to ask questions about the presentation they have just heard. Teachers should help students to think of sensible questions or comments for the presenting school. It goes without saying, of course, that any criticism should be constructive - especially if your students have already given their presentation and responded to their questions and comments!  Occasionally students say "We have no questions or comments."  If this happens, where possible, we will go onto the other schools, then come back to that school.  If everyone else has already asked their questions, then we will press the students to think of something.  So it's much better to decide on one or two good questions in the first place!
  • Questions to the speaker: We try to ensure that there is time for students to ask questions about the content of the conference and, where appropriate, what is it like to do the job that the speaker does or how you might prepare for such a job.

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Other useful information

  • Most of our VCs are multi-point, which means we have several schools connected at the same time. Who you see on screen at any point depends on who has their microphone open - if your microphone is open we'll be looking at you.  For this reason, we ask everyone to keep their microphone muted unless they wish to be seen and heard.  This also avoids problems with echoes and feedback to a large extent.
  • When you are looking at us we are looking at you.  We have the system set so that our screen shows us each school in rotation.  This means that when students are doing a short activity we can monitor how things are going.  It also means that occasionally we see things we would rather not (and which would horrify those we observe if they knew!).  It is also very off-putting for the speaker to see students in front of the camera who are clearly bored or not paying attention.  Please remind students that they will be visible to us!

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Cost

  • Scheduled (2-VC or day) primary conferences - £75 for up to 40 students (email us to discuss the cost for a larger group)
  • Scheduled (2-VC or day) secondary (11-16) conferences - £195 for up to 40 students (email us to discuss the cost for a larger group)
  • Scheduled day post-16 conferences - £130 for up to 15 students, £195 for 15 or more
  • Long projects
  • Maths days or sessions for your school

Cancellation Policy

After confirmation of a booking for a conference for which we make a charge, cancellation may leave you still liable for a charge.

  1. Cancellation within one calendar week of event - 100% of the cost of participation.
  2. Within two weeks of event (but more than one week) - 75% of the cost of participation unless we can find another school to take up the place.
  3. Within three weeks of event (but more than two weeks) - 50% of the cost of participation unless we can find another school to take up the place.

Cancellation requires an email or phone call by the teacher responsible for the school's participation in the conference to the Academic Coordinator, Jenny Gage:

motivate@maths.org or 01223 764278

A discussion of technical difficulties between the school technician and Adrian is NOT enough.

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Technical Information

Top tips for successful VCs
VC equipment

Adrian Cullum-Hanshaw is the Motivate Technical Coordinator. Contact Adrian:

motivate@maths.org or +44(0)1223 765669

Studio phone no (for use immediately before or during a VC): +44(0)1223 766824

  • A mobile phone is a MUST if the room you are using does not have a telephone. If something goes wrong, contact between you and us needs to be straightforward – phoning the school switchboard is not an option when time is tight.
  • Always make sure that you have spare batteries for the remote control units, replacement fuses, and a screwdriver handy!
  • Ensure that all the equipment has been wired up correctly and tested before the conference. It is a good idea to contact JVCS (email JVCS, phone: +44(0)131 650 4933) to do this.

Notes:

  • We always do a preliminary test to establish that we can connect before giving any school or other centre a confirmed place on one of our conferences.
  • We limit the number of endpoints to ease management of interactive tasks, and to ensure that students don't sit passively listening (even to other students).
  • Factsheets produced by the JANET videoconferencing service.  We always check that schools are JVCS registered when they first contact us.  If not, we require them to test with JVCS and register with them before we offer them a place in one of our conferences.
  • WMnet videoconferencing guide (this is a really useful website for anyone new to videoconferencing in education)

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Top Tips

  1. Draw the curtains/blinds and switch on the lights, check they are all working.
  2. Switch off any bells (if possible).
  3. Assign all the camera presets.
  4. Position the microphones close to where the students presenting will sit - are the audio levels correct? What about other students who may want to answer or ask questions during the videoconference?
  5. Is the AGC off and the echo cancellation on?

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VC equipment

The equipment required depends on how many students you want to participate in a Motivate conference. Generally whole classes or groups from two or three schools take part, and these notes are based on that assumption.

We cannot include schools using videophones, webcams or pc-based videoconferencing systems.

You will need:

  • a stand-alone videoconferencing codec to transmit and receive the videoconferenced images and sound - this MUST be h323 compliant
  • a method of display, such as a data projector/screen, interactive whiteboard, plasma screen or large TV to display the video images - we recommend a TV display because the audio and video arrive simultaneously and therefore produce less latency in the video display (you can of course then gang the output to a data projector in parallel)
  • a good audio system is also essential

You should also have available:

  • a computer so that students can use PowerPoint, Excel, etc, in their presentations

Buying new equipment

Tandberg:

  • quick and easy to set up and service
  • connects directly into a scart connector on standard television monitors
  • audio and video of high quality
  • range of ITU standard codecs

This unit is very quick to master and is essentially the newer version of the codec that we use for our broadcasts from Cambridge. There are extra ports for XVGA data in and out enabling direct connections to a laptop or Mac/PC for power-point presentations, and easy connection to a data projector for large screen projection. Additional audio in/out sockets enables additional microphones/radiomics to be connected.

http://www.avtg.com/tandberg-880-videoconferencing-video-systems.htm

Polycom:

  • slightly more complicated than the Tandberg to set up
  • connects directly into a scart connector on standard television monitors
  • audio and video of high quality through squawk box
  • range of ITU standard codecs

The main disadvantage is that it is not possible to add extra microphones except those supplied by Polycom. These are then "daisy chained" together and while they are good for a boardroom, their layout is not best suited to the classroom.

http://www.polycom.co.uk/products/telepresence_video/video_conference_systems/room_systems/index.html

Sony:

http://www.ivci.com/videoconferencing_sony.html

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