1 Show and tell
Let students talk about their mobile phones, and what they use them for. Many of us develop serious emotional attachments to our phones, and love showing or telling others about them. See this lesson planintroducing the topic of mobile phones from Jo Budden.

Students throughout the United States are using video conferencing technology to take classes remotely, connect with students all over the world and learn from teachers and resources virtually. Educators and schools are embracing the technology because it improves coursework in current events, historic milestones, economic trends and cultural norms. Students can interact in discussions, collaborate on projects and investigate further on a variety of topics.

In an interview with Education Week, Lisa Nielsen, author of Teaching Generation Text, said video conferencing bridges cultural gaps for students and brings many subjects to life.

“In the future, I think there are going to be big changes in the way countries are defined, because people around the world are going to be connecting and bonding with each other in a way that doesn’t involve places, but their ideas and passions,” Nielsen said.

For example, more than 100 culinary arts students in Western New York high schools are going to be taking lessons from some of the nation’s top chefs using video conferencing. In collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America, ProStart and the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES, the high schools will connect students to culinary experts who will lead teams in preparing their specialty dishes, Durkin, New York, news source Observe Today reported. 

Students at William Tennent High School in Upper Southampton, Pennsylvania, are participating in a educational simulation that utilizes video conferencing solutions to let students step into the shoes of medical researchers and doctors. Using video conferencing technology, the students are given a medical problem they must solve, and are then asked to present their theories to a medical professional located in another state.

The simulation is part of the students’ anatomy and physiology class, and the technology connects juniors and seniors with an educator at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. According to the Philly Burbs, each student in the program is assigned one of the following roles: case manager, medical and surgical specialist, diagnostic specialist and clerical specialist.

Through these roles, students must determine diagnoses and present them via video conferencing. Once a diagnosis is approved, the team must work together to develop a treatment of care order, the source reported.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business are using video conferencing technology to conduct admissions interviews without being present at the meeting. Not only does using video conferencing solutions reduce travel time and expenses, but it allows the admissions office to make sure all interviews are run in a uniform fashion, the Wall Street Journal’s FINS reported. 

1. Collaborative.
If Web 2.0 has taught us anything, it’s to play nicely together. Sure, there are times for buckling down and working alone, but in most cases, the collaborative process boosts everyone’s game. In progressives schools across the country, students and teachers are learning from each other in all sorts of ways.a powerful tool in education. Students are collaborating with each other through social media to learn more about specific subjects, to test out ideas and theories, to learn facts, and to gauge each others’ opinions.

They’re finding each other on their own kid-specific social networking sites, on their blogs, on schools’ sites, and of course on Facebook and Twitter. Though Facebook is still a red herring when it comes to school policy (Massachusetts districts have threatened to fire teachers who friend students on Facebook), and educators are split over whether tweeting in class is disruptive or helpful, the sites continue to be pervasive in both higher-ed and K-12. Educators know they can grab students’ attention where they naturally live outside the classroom — the online social world, whether or not it’s Facebook.

“If you’re teaching something that’s usually bland and you insert a simple tool that allows students to connect with each other or their peers in other schools and countries whenever they want, you just see kids’ faces light up,” says veteran educator Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy.
Educators Unite

But social networking is not just for teens, as evidenced by the 500 million-plus Facebook users. Teachers are putting their collective smarts together to find the best ways of engaging students, using social media to teach everything from reading and writing to Shakespeare. Educators are alsousing social media to connect with each other, share ideas, and find the best teaching tools and practices. Sites like Classroom 2.0, Teacher Tube, PBS Teachers, Edmodo, Edutopia, and countless others are lit up with teachers sharing success stories, asking for advice, and providing support. Collaboration is happening offline, too, at schools where educators team-teach and organize professional learning networks.

Collaboration is also finding its way into curriculum with open-source sites to which everyone is encouraged to contribute. Working together is woven into the fabric of project-based schools like the Science Leadership in Academy, which focuses on science, technology, math and entrepreneurship, and Napa New Tech High High. The idea is simple: by working together, students figure out how to find common ground, balance each others’ skills, communicate clearly, and be accountable to the team for their part of the project. Just as they would in the work place.
Sharing information and connecting with others — whether we know them personally or not — has proven to be

Teachers use this technique in different ways. Some assign interactive quizzes and online collaborative projects at home, some use computer time in class, some assign watching videos and lectures at home and use class time for hands-on projects, some place most of the curriculum online and work one-one-one with students in class. However they choose to do it, the best examples of blended learning programs involve teachers who use home-time online discussions and collaborative projects as fuel for content and discussion in the classroom.

