After a couple of months of trying, I finally found a school willing to try out videoconferencing with me.  Using Online Meeting Rooms, a brilliant online package from http://www.onlinemeetingrooms.com, my school, Carlow Educate Together hooked up with the Athy Model School, 20km down the road for a Christmas Carol sing-off.

Each school sang two Christmas carols to each other.  Our school were treated to two popular Church of Ireland carols and we sang “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” and “Ceallóga Sneachta ag Titim”.  The kids were really enthusiastic and clapped and cheered each rendition.

Each school used a projector to make the image of their partner school large enough for all the pupils to see.  In effect, 180 children experienced a lesson at the same time and there was no need for any behavour managment strategies as all of them were highly motivated and listened really well to each other.

After the holidays, I’d love to find another school to partner up for a project.  If anyone is interested, please contact the school and we’d love to give it a go.  A big thanks also to Joe Garde from Online Meeting Rooms for the video conferencing service.

Today I had a meeting but we weren’t in the same room when we met. This shouldn’t sound like a strange sentence in this day and age. Video conferencing has been around for a good few years now. I remember while working as a teacher in 2002 in Tallaght being part of a video-conference over an ISDN line between two primary schools. Every child was engaged.

It’s a bit disheartening eight years on and with every school with a Broadband connection that this type of connectivity isn’t part of the norm. Technology has moved on to such a degree that now there’s no need for any software to be installed on computers in order to set up a video conferencing session. It’s also excellent quality and very fast.

My virtual meeting with Joe Garde from OnlineMeetingRooms.com gave me a demonstration of what can be done these days and left me with dozens of ideas of how this technology could be used in the classroom. Apart from simply talking to each other using the web cam and microphone, now one can share files and web links, type notes and “write” on a virtual whiteboard amongst other things. Best yet, with simply a reasonably good Internet connection, up to 16 people can meet at the same time. OK, even better than best yet, if you have an Interactive Whiteboard, not only is your screen image going to be a hell of a lot bigger, you can also interact with other participants by touching the board!

So it’s led me to think about linking up schools using this technology for regular meetings. Wouldn’t it be cool if a few schools showed each other some science experiments? How about if schools from different parts of the country met regularly to give an update on what’s going on in their area? What about two schools of different denominations comparing their religious practices? What about a collaborative project over a period of time where schools update each other on progress?

The possibilities are endless.

So… if anyone is interested in setting up a project with me, I’m all ears. Joe has very kindly offered to host our web conference and he will even record our sessions for us. I’m looking forward to writing more about this service and hope that schools will take it up too.