Monday, July 21, 2014

Skype in the Classroom

Ways I have used Skype in the classroom and ways I have envisioned using Skype in the classroom...

  • I had a parent (who was stationed over seas in Afghanistan) Skype in for all plays, band & choir performances and class productions.
  • For our school's "bump" day we could have each classroom be paired with a lower and higher grade level classroom to see where they will be next year and introduce them to some current students in the grade above them as well as the teacher.  This will also help to minimize the schedule changes and logistical nightmare that this day has been in years past.
  • It would be great to record lessons and send video messages of important lessons to students who were absent or to parents who want to know HOW we are teaching certain concepts (such as common core math).
  • Parents could volunteer to Skype in and be the guest speaker on relevant topics that they are experts on.  Parents could Skype in to the younger grades and do read alouds.

Watch how this school in California incorporated Skype in their instruction to connect student learning with peers across the world!  Click here!

Video Tutorials

Share your screen via Skype...here

How to send a video message...here

Group video calls...here

7 comments:

  1. I really like your idea to use Skype to include an overseas parent! Did you have to have permission from the entire class to Skype with the overseas parent?

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  2. We did not need special permission (that we were aware of). We got permission from administration and made sure all the students in the class had permission from parents to be photographed/videotaped. And we made sure not to zoom in on individual students (unless it was her son).

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  3. I love the idea of using Skype in the classroom. You have put some ideas in my head of how I could use it with my health class. How cool would it be to have my students do a project where they had to Skype with students in different countries about healthy eating or exercising and then compare the results of different responses from each country. Or I could also ask a presenter to virtually join our classroom about experiences that they have had with topics related to health! Thank you for your examples!

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  4. I'm with Teresa--I love the idea of having a conference with an overseas parent! However, why don't we do this for a lot of conferences? Wouldn't this be more effective than trying to call a parent?

    I would also love to have an author Skype in with my students. On the bright side, I get a lot of information about having guest speakers, and it would be so authentic for have students listen to and speak to a poet or writer that they have read. It's difficult for me though because a lot of the authors we read are (unfortunately) dead...

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    1. Cate, dead authors aren't a problem. You need someone to play the part of the dead author and Skype in.

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  5. I wish I would have thought about using this a few years ago when my dad was in Kabul. We partnered with a school over there, but it would have been SO motivating to see them on Skype. Like we keep saying, it would be a great way to get guest speakers into the classroom.

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  6. I did not know you could share your screen with Skype. This creates so many more opportunities to use it in the classroom and helping to bring others into your classroom! I would love to bring people who use math in their professions into the classroom, the screen sharing would allow presenters to show different interactive tools that they use to help them in the math!

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