Today I am going to try to give some training using Skype to a group of teachers in Cape Town, South Africa. They are participating in a project linking with a group of schools in the UK. Together they are going to share ideas on how to put an international dimension into their curriculae.
Presentations
Intro_norfolk.ppt (4.5mb)
Global_ed.ppt (3mb)
Space_quotes.ppt (1mb)
Global Wombat (Flash Video)
Examples of Student Work
School Leaflet.pdf (200k)
Global Survey Results.xls (1.2mb)
Useful Links
www.notreblog.edublogs.org - We created this free blog using www.edublogs.org to enable students around the world to share their ideas and opinions on a variety of issues.
www.globalmessenger.notlong.com - We created this free website using www.elanguages.org to enable teachers in different countries to share their ideas and resources on global education
www.ariege.notlong.com - We created this free website using www.elanguages.org to enable schools in Norfolk, UK and Ariège, France to share students’ work.
Other Useful Sites
BBC Newsround - Best site for international current affairs in child speak
Oxfam Cool Planet - Excellent online resources based Oxfam’s work
UN Cyberschool bus - Great for UN MDGs and in lots of languages
Comment by Alex Savage
2 December 6, 2006, 4:07 pm o'clock |
Second conference
We had real problems with the group in Cape Town hearing me due to the poor connection and lack of bandwidth. However the chat feature in Skype really worked well.
The best part of the training for me was the Q and A session. We were very lucky that the audio worked fine for this bit. It was fascinating to find out that the teachers in Cape Town were facing similar problems with behaviour and an assessment driven curriculum.
The potential for enabling teachers around the world to chat with each other about education is huge. However, some people may complain that teachers talk about their job too much already!
Comment by Alex Savage
1 December 1, 2006, 10:05 am o'clock |
It was wonderful to meet such a friendly group of teachers this morning and to train them in such a new way.
Your microphone was recording what I was saying through the speakers. This meant that I was trying to speak, think about what to say next and hear what I had just said all at the same time!!
The virtual room worked really well. I was able to upload my presentations fine and the slides changed in good time. Surya mentioned something about loading the slides before playing them, but I didn’t understand this.
The group chat worked really well, especially when we lost audio. It is good to keep this window visible to spot when new messages are posted. Or could you get it to make a sound if it isn’t the top window (same style as MSN).
It would be good to try putting the teachers into 2 or 3 groups when we do the same/difference activity. One person from each group could then type their groups’ ideas.
Having another window for questions was also a great tool. This felt a bit like people putting their hand up during the presentation to ask a question. It would be great to use this more next time too.
Lastly, I think that we should have an agreed agenda for the session with rough times on it as making decisions during the presentation is very difficult. Here’s a suggested agenda for the next one.
7:15 connect and get norfolk presentation ready
7:25 Introduce everyone
7:30 Intro to Norfolk presentation and group record similarities/differences
7:40 Groups feedback using group chat the similarities/differences between Norfolk and South Africa
7:50 Global Ed presentation
8:00 Group discussion about presentation and post questions on question window. I will answer the questions as they come using group chat.
8:15 Feedback on what virtual training is like.
8:25 Any final questions
8:30 teachers post comment on www.notreblog.edublogs.org and/or www.learnblog.net/ict/