Looking to Skype with Other Schools / Experts

Hello everyone. I am a Middle School principal in Illinois and looking for opportunities to incorporate some distance contact with students or people who feel they can share expertise in various areas.

Let me know your pleasure. We have teachers in 6th 7th and 8th grades looking for opportunities in all subject areas.

In the end, the other party (parties) will help us decide how to best incorporate and utilize the technology. A bit like reverse engineering - we want to explore the technology first and find ways to tie it back to curriculum / standards.

Also, anyone with successful experiences, please feel free to share as we are constantly looking for ideas.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Philip Cranston on December 8, 2008 at 11:43pm

I found this link somewhere on the Classroom 2.0 site.
http://skypeintheclassroom.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/lets-build-a-co...

It might be the start of a skype educators community

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Permalink Reply by angelo on December 9, 2008 at 7:13am

Chris brought up some valid points and thank you all for your input.

I imagine my major role will be in "screening" potential guests or classes.

I am not the most imaginative person, but can see student interaction taking place from different locations to add an additional perspective - level of learning.

Perhaps an online discussion with students from different countries regarding a piece of literature. Perhaps even North / South discussion of deep Civil War issues with kids in Alabama. The opportunity for an 8th grade class just ending the constitution to speak to an adult or students of History in England. Students studying the Holocaust in my school communicating with kids studying in an Israeli classroom - or German classroom.

I am looking for sparks. With so many great gasoline can toting educators on my staff, that is all it will take.

Anyone interested in something like this and still in the beginning stage like us? I can certainly connect you with some great teachers.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Parent on December 16, 2008 at 3:51pm

I love this idea. I'm a Middle School social studies teacher in North Hollywood, California. I am trying hard to engage my 8th Grade class by using technology. I would love to collaborate with one of your teachers, particularly one teaching 8th grade American history. We could possibly work on a unit? I have a website with my information.

www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/7th8th

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Permalink Reply by Dawid de Villiers on December 17, 2008 at 1:09am

Hi Angelo. We are definitely interested in linking our students up with other students through Skyping. We are in a small rural town in New Zealand on the North Island and use this type of technology to widen and deepen their experiences.

Dawid de Villiers

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Permalink Reply by Anne Mirtschin on January 6, 2009 at 3:31pm

Hi Dawid What age are your students? I teach in Australia, love to use skype for videoconferencing. and your time zones are so much more suitable to us when using skype. We also live in a small rural town.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Cook on December 17, 2008 at 6:58am

I'm a jack-of-all-trades Grade 7 teacher in rural New Brunswick, Canada. That is, I teach Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art and Health. Having said that, I prefer LA.

I would also love to connect my fairly-sheltered kids with other 12-14 year olds around the world. All my students have laptops, so we are able to communicate effectively with other students around the world. I'm new to teaching and new to technology, but as a teacher, I'm willing to learn too!

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Permalink Reply by angelo on December 17, 2008 at 11:13am

Great news from you all. Thank you for expressing the interest. I am going to get this info out to staff, and we will see what becomes of this after winter break.

Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on December 17, 2008 at 11:36am

I've been thinking a lot about this, and am thinking it might be nice to have something here at Classroom 2.0 to address this.

A database would be a lot of work, but ultimately might be really worthwhile. A database would have the advantages of allowing for feedback or ratings, and easy search.

A wiki, on the other hand, could get up very fast, but wouldn't be "relational." Meaning, if an educator wanted to list that they could work with a remote classroom in more than one topic, they'd have to list themselves in both places. If they created a profile page for themselves, though, they could just link to that profile in a hierarchical wiki that was organized by topics and/or geography.

It would be easy to associate such a service under http://collaborate.classroom20.com http://connect.classroom20.com or something like that, but it would need some folks to either create or oversee. I'm wondering if anyone has used Zoho to create an "application" and if such a think might work for this. Otherwise, I'm somewhat inclined to start with a wiki and then move to a database once it's shown that people really want this.

Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by angelo on December 17, 2008 at 11:41am

I am interested in this --- thus the first post.

I think adding to the data base would take a little time as events occur. I hope that by the end of January I would be able to add several teachers from my staff and several of the folks who have responded here.

I think an ever growing list of "known to be legitimate" teachers would be a great benefit. Also, the more lessons done and shared, the more inspiration for additional activities.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine on January 3, 2009 at 3:34pm

I like the idea of a database similar to the original epals where a teacher could search on a grade level, content area and timezone.

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Permalink Reply by Mea on January 6, 2009 at 12:23pm

a wiki directory....http://skypeinschools.pbwiki.com/

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Permalink Reply by Traci on January 6, 2009 at 9:38am

Hi! I am also interested in connecting with classrooms around the world using Skype. I am a tech coordinator at an elementary school in Illinois.
I have a first grade teacher who follows the Iditarod each year. We would love to get connected with a class(es) along the route, or even a musher's family. Another idea was skyping with soldiers that we write to - is this possible? I just started using skype over winter break with my family - we love it. I am sure it will become a standard of communication soon. I am anxious to use this with students. A question came up about permssions for this? any ideas on how to cover this legally? It should probably be added to our AUP for next year.