Classroom Observations Systems

[jcollings]

We are just about to build a new observation classroom here and the SLT are interested in video systems such as Iris Connect and Classwatch.

Does anyone have any experience of this kit? If so how good or bad do you find it? Is it used by staff? Is it easy to set up and manage? Etc. Etc.

It would be great to hear from users rather than the sales people from the respective companies.

Thanks

[Sylv3r]

We've got a Iris Connect which we have loaned for the foreseeable future from a local teacher training centre - we haven't quite managed to work out how it works yet - after sending one back for repair due to the issue with the internal microphone and terrible feedback. For the cost I believe they are too be, it certainly doesn't seem value for money from our experiences up to now.

Within the next week or two, we are going to give it another go and I may have something a little more positive to add.

[RTFM]

We also have IRIS and it is being used widely across school but mostly for CPD and self observation.

[ict_support]

IRIS is pretty good not cheap probably 10k for 50 users for 3 years. Fairly easy to setup and configure. Like any of these systems you need someone in the school to be pushing the system in terms of teaching / learning and staff development. We found that initially there was some IT involvement in setting the camera up for teachers but they soon got the hang of it. The system works fairly well on wireless N if your wireless backbone is good enough.