Skype Project Part 1
The Skype sessions between Clifton and Lambert were arranged to take place on a Wednesday afternoon. A group of six children who had shown an interest in using Skype in the earlier sessions were chosen from each setting to take part in the project. There were a couple of technical difficulties in the early stages. One was caused by an external USB microphone that was automatically changing the audio output settings as well as the input settings, and the other was caused by a problem with the Internet connection at Clifton, which meant that Lambert could hear Clifton but not see them.
Technical difficulties aside, when everything was working as it should be it was very interesting. The children brought paintings and things they had made to the sessions to show to the other children. They sang songs to each other and together, including a particularly memorable rendition of ‘Wind the bobbin up'. After a few weeks the practitioners introduced the idea of going to Pearson Park to meet each other in person and there was a lot of enthusiasm for this from the children. As with the Skype sessions, the children wanted to make things to take to the park. One of the children at Lambert had made a model of her house and she was asked if she wanted to make a model of the nursery to give to the children from Lambert.
At both settings we encouraged the children to take photos to show the other children what their nursery was like, and what they liked to play with, the idea being to make a display about each other's nursery after the visit. At Clifton some of these photographs were used to make a map of the nursery, with drawings added by the children and annotations from the practitioners.
On a crisp but thankfully sunny autumn afternoon the children, practitioners and parents met up midway between the settings in Pearson Park. All of the children had cameras and took photos around the park, collected conkers and leaves and then had snack time together. The Lambert children loved Clifton's ‘bus' and had a turn riding in it. The children gave each other the things they had made and then it was time to return to the nursery. The children and practitioners are currently involved with developing the displays and working with the photographs they took. Unfortunately due to a technical issue at Lambert they have been unable to use Skype since the visit so we have been unable to do the planned follow-up Skype sessions. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and we will be able to pick up where we left off. The results of these sessions and the displays will be looked at in Clifton and Lambert Skype Project Part 2.
The photographs taken buy the childen can be seen here