HSD Videoconferencing

Madame Joelle Barrette introduces her classroom to Hempfield High School students!

Our final Read Around the Planet videoconference took place yesterday afternoon. Madame Rita Nutter’s French 5 class interacted with her partner, Madame Joelle Barrette and her Advanced French Class form Ecole Francophone d’Airdrie in Airdrie, Canada. Both classes prepared power point presentations on their geographic area which included sharing historical facts, local products, foods and art. The students enjoyed interacting and asking each other questions about their schools so much that the session lasted 20 minutes longer than anticipated! Both schools are eager to videoconference again and are working on scheduling another event in May! Great job to both schools!

We have added a new page to our blog to use to post flyers about upcoming videoconferencing opportunities. If you are interested in videoconferencing in your classroom we suggest subscribing to RSS feed on the blog to stay informed!

Videoconferencing is growing in the Hempfield School District. Joanne Jones, HHS Distance and Language Lab Technical Specialist, and Sue Allen, Tech Coach, are the contact people if you are interested in using high end videoconferencing in your classroom.

Some resources that we use to find collaborations and content providers for videoconferences include the following:

Polycom Collaborations Around the Planet

Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration

MAGPI Programs

AT&T Videoconferencing Directory

If you would like more information contact Joanne or Sue via email.

Videoconferencing technology has come to Hempfield through low-end technology solutions including Skype and iChat to our high-end technology solutions. A 8000series Polycom room was installed at HHS in the summer of 2007. Through a joint grant with IU13 the district received a mobile 7000series PolyCom unit that can be used in any district building. During the 2007-2008 school year a distance Chinese was delivered daily to neighboring school districts. German classes practiced their dialogues and two third grade classes debated issues for the upcoming Presidential election using Skype and iChat. Sixth grade students at LIC participated in a videoconference about Rome through grant funding from the Hempfield Education Foundation. High school classes interacted with the Football Hall of Fame, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Learning Center for videoconferences on a variety of curricular topics. Videoconferencing was also used for staff development workshops on differentiated instruction with Catherine Brighton and Carol Ann Tomlinson from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. We look forward to expanding the opportunities for students and staff through videoconferencing in the 2008-2009 school year.