** Gizmo**

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There is competition for Skype in VOIP, Gizmo, not to be confused with Gizmoz the talking avatar tool ( very cool) offers many of the same goodies as Skype if you read the blurb from their site below:

"Gizmo Project is an internet telephone, that is as simple as instant messaging

Make all of your calls from the comfort of your desktop, with Gizmo Project it is point, click, talk. For FREE

Why use Gizmo?
It’s FREE!
FREE call's to any Gizmo Project, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or Windows Live user
Chat with AIM and MSN buddies
Free Voicemail and Conference calling.
Super clear call quality
Inexpensive add-ons that let you make and receive calls from any mobile phone or landline."
From Gizmo website

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This is the Gizmo online interface

I was introduced to Gizmo by Sheryl Nussbaum Beach, as she intends using Gizmo for an Internet 'Speed Dating' style presentation on Tuesday evening. Sheryl has gathered together 10 Education users of Web 2.0 tools from around the globe ( including myself). The format will be that the teachers involved ( mostly Secondary School teachers), will be receiving information from Sheryl and others as CPD, there will be a room with 10 computers in each Gizmo'd up to one of us!!! We will then have the chance to talk with the teachers on the course about the tools that we/they can use and perhaps more importantly why they should use them. They will have the opportunity to ask us about the use of this technology and its relevance to learning ( we have 15 minutes then a bell will go off and they will move on). This use of 'talking heads' in training is a development of our recent use of skyping friends into training seminars, which we have been using for some time. It sounds cool - however I expect a pretty intense hour or so of discussions. There is a wiki which Sheryl has set up enabling each of the 10 'presenters' to put in links and urls to illustrate our points... look out for a report and podcast/s later this week (Gizmo has inbuilt conversation record facility)
I tried out Gizmo this evening in a quick chat with Allanah King in New Zealand, it appears very clear, with less of a time lag than Skype, the sounds are easier on the ear- one negative from my point of view as far as I can see is, no video conferencing facility.... Download Gizmo and let me know how you get on.

** Special Visitors**

Dino and Bella from Appleby School New Zealand visit Cefn Fforest in Wales and have a Skype Video-Conference, Speak in our Friday Assembly and then join in a Class 3H Celebration Party - phew what an exciting Friday at Cefn Fforest Primary School. Dino from Moturoa Class ( Miss King) is an e-pal with Dinosaur Harry, and they got to once in a lifetime chance to meet each other in Wales today.
( we will post the link to the podcast of our chat very soon )

Dino and his sister Bella made it to Cefn Fforest, very early this morning ( at around 8.20a.m.) They are in the UK on holiday before returning to via a break in Malta ( by the pool, I guess!) back to New Zealand.

We had arranged with Miss K at Moturoa to have a live Skype class to class VideoConference at 8.30 am - ish UK ( 7.30pm NZ time)

It worked out really well from both sides (11,000 miles or so apart) - in New Zealand parents and pupils waited excitedly, while in Wales we waited excitedly for Dino and Bella to arrive. The Skype chat lasted for about 30 minutes before we had to let our friends in New Zealand go to bed!! Miss King has podcast the skype video chat here with 2 others they were involved in this week.

Dino and Bella then came into our assembly at 9.15 ( Dino took loads of photo's) and they told us something about New Zealand and the things that they get up to there - they both spoke very confidently to around 200 children ( a compliment to their teachers I am sure). Before finally heading off laden down with presents and cards from their friends in Wales.

We combined their visit with our celebration party for having 1,000 visits to our ClassBlogmeister Blog, so Bella and Dino got to have an early morning party as well, how cool is that ??

1 comments:

Moturoa said...

That is just so cool. Thank you so much for hosting Dino, Bella and family. I am sure the visit will be one of the highlights for them. I have just finished making a podcast of some or our Skype chat but as it is close to one o'clock in the morning her in NZ I will publish it tomorrow morning.

**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!!!!!

I don't think that any teacher/education professional could find any greater advert for the effective use of skype in the classroom than this inspirational footage from Brian Crosby's 4th Grade Class in Nevada.

"Here is a moving example of how web 2.0 technologies can transform everything we have ever assumed about how education must happen. From Brian Crosby, a blogging 4th grade teacher in Nevada, comes a short video documenting the classroom inclusion (via Skype) of a child who cannot leave home because of leukemia.

Simply amazing." from ClassBlogmeister.com

** Skype contact made with Italy**

It was great at lunchtime today I made skype contact with Daniela in Rome (Lazio). Daniela is the co-ordinator for an e-twinning project about the way in which our children play and the toys, that they play with. Daniela had been having a skype conversation with another partner in the project Kylli in Estonia. It is still amazing to me that sitting in my own classroom my pupils and I can talk to people around the globe.

Before speaking to Daniela I had a chat with Allanah King in New Zealand and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach in Virginia Beach, USA - and all without moving from my chair.
Daniela and I went on to try a skype phone call - unfortunately the link to Italy or our IT equipment was not good today and we had a great deal of echo on the line, we plan to try again on Tuesday of this week.

A podcast of my discussion with Daniela on Tuesday evening.

Many thanks to those who left comments re: yesterdays news!!!! ( now the hard work begins!!!)
Back to business, Pam our new link teacher in Harrow and I finally managed to make contact using skype between classes this afternoon when I, having just finished a year group meeting popped online at about 4.45pm, to find that I had a call almost immediately - after a few headphone issues, Pam and I were able to discuss some more details regarding our link project.
In addition to our general multi-culturalism discussion between the two schools, Pam has found a link regarding Craft, Design Technology and our joint 'Moving Monsters' topics. The idea from the US is to get pupils to e-mail sets of instructions to each other allowing their link partners to follow them and make a monster to their partners design. I think that this sounds like it will be a very interesting project to include in our inter-school link - we will keep you posted on how we get on.

TES Magazine Article 'Scope for Skype' by Stephen Manning

I have to thank Joe Dale http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/ for letting me know that the article was published in the TES Magazine on Friday 5th January ( I missed it as I believed it was to be published on Friday 12th - but received a pleasant surprise today ). The second reason for thanking Joe, is that having met him while using Skype, and having joined in a skypecast or two with him, it was Joe who mentioned the work that we were doing in school to Stephen Manning who then contacted me in order to write the piece - Thank You very much Joe, the desired effect hopefully of widening our colleague's understanding of the new Web 2.0 technologies.
I am in the process of listening to Graham Wegner's K12 online 2006 video podcast on why Web 2.0 is useful in the classroom and how it enables teachers to achieve using web 2.0 tools http://k12online.wm.edu/wegnerk12.mp4, in preparation for a skypecast this evening - Graham puts a very good case for the use of Web 2.0, explaining that it will only become more widely used if the technology is relevant to our colleagues.
This links directly to Skype as a tool, the connections that we have made is nothing new, teachers, classes and schools have been linking for years - it's the potential for linking and talking ( and seeing - using a webcam ) to people anywhere in the world via the internet that is an added bonus ( a much cheaper and less 'techie' method than going for full blown videoconferencing ). The K12 online planning wiki is at http://k12online.wikispaces.com/

What has Skype given us - number one from my point is that it has given the children in my class a voice, it has enabled them to frame questions, and ask them ( asking a person sat 13,000 miles away ), and responding to the reply they get and formulating a further question - so a big boost the speaking and listening in my classroom.

skype in education