My second session of the day was about using Flashmeeting with John Warwick (one of the eTwinning Ambassadors), Deputy Head teacher of a Special Needs school in Hertfordshire. He showed us how Flashmeeting, a free video-conferencing tool could be used with our classes both abroad and in our local neighbourhood.
Flashmeeting is an extremely useful tool because, not only is it free, it is also a secure form of working online with other schools, so therefore it is safe. All your partner school needs is an internet connection and you're away, basically! They don't even need a webcam (unless the really want to see you)...it can all be done using microphones or the "chat" facility, where you type what you want to say. Unfortunately the technology let us down and we were unable to have a Flashmeeting at that time, however, I was "fortunate" enough to be able to take part in another Flashmeeting later in the weekend but felt so self-conscious about others being able to see me, was over come with hysterical laughter (although, I don't think I was the only one!). You always have to be prepared for technology to let you down when trying new things and not let it get in the way of making further developments at a later date.
There were many excellent ideas for how Flashmeeting could be used, such as to teach a traditional song to pupils in another country, maybe discuss cultural differences, teach a short session on a particular theme...the key really seemed to be "be prepared" and don't just plan to do a Flashmeeting and stand / sit at different schools staring at one another. Other ideas included having a "hot seat" where individual pupils would take this position and do their "bit" then moving on to the next person, this gets rid of the need to keep moving the webcam.
We are planning to do some online collaboration with primary schools, initally in a couple of weeks time when our Spanish exchange come to visit and then working on transition with Yr 6 pupils from feeder Primary schools chatting with Yr 7 pupils who went to their school, discussion worries that they might have have about coming up to Secondary School. However, we won't be using Flashmeeting (not because we wouldn't be happy with it), because we are fortunate enough to be able to use Elluminate, another online collaboration tool that includes video-conferencing. This, unfortunately is not free but does still only require an internet connection. Luckily, our local CLC has "bought" 100 seats within Elluminate so we are able to use that at the moment.
However, for a tool that is free and that can bring schools closer together, Flashmeeting really is excellent. If your school is considering moving into video-conferencing on any level, I would thoroughly recommend it. As with anything to do with technology thought, it's important to be well-prepared (maybe practise with another member of staff to begin with), don't be put off it the technology lets you down (try, try and try again) and start small then get bigger.
Flashmeeting is an extremely useful tool because, not only is it free, it is also a secure form of working online with other schools, so therefore it is safe. All your partner school needs is an internet connection and you're away, basically! They don't even need a webcam (unless the really want to see you)...it can all be done using microphones or the "chat" facility, where you type what you want to say. Unfortunately the technology let us down and we were unable to have a Flashmeeting at that time, however, I was "fortunate" enough to be able to take part in another Flashmeeting later in the weekend but felt so self-conscious about others being able to see me, was over come with hysterical laughter (although, I don't think I was the only one!). You always have to be prepared for technology to let you down when trying new things and not let it get in the way of making further developments at a later date.
There were many excellent ideas for how Flashmeeting could be used, such as to teach a traditional song to pupils in another country, maybe discuss cultural differences, teach a short session on a particular theme...the key really seemed to be "be prepared" and don't just plan to do a Flashmeeting and stand / sit at different schools staring at one another. Other ideas included having a "hot seat" where individual pupils would take this position and do their "bit" then moving on to the next person, this gets rid of the need to keep moving the webcam.
We are planning to do some online collaboration with primary schools, initally in a couple of weeks time when our Spanish exchange come to visit and then working on transition with Yr 6 pupils from feeder Primary schools chatting with Yr 7 pupils who went to their school, discussion worries that they might have have about coming up to Secondary School. However, we won't be using Flashmeeting (not because we wouldn't be happy with it), because we are fortunate enough to be able to use Elluminate, another online collaboration tool that includes video-conferencing. This, unfortunately is not free but does still only require an internet connection. Luckily, our local CLC has "bought" 100 seats within Elluminate so we are able to use that at the moment.
However, for a tool that is free and that can bring schools closer together, Flashmeeting really is excellent. If your school is considering moving into video-conferencing on any level, I would thoroughly recommend it. As with anything to do with technology thought, it's important to be well-prepared (maybe practise with another member of staff to begin with), don't be put off it the technology lets you down (try, try and try again) and start small then get bigger.
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