Earlier this year we had one of the coolest VCs that we’ve done. It was very simple really, but it was who attended that made it cool!
Her Royal Highness, The Princess Anne, was attending a school opening at one of our collaborative partner schools in Wales.
The school officials wanted Princess Anne to see a videoconference IN SESSION while she was touring the school!
So our class worked with one of their classes to prepare a very simple VC:
- Introductions on both sides
- Info about our communities
- Some question and answer time
We had to submit info about our school for security to check us out ahead of time.
Our students prepared a special greeting for Her Royal Highness.
Think about it!
- How do you promote videoconferencing in your school?
- Have your administrators seen a successful, powerful engaging videoconference?
- Have you invited parents to watch a videoconference in your school?
- Who else might be interested and therefore willing to support (financially and otherwise) the videoconference program in your school?
I was very impressed with our colleagues in Wales who found videoconferencing important enough to show off to an important visitor!
I have sat in on a number of open houses for schools with videoconferencing – often from another location and reaching out to parents walking in or by the videoconferencing room! It is indeed an effective way to make parents aware of the technology and to get them asking questions like, ‘how can this technology help MY student?’
When parents begin to ask those questions, administrative support increases!
We never engaged a real princess, however!