Eleven Interesting Ways* to use Web Conferencing in the Classroom *and tips This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License. Slim Shady.Slim Shady.

Top tips for Successful Web- Conferencing Add your tips here Have a test call in advance of the actual conference. Decide on one adult to 'chair' the conference. Take turns and try not to interupt. Try to keep your class quiet while others are speaking. Have a microphone that can be passed around or make it easy for kids to come up and speak to a microphone. Think about lighting and sound levels.

#1 - Connect to your class to the broadcast from an education event There are many free tools for organisers of, or participants at, an event to use to broadcast live from a session or 'the floor'. Flashmeeting, Glow Meet, and live stream on Twitcam can all be run using a basic webcam attached to a notebook, and a wired or wifi connection. If you know the educationist who is broadcasting, consider letting your class follow a session and encourage them to give you text-based questions for the presenters, which you can then send by one of a variety of methods, such as , Twitter or text

#2 - Have an expert visit your classroom. I teach band and choir and it is challenging and expensive to find specialists to visit the classroom. However, with video conferencing I am able to give that bassoon player a lesson. I can also have leading conductors listen in to rehearsals and offer tips directly to the students. I am sure the same technique can be used for any

#3 - Contact an author or a poet Use skype or videoconferencing to have a meeting with an author or a poet, to interact with the pupils and to share stories with. Some authors in the UK are willing to Skype into a class, as it doesn't involve travelling or much disruption. See this link for authors in the US who are willing to do this with classes: See this site to contact UK authors, where you could ask about the possibility of videoconferencing:

#4 - Use Skype to connect with other schools around the world - as part of a larger event or just to share book choices, differences in education etc. Encourage students to read aloud to peers in other countries.The world seems smaller now - make the most of it! Author events are expensive - share with schools you are in contact with by having a video conference. Bev Humphrey Libwithattitude

#5 - Use Video Conferencing to support transition work between primary and secondary schools. Setup a conference allowing the present year 6s to chat with last year's year 6s. An excellent way of putting worried minds at ease! Chris (See a video tutorial on FlashMeeting at this site)

#6 Santa-Chat Find a suitably jolly and willing volunteer. Volunteer sets themselves up with a webcam in front of an appropriately snowy projected background dressed as Santa. Conduct the web conference as if 'Live from Lapland'. Involve an elf (or elves) if possible. Ensure that Santa is well briefed in matters such as reindeer names and diet and knows how to deal with houses with only gas fires, caravans etc. (Santa needs to think on his feet!) If possible, situate Santa in an air conditioned room. (VCs can be sweaty and potentially stressful without the added difficulties of full beard and suit). Include plenty of Christmas joy! Dughall Image courtesy of 'Powi' through Flickr Creative Commons Attribution'Powi'

#7 Story telling Find a willing volunteer with story reading or telling experience. Discuss in advance the story to be shared. Conduct the conference - the story reader/teller could be in costume and could share illustrations if a book is used. Use the conference as a stimulus for some drama and/or other cross curricular work. Hold another conference and allow the children to share their drama, tell their stories (etc) back to the story teller. Dughall

#8 Web conference as part of a 'book day' In conjunction with other schools, hold a conference at the beginning of the day for children to share their favourite books and stories. Through the day, use other collaborative tools such as and online forums to create collaborative stories. Hold another conference mid-way through and/or at the end of the day to share and see how things are going. Dughall

#9 Have a conference with a museum You can have a free VC with a miner from the National Coal Mining Museum The National Space Centre also provides a VC service that can be part of a 'Space Mission' project. / Dughall

#10 Have a conference with a historical character. Find a willing volunteer. Prepare questions for the character with children. Share the questions with the character. Volunteer appears in role on VC and answers the questions. Dughall

#11 Have a conference as part of a role-play day. See #9 for a 'Space Mission' idea. A similar thing can be done as part of a day in which students are in a 'Newsroom'. Students are given roles such as: photographers/video, web-team, newspaper, editor, sound recorders etc. The day is based on 'A Day at the (Olympic) Games'. The day starts with a VC from 'The Man at the Games'. He outlines their roles and the broad outline for the day issuing tasks via a learning platform. Through the day, the students conduct interviews with sports stars, take video of events, produce a website and a newspaper. Beware! Periodically, 'The Man at the Games' will interupt procedings via VC with breaking news such as drugs scandals, results of events, fog interupting a football match etc! Dughall

If you would like to: Contribute your ideas and tips to the presentation. Let me know how you have used the resource. Get in touch. Thanks for helping Tom Barrett Tom Barrett Image: ‘Sharing‘Sharing If you add a tip (or even if you don't) please tweet about it and the link so more people can contribute. I have created a page for all of the Interesting Ways presentations on my blog.on my blog The whole family in one place :-) Have you seen Maths Maps yet?Maths Maps