St Louis High School

Education is changing all the time, and schools, colleges and universities now have to adapt to these by actively participating in new ways of teaching. Video conferencing is a valuable and creative tool used to expand the use of tele-education and distance learning. By using video conferencing equipment, students are able to engage in interactive teaching on almost all subjects and topics.

Video conferencing can be used for many things within the classroom. Here are just a few uses:

Virtual Field Trips – Any school excursion can be a stressful, complicated, not to mention expensive, task. However with a virtual field trip, teachers no longer have to deal with boisterous, out of control behaviour on public transport or the fear that one of the students has disappeared. By using video conferencing, tours of zoos, museums and historic landmarks can be made without having to leave the classroom; a cost minimising yet effective way to boost student learning.

Career Day – Getting a professional to come in and give a talk to students can be a difficult chore. Many lawyers, doctors and other industry experts will struggle to find time in their busy schedule to plan and attend a speaking event. However, with video conferencing, these professionals can remain at their own desks whilst helping to educate many students who will also catch a glimpse of their place of work. This can also be useful when arranging guest lecturers.

Group Collaboration – Video conferencing allows for the ability to connect one classroom with another that is thousands of miles away. Students on both sides of the world can exchange ideas and opinions and collaborate with each other on important assignments and projects. This can be particularly advantageous for those who wish to learn more about the difference in culture and weather between two different areas.

Teacher Only Meetings – Restricting the use of video conferencing to students is not necessary. Teachers can also video call each other, from anywhere in the world, to discuss curriculums, teaching plans and future collaborations. By engaging in this type of communication, teachers can offer guest lectures to other schools or arrange a plan for how to better serve the students of both schools, colleges or universities.

Language Lessons – Any teacher is aware of the struggles involved in teaching and learning a new language. What better way to encourage students to actively engage in a completely new diction than to converse with others who speak the native language. This will not only help their learning but also make it a more fun and personal experience.

There are many other ways to incorporate video technology and conferencing techniques into a classroom and many schools, colleges and universities are increasingly becoming aware of its advantages. Now, most universities offer tele-education for students who are studying from rural areas who are completing study in a field where the university is lacking in expertise.

Persistent absence amongst primary and secondary school children is a worrying problem and ministers are concerned that truanting children who are absent for substantial parts of their education, will fall behind and struggle to catch up. Absenteeism by some pupils is also disruptive for the progress of others.

In an effort to improve school attendance and reduce the truancy figures in accordance with stringent targets, the Government has invested millions on installing electronic attendance registers into schools throughout the UK.  These registers record the attendance of whole schools, both morning and afternoon sessions, and the information not only fulfils the school legal requirements for recording attendance, but provides data that can be used throughout the academic year so that records of absence can be monitored and analysed effectively.

Here are 4 benefits of using electronic attendance registers:

• Attendance details are available almost immediately, and to everyone who needs the information as opposed to the old method of the teacher recording attendance records manually into a register which is not visible to any other members of staff.  Once registration has been completed the teacher just presses ‘send’ and gets on with teaching whilst the attendance details become instantly available to whoever needs to see them thereby allowing all absences to be followed up in an effort to change the attendance culture in general.
• Analysing the attendance data is quicker and easier and it is possible to spot trends for absenteeism – whether it’s more apparent amongst girls or boys, whether a particular age group is more inclined to miss school, whether it’s a particular day of the week (which may coincide with a particular school activity).  All the information recorded on these registers is useful ammunition in finding patterns and generating action in the battle to minimise absenteeism.
• There are many advantages of electronic attendance registers over the traditional paper type – mainly the risk of the register being stolen or lost is removed, and the time-saving factor associated with preparing absentee records perhaps being the most obvious.
• The registers aren’t just used for monitoring attendance, they can also be used to collate and analyse all manner of information in order to evaluate different educational activities and for preparing reports on effort and achievement grades.

Installation and set-up of the electronic attendance register software for teachers is quick and simple.  There are a number of different products on the market that work on Mac and Windows systems.  Importing existing attendance records held in an Excel spreadsheet is quick and easy to do. Huge discounts on software for teachers is available online from reputable retailers.