TES ICT Blog: Videoconferencing in the classroom

03 October 2006 at 10.30

Videoconferencing in the classroom

Videoconferencing can help promote real communication and global citizenship, says MFL teacher Joe Dale Videoconferencing has great potential for connecting classrooms anywhere in the world and motivating language learners in authentic conversation. Educational establishments from primary to university level have been exploring the possibilities of the technology recently to allow learners to communicate with each other and share ideas in real time. ‘Whodunnit?’ is an article written by Primary Consultant, Alison McGregor in the Autumn 2006 ELL Bulletin from The National Advisory Centre for Early Language Learning (NACELL) about a videoconferencing event which took place in Oldham this year. The article describes how Alison and the Oldham City Learning Centre (CLC) supported local primary and secondary schools to use their videoconferencing equipment in a themed murder mystery day. Pupils got into the swing of things by: dressing up in different disguises questioning witnesses making a photofit picture working out the whereabouts of the murder suspects making arrests The Primary teachers received training on the language their pupils would need so they could guide them through the different learning activities. The day seemed a motivating experience for all those who took part. It also raised the profile of languages in Oldham and encouraged other primaries to look for ways of embedding languages into their curriculum. To read more about the day yourself, you can get a paper copy of the Autumn 2006 issue of the ELL bulletin by joining the CILT direct scheme or download it as a pdf file from the Nacell website here . The Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning has also been helping their primary pupils learn foreign languages using videoconferencing technology. The April 2006 YHGfl E-Magazine describes how Davina Otterburn, Head of MFL at Holy Trinity CE Secondary School in Halifax on top of her normal timetable taught Spanish to pupils at Christ Church CE and French to those at Bolton Brow. She is quoted as saying: "I think it is a wonderful project, not least because children find it easier to take on an extra language prior to the age of 12, which is when they traditionally start to learn.” Things have changed slightly this year as Davina is currently on maternity leave and has delegated the responsibility of teaching via videoconferencing to another member of the department, Alison Haigh. Heads at both primaries are equally delighted with the ongoing project. Jonathan Longstaff, head of Bolton Brow said: "This is the future, whereby modern technology will allow children to be taught from off-site, using the internet and an interactive whiteboard. The only limit to this is our imagination.” Steve Green, head of Christ Church School has shown his support for the project by studying Spanish at evening classes and taking a GCSE in the subject. He said: "We want our children to move up to secondary school having had a flavour of what learning a foreign language is like. The bonus of having a language expert from Holy Trinity School teaching them is that she will deliver the lessons in Spanish and they will learn the proper pronunciations.” Meet-in School is another Primary based videoconferencing project which was launched by the Digital Curriculum Team at Kent County Council in January 2006. The scheme has allowed one teacher to deliver French lessons to four rural primary schools in the Kent area simultaneously. For more details about the project, read my post Primary French videoconferencing project highlights potential to share which appeared on my blog Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom in August. As part of her PhD, Magda Phillips conducted some action research with pupils of all aptitudes in Year 2, 3 and 6 in a school in North Yorkshire (see above image) on the benefits of videoconferencing with a school in France. She found that: pupils were motivated by speaking with their French counterparts, though a few found this overwhelming signing was a useful factor in the 'top-down' approach for learning videoconferencing gave the pupils a genuine purpose for speaking a foreign language Magda spoke more about her findings in her session Supporting primary MFL through videoconferencing at the University of East Anglia in June 2006. In the TES article Virtual Travel Broadens the Mind , Alex Savage, advanced skills teacher in ICT and modern foreign languages at Notre Dame High School in Norwich uses videoconferencing to communicate with a French school in the Toulouse area. He explains that by doing so he has not only improved his pupils’ French, but more importantly their impressions of France . He says: “Norfolk is one of the least racially diverse areas in the country, and collaborating with young people from other nations can help dispel any stereotyped views the students have.” At Secondary level also, Mike Ullmann, 2005 Teacher of the Year and Director of Hockerill Anglo European College speaks about his exploration into videoconferencing in his seminar Alternative Curriculum to help language learning at The Language Show in November 2006. To get a flavour, of how Mike uses videoconferencing, you can see the Teachers TV programme A Love of Languages about language learning at Hockerill. The videoconferencing moment starts at 8 minutes 23 seconds in. Videoconferencing projects like these reveal how technology can enhance lessons and offer new opportunities for language learning. They promote global citizenship from within the classroom and provide examples of real communication, a winning theme at this year’s European Award for Languages . For Primary languages, they also present a potential solution for the government’s decision to ensure every KS2 pupils is entitled to learn a foreign language by 2009/10. The possibilities are exciting, but the price of such systems may be the reason why more schools are not coming on board.

Comments

[Brittany Yeargain]

I really like your blog, very informative and high tech. I feel as a future teacher, I'm a student in my 3rd year of college in Texas, US, about 2 years from classroom, I'm very interested in this idea of video conferencing especially with language learning.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Brittany,

I'm delighted you like the blog. Videoconferencing has huge potential for connecting classrooms around the world. The technology is getting easier and easier to use and the potential language learning benefits are huge.

Good luck with your ambitions to become a teacher.

Best wishes

Joe