“Getting Started with Skype” Info- Flyer.
The guide encompasses step-by-step help from Skype projects, preparing your students for a Skype call, transforming a Skype call into a Learning call to student job responsibilities before, during and after the actual call.
Teachers all over the world are using Skype in innovative ways. We will not hear and learn from most of these classroom learning opportunities.
Part of the reason I created this site, was not only for educators to find and connect with a potential Skype partner, but also give a space to teachers to document, reflect and share their skyping experience in the classroom.
Some AMAZING teachers are taking the time though to share their experiences and ideas with others to learn and grown from. Becoming part of a cycle which encompasses learning>experiencing>amplifying> sharing, is PART of 21st century learning (or simply the way we learn in the present!)
image licensed under CC by Ryancr- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/142455033/
As a teacher, you know when your students are excited about learning. It is what you work for. Is is part of the passion that makes you a true educator.
I had the honor of witnessing such display of excitement and learning a couple of weeks ago, as I spent a day of learning with educators participating in the Edweek2011 in St. Jospeh, Missouri. Not only did I want to talk to teachers and administrators about the opportunities of using Skype in the classroom, I wanted to show them first hand. I wanted them to experience the potential it could bring into their own schools by connecting, communicating and collaborating with others around the world. But the connection could not only be about the connection via Skype itself. How can we make a connection to curriculum content and 21st century skills and literacies? How can we turn an ordinary connection via Skype into a LEARNING CALL?
Using the concept of “The Digital Learning Farm: Students as Authentic Contributors”by Alan November, I had arranged a Skype call with Mrs. Yollis and her third grade students. Neither party knew the geographic location of each other. It was each groups’ goal to find their respective location by asking closed questions that could be answered with a “Yes” or a “No”. Mrs. Yollis had prepared her 3rd graders by distributing specific job responsibilities during a Skype call in order to work together to figure out the location of their connection partner.
I hope you will be able to see, hear and feel the excitement of learning these students displayed by watching the edited video recording (for time purposes) of the call.
Make no mistake, simply by assigning these job responsibilities to (groups of or individual) students will not automatically create a learning call, nor will it welcome such an open display of learning excitement into your classroom. The credit goes to Mrs. Yollis for having prepared here students with her own enthusiasm and thirst for learning the entire school year up until this point.
The learning call was well framed by preparing students ahead of time. All of Mrs. Yollis’ students had had previous experiences with authentic contributions to their classroom learning community. Just take a closer look at Mrs. Yollis’ fabulous classroom blog documenting and describing their shared learning.
During the Skype call, Mrs Yollis continued to guide and focus students on the task at hand. It was obvious to us “on the other side of the screen”, that students knew their job responsibilities and worked well together.
Once the call was over, the learning continued by reflecting on the experience on their classroom blog. Mrs. Yollis posted questions for her students to comment on. The class also received comments from teachers who had participated from Missouri as well as blog readers as far away as Australia.
image licensed under Creative Commons by Sean Nash
Image licensed under Creative Commons by Sean Nash
Read more about Mystery Skype calls:
No lesson, no event and no learning should stand alone. We connect what we learn with our experiences of the past and store newly acquired skills, facts and experience to be retrieved in the future. Previously, I wrote about framing a field trip with Google Earth. I try to make the case of the importance to allowing students to learn to make connections, to not just expose them to a learning experience without pre-knowledge activation and reflection “to put things in perspective” to follow. In Assessment of Learning via Skype, I shared the following image
A Skype call should never be done in isolation. We should not treat a video conference any different than a field trip. The actual experience should be framed by pre-activities that activate prior knowledge and post-activites that give students the opportunity to reflect, create and connect these new experiences.
Credit for middle image “experience” by tombodor
I want to share with you a fourth grade learning experience. Last month I mentioned in the post “What do you have to lose?” how our forth grade teacher took the time to upload her students’ book trailer videos to her classroom blog. One of the authors of these books, Babara O’Connor, received a Google Alert of her name and book title which led her to the classroom blog. We were able to set up a Skype conference with her. I set up a test call with Mrs. O’Connor ahead of the actual Skype call with students to make sure that both of our video and audio settings were set up correctly. In the classroom students started brainstorming questions they would ask during the Skype call. We talked about questions that could only receive a “yes” or “no” answer and formulated questions that would solicit a more in depth answer. The entire class contributed in the brainstorming session. In the end the questions were narrowed down to 10.
