How Organisations Can Use Video Conferencing Technology to Elevate The Classroom Experience

Education

The classroom provides the backdrop to some of the most formative years of our lives. At school, we are taught basic principles that will form the foundation for future learning and in some cases, instigate a passion for higher learning or even inspire career paths.

As such, it makes sense that schools are looking for solutions to elevate the classroom experience. Rather than continuing to teach in the digital age with traditional methods, it’s important to embrace modern technology and the associated benefits.

Something as simple as video conferencing technology can transform the learning experience for children of all ages. Resulting in wider curriculums, richer learning experiences and more engagement. 

Underpinning video conferencing technology is also a sense of ease and accessibility. This means that these solutions won’t add unnecessary complexities to the classroom. Rather, they will provide an array of benefits. 

Video conferencing promotes inclusive learning 

When schools employ video conferencing technology in the classroom, the learning experience becomes significantly more inclusive. This is largely because video conferencing can remove barriers to learning that may have traditionally impacted rural or remote students. 

For example, children attending city schools may be taught one curriculum because they have greater access to experts in the field such as chemistry teachers or russian history teachers. In rural and remote schools, such lessons may be off the curriculum simply because there are no qualified teachers available to teach the students. 

In the short term it may mean that rural students miss out on learning about subjects that generally interest them. In the long run, this can create an imbalance when these city and rural students go to the same higher learning establishment.

With video conferencing, this barrier is removed. In a rural or remote school, experts can conduct lessons via video conferencing technology. If this isn’t possible, they may be able to use video conferencing to hold special seminars where a single topic is explored in depth. 

Removes barriers for worldwide learning 

The digital classroom has no limits. This means that teachers from the same state can conduct lessons in your school. It also means that students can collaborate with fellow students from other schools. Whether that school is in the same area or a different country altogether.

The collaborative nature of video conferencing technology means that group projects can be more involved and more diverse. This ultimately combines to create a richer learning experience where opinions are diverse. 

While video conferencing solutions allow for a richer learning experience, they also help to provide a more consistent approach to learning. This means that students at home sick can still log on and be actively present in live lessons or watch them back later. 

It also means that kids can go on both short and long holidays with their parents without sacrificing their learning. With audio and visual lessons being par for the course, students can still have an engaging experience, whether they are sitting at home or in a hotel room thousands of miles away.

Learning as an interactive experience 

Video conferencing also lays the platform for a more interactive learning experience. Complete with screen-sharing capabilities and even chat features, video conferencing encourages communication and collaboration. 

Another vital component to video conferencing is that of transmitting visuals. Undoubtedly more immersive than audio alone, visuals encourage students to be more engaged. This is crucial when you consider that engagement leads to a better understanding of the materials.

Video conferencing also ensures that lessons can move past lectures. For example, teachers can organise break out rooms so that students can talk further about the lessons covered or perhaps complete a group assignment.

Once the time is up, the students can come back to the main meeting and present. This results in students retaining more information and also working through potential problem topics with the help of others. 

Aids the studying process

While lessons conducted over video conferencing technology can be conducted in real time, there is also scope for these lessons to be recorded. As such, there is the ability for students to go back and revisit topics or sessions. 

In essence, this helps place studying in the student’s hands. Rather than relying on teachers to distribute work sheets or study prompts, they have access to the material at their own fingertips. 

Having these lessons also works as a backup while students learn their comprehension type. Some students like to note take while others like to simply listen when topics are being presented. By having these lessons recorded, students can always consult the source. 

The modern era field trip 

A valuable part of the classroom experience is field trips. Often, field trips are the culmination of weeks of learning about a topic. In some cases, they might be an introduction to a topic before more in-depth learning begins. 

However, while educational, field trips can be a production. There are cover teachers to consider, permission slips to receive and transport to organise. With this in mind, video conferencing can take the stress out of field trips. 

With video conferencing, the outside world can come to you, rather than the other way around. This means that guest speakers can beam into your classroom or you could watch virtual museum tours. Allowing for a stimulating experience in a controlled environment. 

Families and teachers can connect conveniently 

Another key aspect of education is the connection and communication between teachers and parents. However, due to life circumstances such as scheduling conflicts, communication and connection can often feel limited. 

With video conferencing, meetings can be both flexible and convenient. This ensures that there is a platform for teachers to connect with parents and vice versa. Making it easy to communicate on parent-teacher night or during the year if the need arises. 

Along with using video conferencing to connect students’ families, teachers can also interact on this platform. This means that every teacher within a certain department or school has access to the same information.

This works to ensure that children across the same year level are receiving the same quality of teaching. It also works to help teachers collaborate better. This idea sharing has the potential to result in more complete and engaging lessons or homework tasks. 

The value of a modern classroom 

The world today is constantly evolving. Facilitating a lot of this change is advancements in technology. As a result, everything from workplaces to school classrooms are experiencing changes to traditional methods of operation. 

While for some change can be viewed as an unsteady and stressful period, change instigated by the installation of video conferencing solutions is actually quite seamless. Better still, this change results in improved internal processes and external outcomes.

In a classroom setting, this essentially means that the learning experience is elevated. Using video conferencing technology makes lessons simultaneously more comprehensive and immersive. 

For education institutions, video conferencing helps to support organisation enterprise goals ranging from increased collaboration, consistency and engagement to removing barriers and laying the platform for global learning. 

All of which works together to ensure a first class learning experience for children. Whether they are attending schools in remote or regional areas or schools in the middle of densely populated areas. Ensuring a previously unheard of level of inclusive learning.