Promoting VC @ S.H.S.

Last night I presented a short promo session at Stratford High School for the Year 8 evening - where prospective new students and their families come and learn more about what our school has to offer.
The school's new 'slogan' couldn't suit VC learning any better:
"Staying Local - Going Far"
In a nutshell this sums up how VC can really benefit our students. A world of opportunities can be opened up to them without having to leave town.
My talk focussed on how VC learning was a collaborative initiative with other schools & learning institutions regionally & nationally and that our children now had a wealth of choices available to them through the Virtual Learning Network. I also talked about the the opportunities our students have to talk to experts and other interesting people through Digital Conversations and through Telecom VC promotional events.
It was very timely that Telecom had contacted us that day to let us know we had been included in the upcoming All Blacks VCs. We will be making a big event with this - moving the VC gear out into a classroom and having our Primary School children participate alongside the older students. The last time we had a big event like this was when Telecom hosted the NZ Idol Ben Lummis VC 3 years ago - we had children ranging from Y3 to Y13 joining in together and when the parents heard that Doug Howlett was also part of the VC we couldn't get them out of the room either! Although it was unashamed Telecom self promotion (Helen Clark & Theresa Gattung also made appearances) it was a great event for the children to be involved in.