1. What do you like to write about? 2. Where do you get your ideas to write your books? 3. When you write your books what inspires you and why? 4. What was your favorite book as a child and why? 5. How long does it take to write a book and why does the process take that long? 6. What is your favorite part of writing and why? 7.Do you believe you have to be a good reader in order to be a good writer? 8. Where did you go to school, and were you inspired in school to become a writer? 9. What is your favorite kind of genre and why? 10. If you had to turn one of your books into a movie which one would it be and why?
Students were assigned different jobs before the Skype call, such as greeter, introductions, videographer, photographer and individual questions. Student then “practiced” speaking their part ahead of time using PhotoBooth. They recorded themselves speaking slowly, clearly and looking into the camera. Their classroom teacher confirmed that this exercise made a big difference in their confidence level. Everyone was very excited when the Skype call actually took place.
Welcome Mrs. O'Connor to our Classroom
Recording our Skype Visit
Mrs. O'Connor shares books that inspired her to becone a writer
Take a look at the video below that shows a few snipets of the call. http://vimeo.com/18438258 In order to frame the Skype call as a learning call, the experience could not end when we hung up with Mrs. O’Connor. For students it would include blogging about it afterward to reflect on their experience and think about what they had learned from it. Students also got inspired to read more by Mrs. O’Connor after the Skype call. 
What did we observe as teachers? How can we take this experience to the next level? Although students were confident demonstrating speaking skills during the Skype call, it was a “back and forth”- “question and answer” session. We would like students to go beyond the ping pong method of “conversing”, but truly be part of a conversation. Not only did we need to go beyond asking questions that inspire more than yes/no answers, we will also need to practice responses that will go beyond: “Thank you” or “That is interesting”. Students were asked to reflect on their “learning experience” during the Skype call by commenting on the classroom blog.
After watching the video of our skype call with Mrs. O’Connor, I want to know your thoughts. Please answer the following questions in your comment: 1. What did you learn from our skype call? 2. What part of the skype session did you like the best? WHY was that your favorite part? Remember the components of our preparation: brainstorming questions, practicing with photo booth, talking with Mrs. O’Connor.
See a sample of student comments below:
Student Comments
We had a good lesson on how to write more reflective and reminded them of the commenting etiquette they had drafted for their class previously.
4th Grade Commenting Etiquette
As we were going through the comments in moderation, we noticed that they most students followed the etiquette beautifully for the the most part. We noticed that the week parts in the comments were:
We also noticed that an important component was missing in our commenting etiquette:
We pulled up a few suggestions for comment starters and highlighted words to integrate in our comments.
Comment Starters
If you want to read more about teaching commenting, take a look at a previous post “Blogging Lessons on Commenting” on Langwitches.
Our 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Z, and I are planning to upgrade a Social Studies unit about the American Revolution.
We want to expand the following content and exceed the standards traditionally taught in the textbook unit:
Our overall goals beyond the curriculum content is:
Ideas:
WANTED!
We are looking for the “perfect” collaboration partner(s) to help us “pioneer” learning about the American Revolution in the 21st Century. We are requesting the following criteria of our potential partner teacher/class:
If you match our “Wanted- Poster” and are interested to partner with us on this adventure, please contact me to discuss possible collaboration.
Skyping with students is great! They are learning…There is no doubt in my mind…!
Skyping Hub- Learning Hub
…but… what about formal assessment and documentation of this kind of learning.
I enjoy helping other teachers get excited and comfortable using Skype as a tool to connect with other classrooms or experts around the world. I want to make it explicit, once again, that it is NOT about the tool, but about the skills and the learning.
In order to streamline the process of converting a Skype Call into a Learning Call and to make it more visual, I created the following images and handouts. Please feel free to use them in your own classroom.
You can download all of them as a pdf file here.
A Skype call should never be done in isolation. We should not treat a video conference any different than a field trip. The actual experience should be framed by pre-activities that activate prior knowledge and post-activites that give students the opportunity to reflect, create and connect these new experiences.
