Project of the Year at the AV Awards 2017.
often with 4 or more schools connecting at once to politicians, authors, museums and
scientists all over the globe. Schools have partner schools in France, New York, Croatia,
Hong Kong, China, Brazil and Canada all through live video and audio connectivity.
Teachers have held teacher professional development sessions with the Geography
association in York and connected parents from local schools together to meet Met
Police officers about online safety for their children at home. All of this has been
achieved over secure and high quality video conference technology. Schools in
Redbridge are bringing the wider community and the rest of the world into their
classrooms on a regular, weekly basis through using technology. As a network of
schools, they have travelled around the equator 100 times from June 2016 – May 2017 in
virtual miles.
Five schools out of 25 in the network have won national awards for their use of video
conference. Oaks Park High School, Ilford County High school, Churchfields Junior
School, Mayespark Primary school and Highlands Primary school are national award
winners.
The ROI calculated over one academic year (September 2015 – July 2016) based on 25
schools in Redbridge purchasing and installing VC equipment (cost to school) and
participating in virtual visits over 1 year (cost savings made through sharing costs of
speakers, content providers, virtual museum visits, travel costs, saved cover costs for
teachers): 150K /200k x100 = 75% ROI as a group of 25 schools.
Councillor Keith Prince, Redbridge. Assembly Member, Greater London Authority
(GLA) quotes:
I am proud that our schools application for this award has been highly recognised,
because as a Councillor for Redbridge & Assembly Member for Havering & Redbridge, I
have personally participated in multipoint video conferences with over 15 schools across
my Borough. It was amazing to see so many pupils engaged and connected from
different schools who would not have otherwise have spoken or met each other to talk
about a common topic. We discussed transport across London and the students had an
opportunity to speak directly to their councillor and each other about issues they faced
travelling to school. Most importantly the breadth of subjects pupils can enjoy and the
financial savings that can be made by each school, through using VC enables pupils to
have outstanding and unique life experiences, ones they will not forget in years to come”
Kulvarn Atwall, Head Teacher, Highlands Primary School, quotes:
We would wholeheartedly recommend that all schools engage in video conferencing.
Over the past five years, video conferencing has enabled us to enrich our creative
curriculum with activities, interviews, and learning conversations that would just not have
been possible otherwise. All our staff use video conferencing to enable our children to
have further creative learning experiences. The technology is an excellent too to enable
our children to widen their skills, knowledge and understanding.
26th October 2017
Jeff Hawthorne, Former Assistant Head Teacher, Oaks Park High School quotes:
I would strongly recommend the work done by the Redbridge VC network. It has
enabled the expertise gained by different schools to be shared across the borough and
as a result many new schools have joined the group who would otherwise not have got
involved. It is a great way of breaking down barriers in using what is still a relatively new
technology. It has also strengthened cross phase links between primaries and
secondaries, particularly when they share video conferences with authors.
The impact over the past five years has been tremendous and beyond measure. So
many staff and students have had life broadening experiences they would never have
had otherwise. How else would you know that at the Antarctic research centre the
Russians are always first in the showers? How else could they convey the real love for
fish and chips to enthusiastic students in Beijing? How else could students from
disadvantaged backgrounds find out first-hand about so many different parts of the world
and learn from university professors how they could make a difference? Or come second
in a Maths competition with Chinese students? Even the former student at the
supermarket till remembers her first video conference with a school in central China.
Raj Moran, Parent, Loxford School, Redbridge, quotes:
I was a parent attending a live video link up for the release of some endangered
orangutans in Borneo and the RVCDG organised this for some four schools including my
son and daughters school which I was present at called Loxford School of Science and
Technology. The quality of connection was amazing and the children learnt so much from
the experts sitting in the Borneo jungle.
More information about AVMag and AVAwards:
http://www.avawards.com/
For more information about the Redbridge Video Conference Learning network:
http://www.rnlcom.com/the-networks/video-conferencing/
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