Teachers
About our conferences
Schools' presentations
Evaluation of our conferences
Maths days and CPD
Publications
Other videoconferencing opportunities
General Resources
Videoconferencing - how our conferences work
We normally use a voice-activated system - this means that if you open
your microphone you will appear on screen. It is good practice in a
multi-point conference (more than two endpoints) to make sure that everyone
has their mute on unless they wish to be heard. As well as ensuring we
all see the right people at any point, this also makes sure that we don't
get feedback round the system. Students should be warned however that
when we have our microphone open, our screen will cycle through the other
participants in turn. Students do not always realise that the same standards
of behaviour are expected in a videoconference as when a speaker is physically
in the room with them, and that we will be aware of what they are doing
even if we can't hear them.
No one will be heard if they are not close enough to the microphone
- sounds obvious perhaps, but it's crucial!
Further technical advice
Go to top
About our conferences
All our one-day, month-long conferences and long
projects have certain
elements in common:
 Introductions: mean
that students take an active part in the VC right from the start, and
everyone knows who else is participating. You could include interesting
things about your school and perhaps a photo of your school or your
area.
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.
Listening
to the speaker: periods 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. Worthwhile content
generally requires more than a sound-bite - although the length of
time between activities will depend on the age of the students and
we certainly don't expect very young children to sit still for long!
However, 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 - this will be helpful for everyone.
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.
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.
Listening
to the other schools: students should also
listen to what other students have to say when they are feeding back
on activities or giving presentations on their work - in the same way
that they wish to be listened to by the other participants.
Questions
/ comments to other schools: we also expect students to ask
questions about other schools' presentations. Just saying you have no
questions is very discouraging to those who have just presented - it's
good if teachers help students to think of sensible questions or comments.
It goes without saying that any criticism should be constructive - especially
if your students have done their presentation and already received their
questions and comments!
Evaluating our conferences is very important to us. We ask one
person from each participating school to fill in our evaluation form
on behalf of all the participants at the end of each conference,
or at the end of each term in the case of long projects. The appropriate
form will be emailed to you. Please make every effort to complete and
return this form to us - we DO take notice of what people say to us,
and use your comments to improve our conferences.
Go to top
Presentations
A good presentation needs to be seen and heard clearly by other participants,
and to be clear, interesting and relevant (more
information). At the beginning of your
presentation, take a little time to explain what you are doing - other
schools won't necessarily have done the same projects as you, and may
not know anything about your particular topic. If you are going to use
powerpoint, please take the time to read through the notes we
have prepared on using it effectively in a VC - you should also check
that you can show it directly through your VC camera. If not, you will
need to point the camera at the computer screen (more
information).
Because we are using the VC medium, there are also some constraints
particular to that medium which have to be taken into account. You
need to be aware of these DOs and DON'Ts:
- DO ensure the microphone is near to the students who will be speaking
or that students move close to it.
- DO ensure students know what they are going to say, how to pronounce
difficult words, and to speak out clearly into the microphone.
- DO use both sound and vision - show text on screen (using either
a poster fixed to a wall or flipchart or powerpoint slide) and get
students to read it as well - hopefully if either the sound or the
visual content isn't entirely clear, the other will be.
- DON'T let students whiz through their posters or powerpoint slides
so quickly that we are still reading the top line when they move onto
the next one.
- DO make sure that all diagrams are big with bold, black lines - you
need greater clarity than you would in a face-to-face presentation.
- DON'T put too much text on a poster or powerpoint slide - use two
instead - again you need greater clarity than for a poster that will
be shown in a classroom or corridor display.
- DON'T have students standing in front of the camera holding up a
poster - their inevitable movement will mean that no one can see anything
on the poster (we mean this quite literally - everything will be fuzzy
and we are unlikely to be able to read text).
- DO stick posters to a wall or flipchart and zoom the camera in on
them instead.
- DO remind students that we may well be able to see them on screen
even when someone else is speaking - make sure they are not doing anything
they wouldn't want anyone else to see (it does happen ...!).
Links containing advice and help with the technical side of things:
For further advice on all technical matters, contact Adrian Cullum-Hanshaw.
Go to top
Publications
 
Jenny Gage, Academic Coordinator of
the Motivate Project has written two books on using an interactive whiteboard,
both published by Fulton Publishers: How
to use an interactive whiteboard really effectively in your primary classroom and How
to use an interactive whiteboard really effectively in your secondary
classroom (click on the links to order from
Amazon).
Go to top
Videoconferencing links
For a wide range of videoconferencing opportunities, go to http://www.global-leap.com
|
|
top
of page