Thanks to C2K’s Virtual Classroom videoconferencing set up, four primary schools in Northern Ireland have discovered an innovative way to make learning fun that saves time and money - both increasingly scarce commodities in education today.  

When award winning storyteller, Liz Weir dropped into St Ciaran’s Primary School in Cushenden to tell a few Christmas stories this week, primary seven children in St Macnissi's, Larne, Killinchy PS and Roe Valley Integrated PS in Limavady were also able to enjoy the experience in their own classrooms by listening to Liz via a videolink.

Liz ‘s popularity as a storyteller with groups of all ages means that there are many demands on her time so a videoconferencing  link between four schools interested in hearing her yarns seemed an ideal solution. The storytelling session in St Ciaran’s, lasted for about 45 minutes and gave everyone involved an idea of the potential of videoconferencing for collaborative teaching.

Jayne McIlgorm, Technical consultant with C2K says that C2k are always looking at new and different ways for schools to collaborate to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

“A joint storytelling session between the four primary schools is an exciting opportunity to give teachers a taster of what it is  like to use videoconferencing in the classroom. We’d like to think that this storytelling session is just the start as the schools have indicated that they are interested on building on this foundation to work together to complement other work being done in the classroom.”

C2k, which is funded by the Department of Education, is one of the largest online education systems in the world, providing schools throughout Northern Ireland  with technology infrastructure, software and online access to resources. It delivers a managed ICT service to schools in Northern Ireland which includes local networks of computers in all schools, connected by broadband to a wide area Northern Ireland network.

The success of the C2K network means that schools now have access to high speed broadband and facilities for videoconferencing, giving pupils an interactive and fun learning experience,” explains Jayne.

Roisin Butler, Principal at St Cairan’s said. “Pupils are very motivated when they use videoconferencing. You can see the attention in their faces. Some of the children are quite shy but they love the videoconferenicng sessions and they just open up.  Viceoconferenicng opens the door to the world.”