The K12 Online conference was probably one of the best learning experiences for me in 2007 along side NECC 2007. It literally blew me away the amount, quality, and value of the content that I was able to freely access AND download to my iPod.

For this task, I chose to watch was “Video-Conferencing It’s Easy, Free and Powerful” by Brian Crosby. This is something that I want to integrate into our schools, so I thought it would make for a great topic to focus on for this blog post.

Brian opens up by showing some examples of effective uses of video conferencing, the first of which blew me away. He showed a video of his own class and how they used video conferencing to bring a student with a serious illness into their classroom. She was able to participate and learn from home, and as he pointed out, the students in the classroom learned much about the technology. He further expanded this experience for his students through their classroom blogs.

Video conferencing can bring an “expert” into the classroom where in most circumstances wouldn’t be possible. These conferences can be recorded so students can refer back to them at later date if they have questions. He points out that students produced questions for the speaker and then blogged about the “visit”, again further extending the experience.

Another benefit of video conferencing is that students can gain experience with public speaking and expressing themselves orally. For his students who are behind in their oral expression skills, the video conferencing becomes a big motivator for them to learn the vocabulary they’ll need and how to pronounce it. Furthermore, he uses podcasts of the conferencing as an assessment tool.

Video conferencing provides incredible opportunities for collaboration between classes across the country and even further abroad. I think this aspect of video conferencing is what I’d like to focus on in my district. Teachers (no offense – I’ve been like this myself) tend to work in isolation. Collaboration among students in the classroom is valuable, but connecting and collaborating with students outside of their classroom provides students with real-world, authentic learning experiences and to acquire collaborative skills that can’t be had within the confines of a traditional classroom.

Brian’s tag line is “learning is messy,” which is so true. Any time you attempt something new, especially if it is “outside the box” or outside of one’s comfort zone, there are liable to be bumps along the road or perhaps a pot hole or two, but it’s all worth it in the end.

I will not only archive this session for myself, but I will share it with teachers who might be interested so they can see for themselves the benefits that can be reaped.