Videoconferencing is becoming increasingly widespread in the education sector. Michael Magers, who’s in charge of a number of charter schools (independently-run schools which receive government funding) has successfully rolled out the technology at his schools in Texas and Arkansas. The aim of the initiative is to facilitate communication, offer a collaborative learning experience and cut costs. He explained the project to EdTech Magazine.
Michael Magers claims satisfaction levels in schools “probably went up 300 percent.” In charge of thirteen charter schools spread over 1,000 kilometres, he decided to install videoconferencing equipment to reduce travelling without spending too much, thanks to a cloud ecosystem and SaaS services.
“About 10 years ago, video conferencing used to be an expensive proposition,” says the director of distance and learning technologies. This is no longer the case: Magers says he’s reduced his travel budget by 40%, which in turn has helped reduce training costs:
“We were trying to do a brain dump of 12 months of training in a day and a half. It was very expensive and it wasn’t working well. Adoption of the ConferenceCams has given us the ability to do training anytime!”
how technology can facilitate knowledge-sharing
Videoconferencing also encourages collaboration: if principals have any questions or problems, they can ask for help from their peers. It’s designed to be fast and easy-to-use, even for novices.
Students meanwhile can also communicate with classes from other schools and share the things they’ve learned. Jim Flanagan, Chief Learning Services Officer of ISTE, (International Society for Technology in Education) explains:
“[Video conferencing] has overwhelming benefits. It helps to remove the walls between students, teachers, and communities. Every educator should be looking at leveraging it to enable their students to be more connected.”
using digital to build new education projects
Videoconferencing is helping to broaden the spectrum of education methods. In the future, Michael Magers hopes to get scientist or museum curators to address classes.
It can also change the student-teacher relationship. As Flanagan explains: “These kids are digital natives and they can bring a lot of insights. You can let the kids help guide you on how to optimize this and design lessons.”
-> Read the full article on EdTech Magazine
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-> The University of Rouen goes digital
-> Didier Siran: with digital, students are happy to come to school