Harvard Masterclass at Pluckley

Every  once in a while an opportunity arises to take part in something that both inspires the intellect and at the same time provides a demonstration of how far technology has come.

I was invited to take part in a videoconference twilight training session. A masterclass from Chris Dede of Harvard University in Boston MA, USA.

It dawned on me ... I am sat in a rural primary classroom in a small village in the heart of Kent, surrounded by fields on a glorious warm afternoon. Our host is thousands of miles away in the USA; one of the worlds most eminent academics speaking live from one of the greatest universities in the world. The distance didn't matter! Is this the flat world?

The reason this can happen? Pluckley CofE Primary, along with other forward thinking schools, has connected to the Kent Community Network. Pluckley has chosen to connect because this is what they can do with it.

The technology was impressive, and worked exceptionally well; it has come on leaps and bounds, with clear vision and sound, and a reliable connection; but get this ... the technology wasn't the point! It was just a tool used to connect educators across the globe. We shared live video, and an excellent and stimulating presentation. we were also able to ask questions, and raise issues.

The subject was Tapping Global Communication: increasing student motivation and supporting learning styles.

What I learned would fill a blog. It was lively interesting and stimulating. Here's just a taste from the River City project; a riverside town has been 'virtualised' and turned into an absorbing computer game. The object is to carry out scientific investigations to discover why a town's water supply is contaminated. We also covered new work combining Global Positioning with pupils physically moving around the campus. Pupils have to problem solve, investigate, and manage scarce resources to solve a problem.

This is just a small taster ... check out more of what they are doing on their web site.


Published Tuesday, September 12, 2006 6:46 PM by AlanDay

Comments

# re: Harvard Masterclass at Pluckley

I looked up the web links. This is really interesting. there is a problem. The investment needed to build computer ganes scenarios is high, and profit is the return on investment. Education does not offer such high returns, cause the market is too small. just a thought?

Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:23 PM by coz

# Pluckley test the boundaries with Videoconferencing

Pluckley Primary School organised a videoconference with a Harvard University Lecturer last week in an...

Monday, September 18, 2006 11:54 AM by Meet in school

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