MAPE Publications Group - Telephone conferencing

Barry Wake and Rhona Dick
b.wake@worcs.ac.uk
rhona.dick@blueyonder.co.uk

In October the Publications Group met by telephone! Our past meetings have either been midweek (when class teachers can't come) or on a Saturday (when people don't want to come). There has been a noticeable fall in attendance, and we wanted to do something about it.
Heather Govier had been involved in telephone conferencing and suggested this might be a way forward which would enable more members of the group to participate.
There were obvious advantages to this:

• No travelling was involved, we could all sit in the comfort of our own homes.
• It was efficient in terms of time, a real advantage in our busy lives. Obviously if overseas delegates were involved timing would be even more critical.
• It was actually financially beneficial to MAPE, costing less than a face to face meeting which would have entailed not only travelling expenses but also refreshments.

There are some difficulties, too, but as this is a strategy other groups might choose to consider let us give you the benefit of our experience.

1. How does it differ from a face to face meeting or video conference? It relies on one sense (hearing). Other participants may not always be fully concentrating on the discussion and there are no visual cues. How important is this to you?

2. How do you plan the meeting? Preplanning is essential. A time that suits everyone has to be chosen, but latecomers can still join in.

3. What about other preparation? Paperwork needs to be circulated in advance, not just the agenda, but anything for discussion.

4. How easy is it to set up? Very easy - the telephone number for information is 0800-51-55-50 or to book a conference the number is 0800-77-88-77. We had to give details about MAPE, including our registered charity number, which made it even more economical, as well as an address for the bill.

5. How do you get into the right meeting? That's easy too. You simply dial a number, give the code number of your conference and your arrival is announced by a member of BT staff.

6. What are the roles of the participants? As for any meeting - to offer comments and suggestions, and to take an active part in the work of the group. In our face to face meetings the chair usually acts as secretary too. In retrospect we feel that this is not really practical in telephone conferencing. The two roles have distinct identities.

7. What is the role of the chair? The role of the chair is subtly different. Not only does he/she have to control the meeting using tone of voice only, raised eyebrows have no effect down a telephone line, but also encourage contributions from the reticent. The latter is less easy in a big telephone conference than in a face to face meeting.

8. How easy is it to take minutes? Sitting with a telephone jammed to your ear holding a pen and flicking over pages of a notebook requires three hands at times! A hands-free kit may be the answer, although it does give the impression of someone shouting down a tunnel.

9. What are the protocols? You are supposed to say your name every time you speak. It is quite difficult to remember to do this. However in a group like ours where the members are fairly well known to each other and the voices were fairly familiar it wasn't essential, and was fairly soon dispensed with.

10. Was the 'cloak of invisibility' a help or a hindrance? Both. For the participants it meant you could actually be doing something else if the topic under discussion did not directly involve you. The main disadvantage was in the deathly silences that followed when Rhona asked for volunteers. There is also no possibility of 'eyeballing' someone. It's a two-edged sword, however, as it is just as easy to say 'Barry, I thought you might do this.' and rather harder, perhaps, for Barry to decline!

11. How do you deal with difficult situations? It didn't arise in our case; however, we should think the same way as in a face to face meeting. If someone has had enough, for whatever reason, they can just put the phone down. (Not as effective as storming out of a room and slamming the door, but probably less embarrassing when tempers have cooled.)

12. What about security? This is clearly not really of strategic importance to a MAPE publications group meeting, though for some it obviously would be. We suspect that security is about as good as you could expect. Clearly there is always the risk of a member of BT staff listening in. You would have to decide whether secrecy is top priority. As everyone who joins is announced there is no chance of anyone else eavesdropping.

Contact the information number (0800- 51-55-50) if you want to check it out.

There were ten participants in our meeting, ranging geographically from London to Newcastle; many of these people have not been able to come to meetings frequently, so telephone conferencing proved to be a real bonus here. However we did decide that we would like to have at least one face to face meeting a year.
When it was set up we had to give details of MAPE, including our charity number as there is a good discount for registered charities, and we told them to send the bill to Keith. We have not spoken to him about whether or not they have yet. For future use they will keep our details on file and it will be even easier to set up subsequent conferences.
The only security really is the information we all gave when we dialled in. We had to give the name of the conference and the convenor - did we have to give a password too - Rhona can't remember? Letters are able to pick up these ideas and create the software required. Both contributors to the outcome can be acknowledged when the activity is available on-line. The end result could be a growing bank of imaginative computer-based activities to support teaching and learning. I am aware that some programmers might have ideas of their own and that many teachers write programs for themselves. What is important is that this is a bottom-up approach where the beneficiaries are pupils, wherever they may be! If you are interested, take a look at www.supported.org.uk David Channon Deputy Headteacher email d.channon@virgin.net Dear David, What an excellent idea promoting the 'sharing' philosophy that was rife in the early days of educational computing and we would love to see it thrive. There are several small sites like this already, but as you say what is needed is co-ordination. You have started the ball rolling, let us hope that teachers who read this will join in. Thank you for sharing this idea. Yours, MAPE Dear Rhona, When I started working as a primary teacher I began to write BASIC programs for the BBC micro. They were too simple for a 'proper' software company to produce, but little gems when used in the right way. A simulation of fair and unfair dice required little programming but it could stimulate a wide range of probability investigations. The program itself was less important than the way it was used. Staff in my own school would share their ideas and make use of some of my programs, but that was as far as it went. Today my programs are written in JavaScript and the burble in the corner of my classroom is the sound of a modem rather than an audio-cassette driven BBC. Using the web it should now be possible to share activities and ideas for activities nationally. This is not really happening in a co-ordinated manner - unless you are prepared to pay. I would like to see this change. I have put together some simple web pages to help teachers and computer enthusiasts work together to produce and distribute some of these 'little gem' programs. Teachers have the best ideas as to how ICT can help their pupils but seldom have the time or knowledge to create even the smallest programs to support pupil learning. Teachers can publish these ideas for simple activities at the above site. Computer enthusiasts (including many teachers!)