Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Skype Chat to Podcast

Following a skype chat over the weekend, Moturoa Classroom at Appleby School near Nelson New Zealand and myself near Abergavenny in South Wales had agreed a time on Monday evening (8.30 pm Wales - 9.30 am New Zealand) for a chat.
The skype discussion was part of an ongoing e-pal link that we have with the pupils from my school ( Cefn Fforest Primary) and those 13,000 miles away in New Zealand.
With the time set I sat waiting for the call and sure enough along it came and I could hear the excitement in the classroom so many miles away.
Little did I realise the 'grilling' I was in for from the pupils in the class. They each in turn introduced themselves very clearly and politely asked their important questions - the range of subjects covered was wide, but I felt honour bound to answer their questions, as they had gone to the trouble of asking them.
the half an hour chat flew by as we chatted and all to soon it was time for them to return to their school work. Allanah King their teacher had recorded our chat and has now published it on her Podomatic page so it can now be found on http://allanah.podomatic.com .
The project continues as we plan to repeat the process from our school speaking to Allanah and 'grilling' her on a variety of subjects.
We are presently trying to work out how to speak to each other in 'real' time ( the 13 hour time difference doesn't help ), my guess is that we will have to have pupils in school at around 8pm in order to catch NZ at 9am in the morning -we will see.... watch this space.

** Thanks for your interesting questions kids **

** follow up to new MacBook, I am gradually becoming more confident in its use and have now started digital video work and podcasting using it more to come...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us all. Your work is full of energy, and the smiles on the faces of the children in the next post tells it all! A MacBookPro is certainly a handy tool for this type of learning experience, but the use of Podomatic is also great, as it allows you to share your expiences broadly - thus inspiring your kids and other teachers ready to embark on this kind of fun learning.

Mr Harrington said...

Many thanks Judy - I must say the community of enthusiastic people involved in these types of project, is very reassuring, and I think helps and empowers us all to try new things out. Well done on the blog nomination by the way ( I have voted : ) )

A dear friend

It seems very apt to be writing this blog post in tribute to a dear, dear friend. The world has lost a true global educational  IT innovator...