Skype in Elementary

I have arranged for two teachers at our district, in two different schools, to have their students collaborate via skype on google docs. What do you think would be the best way to create accounts for these students to use in skype? (Once the student release forms have been signed by parents.) Should I create one account for every two, or three students? What are your ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on August 20, 2008 at 11:29am

I'm not sure you can legally set up accounts for children under 13 and be in compliance with COPPA.

You might have to use the teachers' accounts.

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Permalink Reply by PJ Giles on August 20, 2008 at 1:54pm

Good thinking. thank you for the suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Mirtschin on August 21, 2008 at 4:45am

As long as the teachers are using the skype and google accounts, the collaboration can continue. If you have a smart board or a data show for projecting onto a wall, the class can collaborate as a whole or is that not workable? I have used google docs and google chat for collaboration with a school in the USA and the classes work as a whole. Google forms have been designed to get data from individual students. The results have then been dropped into a google sheet and downloaded onto the school network, for individual student use. Once formatted, analyzed and charted the teacher can upload them onto the shared google doc.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Wilson on August 21, 2008 at 5:39am

PJ,

Steve is right, you cannont legally give them their own email account. I have wondered about this for a while since so many Web2.0 sites require an email to log in. I was very happy to discover this edublogger post: Creating Student Accounts Using One Account on Gmail

From what I've heard, parents and admin are very comfortable knowing that all the email is filtered to your account. I think this will work for them to all log in to Google Docs, but have not tried it myself. Let us know if it does. Sounds like an awesome project!

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine on August 21, 2008 at 10:28am

I created one account that I use for skype calls with my students. Students are always under my direct supervision throughout all skype calls to assure their safety. I leave the status to 'away' or 'unavailable' and check preferences about sending and receiving calls/video.