Video Conferencing and Technology in the classroom

Okay, so today I am supposed to write about my response to video conferencing in the classroom. We had this awesome video conference with the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. One of the things he had to say was not to be afraid of technology because you’re scared it won’t work, he said to assume the technology will work. I assume my laptop will work.

Last night, at around 10pm, I remembered that I had this assignment due today. I thought, “oh well, I guess I’ll do it right now” and started watching a cool video with George Lucas that talked about using video and images in the classroom instead of just relying on the written word, because students are bombarded with video, images and video games outside of school and they need to learn how to view it critically, everything from video games, to the evening news, to newspapers need to be viewed critically and students need to be taught how to do this.

Anyway, about 5 minutes into the video, my laptop overheated and shut down, and I couldn’t get it to turn back on. So I folded laundry for awhile, then came back to it at 11pm and still couldn’t get it to work, so now I am up, trying to do my assignment and get my kids ready for the day at the same time, yay.

So it’s all good to assume the technology will work and it is important to make use of video conferencing and other technologies in the classroom, but you need to make sure you have a backup plan, on the off chance the technology doesn’t work. I would have just gone to the University to work on my stuff if my husband wasn’t working nights and started work at 9pm. Thankfully he should be home soon to help get the boys ready, but still annoying overall that my laptop decided not to work when I needed it to.

This time I decided to be smart and post my blog every couple of minutes as I write it so that I know there will at least be something to mark should the technology decide to hate me again this morning :)

Awesome, looks like I’m not the only one with a technology problem, I tried to go to the VC Alberta site, but when I clicked on the link, it was a Host Gator page that says, “ERROR 404 - PAGE NOT FOUND”. The same thing happens with all four links under Video Conferencing Resources that have to do with VC Alberta. So thanks to my previous education on web pages and URL’s, I went to the domain, and found it is still there, they must have just moved things around on their site so the URL’s in the link’s from last year don’t work.

Our Video Conference with The Tyrell Museum introduced us to the CILC website, but VC Alberta introduces us to two more sites with content providers (those you can do a video conference with) however, the link to the Canadian one doesn't work, and the other site is under construction. Again, yay for technology.

I was super excited to be able to try out a video conference with my grade 5 class in the next few weeks, but then I checked out the prices, and at around $150-$250, I don’t think they will be something I can incorporate as a student teacher, at least not with a content provider.

I might be able to find another school to do video conferencing with, which I think would be especially cool for the Weather Watch unit I will be teaching. I think it would be cool to video conference with a class in a different part of the world and we can exchange weather information once a week or something (I have to talk to my T.A. about it first though...)

Okay, I need to be done now, because my boys aren't ready yet, my husband isn't home yet, and we have to leave in about 20 min. I didn't get through all the links, but I am definitely excited about all the possibilities there are to learn with video conferencing, and all the multimedia that can be involved with that. Yay for Video Conferencing! :D