Good Practice - Case Study

Watling View School

School No 882

Video Conferencing

Watling View School in St Albans is using video conferencing to allow its learners to work collaboratively with other SLD learners at Lakeside School.

The Project

Chris Carter helped to set up the project and recommends it as a way of developing many skills for SLD learners as well as those in mainstream schools. They use video conferencing as a follow up to their work experience, sharing their thoughts and feelings. The teachers have found that the youngsters are often more willing to open up and talk confidently with their peers over the video link than they are face to face.

They also work on written projects together, using the video conferences to check on progress and share ideas. They create illustrated booklets about life as a sixth former. Once a month, the learners get together for a social.

The video conferencing activities are written into the schemes of work and form a part of the year’s experience for each cohort passing through the school.

The video conferencing is mainly about how it helps the learning and personal development of the children. However, the technology is also moving on. The early video conferences were over IP video phones. Now the schools are moving towards one to one conferences over IP. These offer better quality and give the learners more control over the cameras.

As is the case in other examples of using video conferencing, the youngsters have built up strong relationships with their counterparts. This has happened much more quickly than would have been the case using email or phone calls with the occasional social get-together.