Nacton goes live! Pupils in Year 5 at Nacton Village Primary had the thrill of video-conferencing in preparation for a live link with their friends at Katha in India.The children had prepared information about themselves and questions to ask their friends across the world. The session developed into a competition with the four teams judged on clarity and presentation skills.

The children really developed their skills not just in presenting but also in working cooperatively in teams.And they had fun too!

Jessica,'It was great taking part.'  Seth, 'It was exciting!'  Charlie, 'It was fun seeing yourselves.'  Mitchell, 'I liked presenting.' Guy, 'It was fun!'

On January 23rd 2009 we undertook our first Hothouse using our all-now integrated videoconferencing! Nacton Primary School have a strong link with Katha School, New Delhi and most recently have spent time on Presentation Skills. Our new videoconferencing capability offered a good opportunity to try it out with no technical preparation or set-up. The 8 year old students were split into teams and asked to come up with a suitable presentation. They were then given feedback (by adults and the students themselves) and soon gave accomplished performances!  Here we see the students preparing their presentations in the first screenshot...and then giving their presentation (with the world famous Nacton teddy who has already visited Katah, New Delhi).  The quality was remarkable - straight over the Internet:

More remarkable was the ease with which a non-technical registered user was able to set this up. The steps were:

1 From the easiCOP user dashboard select Conferencing.

2 Click on the Enter button

3 In the video window select Show camera then select other Users and...

4 That's it! It really had to be experienced to be believed.

Our judges were Mrs Ditton Head of Nacton School, plus our experts Karthick and Xavier in Norfolk, and Mrs Liz Murphy from Gorseland Primary School. In the following screenshot - note two things: Firstly, the clarity!

Secondly, we found that using text messaging (middle of the screenshot) was a very good way to unobtrusively guide the session, leaving the children to take centre stage.

So a wonderful time was had by all - and we now look forward to our videoconferencing with Katha, New Delhi - watch this space!