Skype: Connecting Classrooms Across the World

I remember in elementary school, we have pen pals in our class that we could practice writing letters to and then "mail" the letters and recieve a response. This project was supposed to help us learn to communicate and be able to ask questions of our friends. When I began my undergrad for teaching, we had our students use skype to connect with their peers in other schools within the state of Maine. It was amazing to me to see how far "pen pals" could go! Skype has made it easy to connect students and teachers across the nation increasing the amount of resources we have access to. I think it would be exciting to have my students have peer pen pals across the world that they could talk with and relate to. This would help with their global awareness that has become the topic of many employers hiring the new work force. Teaching the students in school how to effectively use Skype would help them when they enter the job market by proving them with the tools to hold conference calls and interact through a screen with their collegues of potential clients. I know I use Skype in my personal life to talk with my parents (who live out of the country) and my friends and family in the North East. Allowing students to connect with others utilizing the technology we have could only benefit our students right? Although I could not see any negative reasons to not use Skype in the classroom, there are skeptics who are concerned about introducing the students to technology that could allow them to connect with the wrong people. I think if we teach our students how to use the tool correctly they will know how to handle situations that may arise. Not only would Skype be able to connect students to students and teachers to students, it could also be used as part of a lesson. I read an article about using Skype to bring the Authors of chidlrens books to the classrooms (Condron, 2011)! This was an amazing idea to me. Think about all the influential people our students could be exposed to with the simple use of a computer. The students would be able to formulate questions and ask the speaker in an environment where they may feel less intimated because the person is not right in from of them per say. Another suggestion they make is about having parent/teacher conferences via Skype (Condron, 2011). This could allow parents to not leave work and still have the face to face interaction with the teacher that a phone conference does not allow them to have. Below is a video using Skype to have an author talk with students! This is just another way we can use technology to better educate our students!

Artell, M. (2009, 3 19). Youtube. Retrieved 9 23, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI6jhq8kty0

Condron, A. (2011). News, Recommendations and Resources. Retrieved 9 23, 2011, from Teach Hub: http://www.teachhub.com/using-skype-classroom