Themes

Magic formulas

We are sorry but there are not magic formulas or, what is better, every teacher must discover their owns using the ingredients shown before applying his personal style and a personal touch that will improve the results without any doubt.

Even though we cannot offer magic formulas here you have some ideas about different ways of approaching, preparing and developing an educational videoconference. We hope they will be useful:

A- EXPERT GUEST
It is an easy way of approach to a videoconference. It consists in inviting a person who is an specialist in the topic we want to work on. As it is not easy for the group to travel where that person is we meet him via videoconference.

It won’t be difficult to find museums, zoos, publishers, universities, scientific, politic or educational institutions… that would offer some of their professionals to teach your group a lesson. Here you have some links to contact them.

In this kind of lesson it is important to get a non passive attitude from your students: you must make with them a previous study of the topic, make them prepare their questions or encourage them to make themselves a brief presentation of a related topic.

A practical example:
Via Global-Leap, as described in this web, we contacted London Science Museum. John Bull is an actor who works there. One of the characters that he performs is the astronaut Gene Cernan. A press conference with the famous astronaut was simulated: he told us about his experiences as pilot in Apolo 10 in 1969 and his late travels to space and Moon. The students were the journalists. They had to prepare the questions and, after the videoconference they wrote an article.

A local TV channel made a report about this videoconference. Here you have a video.

B- TEACHER EXCHANGE
Another easy way to organise a videoconference is to plan a teacher exchange. If we contact other schools or if we have already had a videoconference together, we can invite one of their teachers for teaching a lesson to our students (and viceversa).

This is a really interesting option in case the other school teaches our mother language. This way we can get a teacher who knows the language we are teaching to our pupils.

The students improve their listening comprehension because they are listening a different accent. We can enrich the experience including some of the “magic ingredients” we talked about before.

A practical example:
Via a forum about videoconference we contacted Rober Louison, an teacher of Spanish a a School in Bordeaux (France) (http://espagnol.ac-bordeaux.fr/espa.htm).

We made two videoconferences with students and then we organised a lesson where we exchanged teachers.
Both were similar lessons: we started playing “Guess who”. The students thought about a well known character and the teacher had to ask questions in order to guess who the person was. Then we did it the other way around.

Later we did another game: our teacher said a gentilitious and they had to locate on a map the city he was talking about using the clues given by him.

C- SHARING CLASSES
In this case we have to make a videoconference between two classes from schools from different countries and the students must lead the session and participate in the preparation.

There could be three different approaches:

1.- A first videoconference: knowing each other
For instance, a first videoconference could be this way: introducing themselves from a geographical point of view: region and country.

A practical example:
Previously the topics must be decided and the students have to prepare them. A possible scheme:

• Presentation of School A: 10 min.
• Presentation of School B: 10 min.

The presentations must include audiovisual materials (a short video or some photographs of the school or recent events at school). At the end of the presentations School A asks three easy questions to School B and viceversa. This way we can get a relaxed atmosphere and students are encouraged to pay more attention.

• Presentation of the Region of School A 10 min.
• Presentation of the Region of School B 10 min.

The presentation must include information about the geography, the economy, the culture and traditions of the region. Again it is worthy to use audiovisual resources. At the end of the presentations School A asks three easy questions to School B and viceversa.

• Presentation of the Country of School A 10 min.
• Presentation of the Country of School B 10 min.

In addition to the previous aspects a reference about the politics, the languages of regions, sports, music…

 

2.- Presentation of a curricular topic
In this case we are going to talk a bout a topic from a specific school subject. Each of the groups will prepare a part of the presentation of the topic using audiovisual materials if possible. We will make the best of the videoconference if each group works on the contents of the topic that are more suitable for them. For instance, if the classes are from different countries it will be better if they talk from the point of view of their regions, continents, etc.).

In this type of videoconferences the previous work, making a public rehearsal, answering the questions from their own classmates… it is really necessary. This way the videoconference is the main motivation for students’ work.

There are several methodologies in order to do the previous work. The one based on the scientific investigation can help to increase the participation of the students. You can propose the topic so that the students have to think of different hypothesis in order to reach the most suitable explanation for the question.

A practical example:
We contacted Anja Moilanen on internet. She is a teacher at a school in Finland called Haukipudas. We developed a videoconference in English, a second language for both schools. Our students were from 3rd ESO (Secondary) and the students from Finland were from 1st Bachillerato (16-17 years old). Previously we established the points we were interested in about the seas we were studying: Mediterranean and Baltic. The questions were referred to Geography, Weather, Pollution, Fishing…

Every 10 minutes the interlocutor was changed. And the students were taking part in order. Everyone asked or answered a question.

The students from Finland made really good presentations with Power Points, photographs, video… We didn’t know how to manage with these utilities with our equipment and we didn’t have an overhead projector and that’s why our exposition was a little bit poorer.

 

3.- Opinions, points of view exchange
You can organise a videoconference about a more complex topic and the classes would exchange their particular points of view and opinions reflecting their cultural and social reality. Sharing different points of view about international and worldwide problems or events (starvation, poverty, solidarity, wars, terrorism…) can enrich the personal experiences of our pupils making them know and respect other opinions. A good approach for this type of videoconference is to invite the pupils to give solutions to worldwide problems.

In this case it is also necessary a detailed previous preparation so that the students are leaded to think deeply about the topic choosing their own arguments and learning to be respectful with others’ opinions. It would be useful to remember some basic vocabulary about the specific topic if the videoconference is in a second language

A practical example:
Via a forum we contacted Michael Cunningham, a teacher at Del Valle High School in Austin (Texas – USA). Terrorism was the Tepic.

Pupils from 1st Bachillerato. Subject: Phylosophy . Our students prepared a detailed explanation about the history, characteristics and organization of the terrotist grouo called ETA. Later we asked some questions about how people from USA live after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. During the exposition and the questions we realised we had a different idea about both situations.

 

4.- Collaborative work
A videoconference allows us to work on a common topic, both classes working together: a picture exposition, writing a story, developing a common project in which each school has a different role.

A practical example:
We can design a web page about a topic in which each class provides different contents.

 

5.- Games and contests
We mustn’t forget that one of the magical ingredients is to be able to use second languages in real contexts. That’s why a videoconference in which its aim is just to speak in a second language is also effective. So it is not needed to have an topic but it is enough to play a game or a contest between classes.

A practical example:
We had a videoconference with a School from Bordeaux (France). They study Spanish and our students study French. We meet to play some games together.

This way our students have to use the language naturally. It was really interesting because the pupils spoke without feeling embarrassed.