Australian school children can be at the leading edge of learning if schools embrace new technologies to offer a more individual education experience, according to new research which also reveals that students don’t think their needs are currently been met by the education system.

Green IT and concern for the environment are getting lots of attention in the IT industry but seemingly productivity and not environmental concerns are the biggest driver for Australia’s small business owners switching to high-grade video conferencing for meetings.

Unified communications vendor, Polycom has joined forces with the global Sabre Travel Network, to develop what the two companies claim will be the world’s first global reservation system for booking and scheduling public and corporate-owned HD video conferencing and telepresence rooms.

Increasing adoption by businesses of enterprise-grade telepresence has created a boom market for video conferencing, with global spending expected to hit $1.1 billion by 2016 on the back of compound annual growth of 19.5 percent.

Billed as a “global first”, an Aussie school is forming a “unique partnership” with a Ugandan refugee school, letting school kids “in both countries to learn about each other’s lives, as part of their geography lessons” – courtesy of Skype and the UNHCR’s Australian division.

Although Apple has introduced video calls nearly a decade after the first 3G video calls started to be made, Apple’s Skype-esque video calling works a freakin’ treat, as long as you are in range of Wi-Fi.

iTWire contributor Renai LeMay has beseeched Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs to let the iPhone 4 Facetime video conferencing capability to be unlocked for use over Telstra’s 3G network, but I’m thankful it’s locked to Wi-Fi, and here’s why, guys. 

Cisco and its latest sidekick Tandberg believe videoconferencing has now reached the tipping point to go mainstream, but as the company learned first hand today, fancy front-ends count for nothing if you don’t have the right plumbing.

Resources tucked away in the new iPhone SDK 4.0 provide strong hints that videoconferencing is coming. And that implies that future iPhone, iPhone touch and iPad models may be equipped with front-facing cameras.

The GFC has delivered a triple digital surge in the usage of Citrix Online’s web conferencing service and the organisation has predicted video and mobile web videoconferencing could be available in the second half of the year.