The First Video Conference for the MyCOE Project

Last March 23, 7:00 AM (Philippine Time) my students and the students of Ms. Megan Webster from Texas had our first video conference, with Astrid as our bridge and facilitator. It was a fun experience because it was our first time, as far as me and my students are concerned, to engage in an intellectual exchange with students from another country through a video conference. What's more amazing is, the students involved are living in different time zones and we managed to meet and do the exchange.

The exchange started off with a brief introduction by the students and their projects. The projects of the students of Ms. Megan are very interesting, because they were geared towards food security and sustainability. Although we did not get all the details about the projects but they are very much related to the projects of my students (in some ways). We will be very glad to read about the details of the projects probably through a blog that the students of Ms. Megan will be coming up with.

The exchange continued with more questions that ranged from asking about our favorite food, tourist spots, dreams, past times, sports, and music! The students from Texas shared their wonderful musical instruments with us. Although we did not have any instruments ready, I tried to step up and sang a song (You by the Carpenters) on the spot just just to have a reply to the beautiful presentation of our friends from Texas. The students from Texas also showed a glimpse of their beautiful school, their outputs and a lot of insights about their place and some other information about their lifestyle. It broke the ice between our students and precisely it will make them comfortable to work with each other in the future.

These are things that we appreciated, because we learned a lot about the things that is happening on the other side of the world and we also shared our experiences to them. That was cool according to my students and they are looking forward to having more exchanges in the future. I believe that the whole point of the exchange is to have connections with other classrooms and be more comfortable when it comes to sharing insights and information that will be of help in making an international project possible. This will be very helpful in making bigger projects happen and I think we can capitalize on this if we are really serious in creating an impact in our societies.

Pictures taken after the processing that we had after the video conference

After the exchange, I did a processing of the experience of the students and all their responses were great. In fact, they are thrilled about having friends from Texas, having another exchange in the future and learning new things from them too. This is a very positive impact and this is something that MyCOE succeeded in achieving as far as their goal to connect classrooms from all over the world is concerned.

I wish to thank Astrid, Ms. Megan, MyCOE and everyone who participated in the exchange. It was really fun and a very meaningful experience that we would love to have again to enrich us more in creating meaningful exchanges and at the same time ensure that we are able to have a wider scope in the impacts that we are creating in our community, in our earth!

:D

Michael A. Casas
Chemistry and Research Teacher
Philippine Science High School- Southern Mindanao Campus