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This activity could really cut across the curriculum and provide a focus and content to base work around in a number of subject areas.

The most difficult thing here is getting started and deciding who you may need, there are two main approaches here:

1. There may be someone who is the news that may be has connections or is from the local area who you simply feel could be an inspiration to the students and allow them to ask lots of questions. This may be a local politician, a sports person or celebrity.
2. The second approach is to look through your schemes of work and then figure out where an external person could add value to a particular topic and then do a bit of research and then draw up a short list. Again this could be a local business man, a charity, a soldier etc.

Now this is the interesting part where effectively an interview could fuel so many outcomes. Here are just a few that could be the end product from the interview:

1. A presentation is produced summarizing the interview (all subjects depending on topic and interviewee).
2. The interview could have been recorded and the edited to then be broadcast via the school website (all subjects potentially but a really useful quick task for ICT and Media Studies students).
3. The interview could act as an introduction to topic or project (all subjects)
4. The interview along with further information could be used to produce a life story, poem or news paper article based around the life and experiences of the interviewee (all subjects but possibly particularly useful for English for creative writing, History for describing modern history may be World War 2 or Religious Education and Citizenship for describing an event).
5. The interview could form the basis of a critical thinking task especially if the interviewee is very passionate and opinionated for one particular perspective.
6. The interview could simply form part of the students research for a project or some coursework (all subjects but especially Business, Travel and Tourism and Sociology).

Video conferencing very simply is the ability to communicate with people who may be a few miles down the road, in another town, or the other side of the world and be able to see and hear them while we do so.

Today our students more than likely use video conferencing at home through MSN or Skype by simply using their internet connection and a cheap webcam.

However, in schools we simply do not take advantage of this great tool which has the potential to see our students collaborating with others all over the world or with the schools across town. It allows us as educators to potentially bring the outside world into the classroom with much more ease.

For example if your asking a guest speaker to come in to talk to the students distance may be an issue. Even if they live and work within the same region it could still involve them sacrificing a significant amount of their time to come in and speak. However, a simple video conference could simply just take up the time needed to discuss, take questions or present on the particular topic. This could mean simply 15 minutes to an hour instead of a whole day.

Quite often businesses and organisations have these tools available to them but may need a helping hand to get them up and running and a little of holding hands initially.

One thing I have recently done is invested in two relatively cheap webcams (total cost a whopping £30!). This means that we have one in class and we also have one to lend to a potential guest speaker who may have a computer and web access but no webcam. What I have also done is produced a short tutorial which is hosted on our VLE to show them how to create a Skype account and add our school to their address book. Then all I do is arrange the day before for them to phone in for a practice and all ready to go.

The training video has been invaluable as I can just send an email with the link and then the guest speaker is up and running. Having two webcams is a nice fall back but quite often people have them but never have a reason to use them so are quite happy when we give them that excuse (although a little nervous at the same time!).

So how can you use video conferencing? Below are some basic ideas some of which we will develop in future posts:

- A local/national politician to contribute to a class debate or simply explain policy or just what they do!
- A project with another school where individuals, small groups, classes or even whole years can communicate, collaborate and receive information (we are currently working with two schools in South Africa and make use of Video Conferencing).
- A guest speaker who is nationally or internationally recognised as a leading expert in a particular field.
- As a way of students getting to know their exchange students before a foreign exchange and the keep in touch.

I could keep going but the uses are only limited my are own imagination. If we use video conferencing as one of the ways to communicate during a project then it becomes extremely valuable along with email, forums, chat and web conferencing.

Since 1998 there has been a very significant investment in ICT in schools through the National Grid for Learning Programme.

Virtually every school is now connected to the Internet and the average number of computers in schools for teaching and learning has virtually doubled or trebled in recent years with some schools having enough computers for one each and many one for every two pupils.

But despite all these advances and this investment the vast majority of schools are only now beginning to tap the potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning and to modernise the way in which schools are run and organised.

This blog is therefore relevant to everyone concerned with primary and secondary education. Over the next week I will highlighting some specific ideas for using ICT in class ranging from one off activities to year long projects.

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