This movement is growing quickly — the Department of Education plans to spend $30 million over the next three years to bring blended learning to 400 schools around the country.

What these trends mean:

Given the growing momentum of these trends, what does it mean for students, teachers, schools, and the education community at large?

• Teachers’ and students’ relationships are changing, as they learn from each other.
• Teachers roles are shifting from owners of information to facilitators and guides to learning.
• Educators are finding different ways of using class time.
• Introverted students are finding ways to participate in class discussions online.
• Different approaches to teaching are being used in the same class.
• Students are getting a global perspective.

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Students at Lakeland High School in Yorktown, New York, recently got a chance to speak with six veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and the presentation was shared via video conferencing equipment to other schools throughout the Hudson Valley.

One of the greatest tools of the Internet is the opportunity it provides for people to learn about anything they are curious about. As long as a user has the patience to search through the “facts,” the material available is endless.

While the Internet is filled with infinite information, when it comes to online education, there is a lack of personal interaction online. However, personal interactions can make all the difference in how well a person learns. Before the advent of the Internet, people who wanted the best education had to go out of their way to find it and, generally, pay a lot for it. So if the student couldn’t afford the trip, he or she would lose out on a great experience. Thanks to Web-based video conferencing, all this is changing.

Video conferencing is cost efficient, practical, and very easy to set up. The education market is just one of many markets where video conferencing can add value to both people and businesses.

Video technology has permeated all walks of professional life, and education is no exception. Students come armed with video-capable mobile devices and video editing tools besting many A/V departments of the last decade. There is hardly a publication that does not mention the use of Skype video among students and faculty. Such prominent use of video technology begs the question: When will audio/video (AV) and information technology (IT) departments catch up? Answer: 2012. The widespread availability of low-cost video peripherals and on-demand cloud computing technology is poised to bring video conferencing to educational institutions of all sizes.

It’s the New Way of Teaching…and Learning. 

Whether it’s teachers collaborating on a curriculum or administrators meeting with state officials, educators report that video conferencing has successfully addressed a host of educational, managerial and student challenges.

Educators report at least 10 key areas where video conferencing has positively impacted their ability to teach, students’ ability to learn and the organization’s ability to do more with less.

Specifically, video conferencing has helped educational institutions to:
1. Leverage existing faculty to meet the needs of larger student bodies. Video conferencing has allowed schools at all levels to offer students access to more courses by sharing highly qualified faculty via distance learning. Students are also able to participate in concurrent enrollment and dual-credit classes via video without missing essential classroom interaction, often an absent component of online courses.

Education and training departments are faced with shrinking budgets and resource limitations. Onsite training is often costly, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. And, computer-based, self-paced courses don’t provide the interaction required to maintain interest. Education and training groups need a solution that increases training effectiveness, yet minimizes the impact on financial and physical resources. For all these Video Conferencing Solutions is the answer. Educational video conferencing allows you to conduct remote classes worldwide, with the trainer being at only one location.

Video Conferencing In Education

At the basic level, video conferencing in education connects remote students to teachers. And on another higher level, it also leads students on visual tours, brings far-away experts on your desktop and allows kids and students to discuss their subject skills with their age group friends from other countries. All such activities might have been difficult in the previous days due to travel costs, time constraints and stress but now classroom video conferencing can offer a best solution. Video conferencing technology for schools can also create an interest and enthusiasm for learning which the traditional teaching methods cannot.

Recently some educational departments have started taking advantage of this technology to support learning and teaching. Video Conferencing Solutions can help us by providing facilities like giving instructions and providing distant learners with a group of resources and access to content providers, teachers, librarians, students and more. 

Not only that but many more teachers are opting Educational Video conferencing as a method of improved communication and instruction. Many schools abroad are using video conferencing to connect with one another and produce large volumes of video and text data to teachers and students. other than students & teachers the one who also gets benefited from this technology includes librarians who can use video conferencing to develop their strategies, provide resources and improve the quality of their service and delivery.