**An Amazing Conversation**

All was excitement in Class 3H at Cefn Fforest Primary School this morning. We had pre-arranged a video-conference between Class 3H Cefn Fforest, Mrs Kaasik's Class at Killi Gynmasium School Estonia and our E-Twinning Co-ordinator Daniela in Lazio Rome. The conversation was planned for 9am (UK time) which is 11am in Estonia and 10am in Italy.
Mr H arrived in class at 8.20am to set everything up - all seemed fine the PC started up and Skype opened. ( story we have just had a new-ish win XP installed in our classroom) Just to ensure that everything was working I attached a microphone to the system and set-up the speakers. Then I tried out the microphone ( it recorded in MS Sound Recorder) but in Skype I had no audio pick-up at all - by now it was 8.45am ( and panic began to set in) I went through the system and a sister computer quickly but could not get any audio at all. I was finally admitting defeat and frantically Instant Messaging my colleagues around Europe explaining our position...
At 9.10 we finally gave up, leaving Skype running, the children went into assembly. At 9.20 the Skype phone rang it was Estonia calling complete with video - I could see the pupils in their classroom in Estonia where they were actually in a maths lesson, the pupils said their 'Hello's' and sang in english their 'Hello Song' ( no Skype recording sadly!!!). We lost connection just as my pupils returned from assembly.
We then had a few minutes in class where we weren't really sure what was happening - followed by a conference call where Daniela rang ( Estonia were already online). My children introduced themselves to each other in song - they repeated the 'Hello Song' and we sang a Welsh Folksong back. The pupils applauded each other and said their welcomes. Daniela dropped out of the conversation in order to allow Killi to contact us with Video enabled - it worked and we were able to see our friends in their classroom - you can just imagine the excitement of actually seeing and hearing their pals in Estonia. It was great fun, we chatted for a few minutes and then went our own way - we went off to learn some simple Estonian phrases for our next conversation ( I guess the Estonians went back to their maths lesson).
I chatted later with Killi in Estonia and we have agreed to talk again next week. ( we have to get our microphone and webcam sorted out in the meantime). We can't wait!!!!!