Letting the world into your classroom

Karen Sully,Year 3 Teacher and Languages Coordinator at Fowey Primary School.

Linking up with schools abroad using video conferencing is a fantastic way of bringing different countries and native speakers right into your classroom. If this sounds like a great opportunity but you think that making it a reality is just too daunting read on!  It really doesn’t need to be too difficult…

If the idea of video conferencing is new to you, a good place to start is the West Midlands Regional Broadband website. This website provides an easy to understand guide to the practicalities involved in setting up video conferencing equipment including valuable tips and a useful checklist.

When you are ready to get going, why not try your first video conference by booking a lesson provider – then you can sit back and enjoy the experience with your class while learning about the possibilities of this exciting medium of communication at the same time.

There are an increasing range of lesson providers such as The National Portrait Gallery, The National Maritime Museum, The Natural History Museum and most are free of charge – find out more by looking at the CLEO website as well as at Global Leap.

The next step is to find a partner school.  Global Leap has a database of schools both here and abroad with video conferencing capabilities or you can ask your Grid for Learning or local authority for advice. You could also sign up for an eTwinning project - and mention that you would like to use video conferencing, or consider using the British Council’s Global Gateway as another sourceway of finding a partner.

When you have found a partner school, start out by experimenting with teacher to teacher conferences. These are crucial for building a relationships with your video conferencing colleagues and for planning activities together.

You could then arrange for pupils to prepare simple presentations for each other on their school, town or region, before progressing to playing games and performing simple plays, songs and dances. You can then build up to short dialogues and conversations between children. These activities can be done with the whole class or in small groups and even one to one, with children having their own  'VC pals'. 

Children find video conferencing sessions very exciting and motivating. As a result, learning in your classroom will become increasingly pupil-led as children bubble over with ideas for what to do next with their friends in the partner school.

Take the plunge and get started with video conferencing – invite the world into your classroom!

Find out more:

Ideas for video conferencing in the Training Zone

• Card games
  A class of English children is playing a collaborative and enjoyable game of Pelmanism (Pairs) with their French partner class.
• Monsters
  Teachers from France and England have collaborated to produce a game similar to Guess Who? with pictures of monsters with various features and body parts.
• Preparing to make pancakes
  The class is practising the vocabulary and phrases needed to follow instructions to make crêpes. The instructions will be given by their partner school.