Video conferencing comes to Shropshire Museums
Groups of students in secondary schools across Shropshire can now talk directly to experts from Shropshire Museums thanks to new video technology.
Students will get the opportunity to ask questions direct to museum experts via a live stream about specific topics relevant to their GCSE and ‘A’ level studies while looking closely at rare objects and specimens from the museum collections – and all without leaving the classroom.
All this is now possible thanks to the purchase of video conferencing equipment, funded by Shropshire Council’s learning and skills and the Ludlow Museum Development Trust, with the support of Shropshire Council’s lifelong learning team, and education improvement service.
Live steaming of the interactive sessions will come direct from the state of the art museum stores at Ludlow Museum Resource Centre. Staff at the centre will link to the schools, delivering a lesson remotely, using the Visualiser – a superb video enhancer that projects the objects and specimens under discussion straight onto the schools whiteboard. Items such as a tiny very rare Civil War coin can now be seen in full detail by the whole class, and discussed with an experienced archaeologist sitting in Ludlow.
Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for tourism and culture, said:
“What a fantastic opportunity for students to engage with real archaeologists and curators from our museums. Our museum video conference sessions offer a new and exciting way to inspire young people to discover their history and heritage.”
Video conferencing, a new way of connecting schools with the expertise and collections held by Shropshire Museums, was launched in January 2013. This exciting service has been offered to all secondary schools and sixth form colleges in Shropshire, and Telford & Wrekin, following a series of trial sessions held in September 2012.
A new programme of themed sessions has been developed in which participants can debate the background to the Civil War in Shropshire, and investigate why Wroxeter became the fourth largest city in Roman Britain.
An experience osteoarchaeologist will answer questions on the evidence of infectious diseases through the use of skeletal material, and students can talk direct to the curator of natural sciences as he opens the stores to the Shropshire mammoth bones. This is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to ask those questions they always wanted to know and debate the answers in a lively interactive way.
Sarah Griffiths, Shropshire Council’s museums education officer, said;
“Nothing can beat an actual visit to a museum, but this really is the next best thing. We are still learning what the schools want and how to get the absolute best from the amazing video conferencing equipment, but the feedback so far has been brilliant.
“Just like having someone beamed in from Star Trek” said one student from Shrewsbury Sixth Form, while another loved the technology and found it even better than having a speaker in the room.
The opportunity has been supported throughout by Graham Moore of the lifelong learning team.
Sarah Griffiths added:
“Graham has made the scary bits easy, and we are proud to be one of the first county museum services to offer this service. The big national museums are doing it down in London, but we are different as we are giving Shropshire students a taste of their own history.”
A video session based on artefacts from the Civil War was streamed live at Belvidere School on Thursday 31 January to 33 Year 8 students. Feedback from the teachers and students was very positive. Students said that they were able to see artefacts that they would not normally get to see, and were able to ask questions directly to the expert on the artefacts. They also said the presentation and overall session was excellent, and were very keen to repeat the experience.
To find out more and to book a session, please phone Ludlow Museum Resource Centre on 01584 813665 or email: fran.yarroll@shropshire.gov.uk.
