[senco-forum] SEN and video conferencing

Has anyone any thoughts on how this could be used?<

> Has anyone any thoughts on how this could be used?<

A good question. It's a solution chasing round in search of a problem. Such
questions tend to arise after the senior management has spent all the funds
on a flashy new toy they think will be popular with new parents.
Unfortunately, they won't have budgeted for training, or even release time,
for the staff who have to operate it. They will have been mesmerised by the
salesman's talk of "space age technologies", shown photographs of glamorous
marketing people in luxury Hong Kong hotel accommodation reporting back to
UK head office by videoconferencing. There will have been no mention of time
differences and technical problems.

It's no use purchasing expensive equipment without defining first what
teaching and learning problem you intend to solve via that hardware.
Videoconferencing is a highly labour-intensive business and initial
enthusiasm among the school's technophiles may well pall after a fortnight
unless a serious educational application is found. A proper needs analysis
must be conducted first, lots of research and development done to create
follow-up work and to establish where videoconferencing integrates best into
the curriculum. Never introduce any new technology into a school just for
its novelty value.

Just my 2-cents worth.

David Wilson
Harton Technology College, South Shields
http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/