As a small village primary school in Cumbria, High Hesket CE School constantly looks for enrichment opportunities to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Using video conferencing equipment the children have benefitted from lessons with professionals locally, nationally and internationally. This has allowed them access to artefacts and materials not available on their door step.
The year 5 children were studying the Native American Indians and had organised a video conference session with The Bob Bullock Museum in Texas, USA. Although this was not the first VC session they had been involved in, the question of “but how does that work?” was asked. Armed with this question the children then decided they wanted to know more about how it was possible for them to link up with a museum in the United States of America. After a brief description from staff at the school discussing bridges, internet and a few ‘..hmmm not so sure about that one’, it was decided to make contact with JANET to see if they’d be willing to be interviewed by some of the children; the intention being to provide a more meaningful insight into how the wonderful world of video conferencing works.
Kindly the JANET staff organised a one hour VC session with the year 5 class and some budding reporters from our Radiowaves group. Boasting a huge list of questions ranging from ‘how secure is the connection?’ to ‘what was the most obscure VC session they’d been involved in?’, the session began. Huge thanks must be extended to Shafiq Latif, who was the technical person being interviewed. The session was highly informative and all technical vocabulary explained in child-friendly language. The class were fascinated to see the technicians at work and speak one to one about how their pending session with the museum was to be linked up. This was made all the more relevant when we completed a test call with the museum the following day. The children were then able to see more clearly how the whole process worked.
Responses from the children in the class regarding the interview differed. This highly reflected the personalities in the class. The children took what they could from the session with some now more knowledgeable than the staff and wanting to work in Edinburgh for JANET, to others who now understand there is an ‘in between man’.
Responses from the pupils included:
“I didn’t realise they use video conference sessions in courts”
“That was cool Miss, they get to go out for their lunch” (referring to office workers over the lunch hour)
“So… you can do this wherever you get the internet?”
“I really enjoyed that even though I didn’t understand it all”
“I want to hook up with The Great Barrier Reef next”
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