Themes

A videoconference is a system made of cameras, screens, microphones that allow people being in different places to watch and speak among them in real time. This way we the walls of classrooms disappear and we can take our pupils to remote places, contact to prestigious guests, share a lesson with students from other countries…
But a videoconference is not educational by itself It is the teacher who has to plan and help to lead an educational action.

Magic ingredients

The videoconference offers new possibilities for education that are not easily reachable with other traditional sources. When we are planning a videoconference we must try to take advantage of all these new possibilities. In the following lines we show some of these elements and you must try to include them in your videoconference. This way we will design a different and, in some way, magic activity.

1. Distance: Even if we can meet people from the next door classroom or from a school from the same city or region, try to contact with people to whom it would be impossible to do it under other circumstances.
2. Interactivity: this is the best characteristic of the videoconference. A videoconference shouldn’t be just a transmission of context by an expert (this is something you can do with a videotape). A videoconference is effective when there is an interaction among the participants.
3. Using second and third languages in real contexts: isn’t it a great opportunity to contact with other countries with different languages so that we have to speak a third common language (English, French, Basque) in order to communicate? This would be an ideal situation but it isn’t essential because you could get other educational benefits.
4. Using the new technologies to develop educational experiences impossible to get with other sources. The aim is to find a good use for the New Technologies of Information and Communication. Through a videoconference we can sher Power Point presentations, videos or a digital board. Try to make your students prepare their participation using some of these elements.
5. Promote the intercultural knowledge: Use the videoconference to make your students know other cultures and different ways of thinking. Try to include some minutes for cultural exchanges like a presentation of the school or the region we live and opinions about international issues.
6. Students must have the leading role of the teaching and their learning. Encourage the participation of your students in the preparation of each session. This way you will increase their personal motivation. Some advices: a previous study of the topic of the videoconference, preparation of questions, students should explain the topic to the other group (not the teacher), students must use photographs, Power Point presentations, videos… This way you will increase their motivation during the previous weeks and you will get the most out of your students learning.
7. Interdisciplinarity: It is not so difficult to design a lesson so that different subjects are involved in its preparation. The same topic can be studied from different points of view offering different versions that make the study deeper.