Pre-Activities include:
Pre-Activities Job Description:
Have students prepare for a call by filling out the handout below. You can easily ask them to formulate and share questions on your classroom blog as well.
Depending on the geographic location, have students “orientate” themselves to WHERE they will be connecting to by answering the following questions.
During the Call Activities include:
During Skype Call Job Description:
I have written several times about engaging students during a Skype call by given them specific jobs and responsibilities. You can listen to my 5th graders explaining each job a little more.
Once the Skype call has ended, it is important to help your students debrief and reflect on their experience. As their teacher you will want to assess in one shape or form the learning that occurred. Is skyping making a difference in their learning? Have they learned something that could not have been taught via a textbook? What was the engagement and motivational level of your students?
Here are some ideas on how to help your students reflect on their Skype experience and help you assess their learning. Give students choices on how to debrief by offering or alternating using different media.
Post-Call Activities include:
Post-Activities Job Description:
Take a peek into a debriefing session after a Skype Call from a third grade class.
What are some of the activities you do to frame a video conference experience for your students? How do you document and assess the learning taking place with video conferencing?
IMPORTANT!
It is important that we start documenting and assessing student learning (formally and informally) from 21st Century tools. Most assessments are not designed to take new forms of learning into consideration. The more data and documentation we have, the more we can move towards a new kind of “testing and assessing“.
Please contribute by asking your students to take the following survey about their learning via Skype. Once you have had your students take the survey, please e-mail me , so I can share the results with you.
Please disseminate the link to the survey in your own PLN by blogging or tweeting about it.
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I was made aware of this opportunity via Twitter:
On Thursday November 11, 2010, the Harlan Institute will be virtually visiting classrooms across the country in the inaugural SCOTUS-Skype-Teach-A-Thon. As a complement to FantasySCOTUS.org, the Harlan Institute has trained a group of Mentors to to deliver virtual lectures to classrooms using Skype video chats.
Our mentors consist of attorneys, law professors, and law students who are all committed to raising awareness of the Constitution and the Supreme Court. During the inaugural SCOTUS-Skype-Teach-A-Thon, mentors will engage your class and discuss the most fascinating cases before the Supreme Court this term, including Snyder v. Phelps, Schwarzenegger v. EMA, NASA v. Nelson, Connick v. Thompson, and Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting. [...]
If you are interested is interested in participating, please sign up your class at FantasySCOTUS.org and request a mentor for your class.
We have over 50 Blogs under the Around The World with 80 Schools umbrella. Some more active than others. They are a great way to read and explore HOW others are using Skype to connect their students and opening up the classroom walls.
Take a look at:
Take a look at these blogs, start commenting on them as well to ask questions or give feedback to the owner. Collect ideas for your next Skype connections.
GET INSPIRED to create and start your own blog!
Just by being a member on the AWW80S site, you are entitled to a free blog.
Simply click on “My Blogs” in the task bar at the top of this window (you have to be logged in). Then click on “Create a Blog!”.
Then enter the name, which will become part of your blog’s URL address.
Once your blog is created, you will be able to customize it with a different theme, write pages and posts and start sharing your experiences. The AWW80S blogs are created on the WordPress platform. There are many tutorials available on the internet to help you get started. I have created the following pdf file as well, that will show you step by step instructions.
I can’t stress the importance of sharing enough! There are so many educators who have never heard of Skype or need extra inspiration and encouragement. Even if you are a newbie yourself, your perspective, successes and (yes even!) failures are important to share.
If you are interested in hearing more about the “Moral Imperative of Sharing” take a look at Dean Shareski’s K12 Online Conference 2010 video presentation.
Looking forward to see more blogs on Around The World with 80 Schools sharing the incredible work each and every one of you are doing!
I wanted to share some great resources about Skyping in the classroom with our AWW80S members. I am also adding the following links to the Skype Resource Page here on the AWW80S site.
One of our newest members, Bill Ferriter, @wferriter.
Bill blogs on The Tempered Radical, Tweets as @plugusin. and is author of two books, Building a Professional Learning Community at Work and Teaching the iGeneration
He shares a wealth of Skype resources on his Digitally Speaking Wiki.