Part of the Cool Sites series

Image courtesy of @teflpet.

In the picture above you can see a great friend of mine, Emma Herrod, and her son who have video-conferenced with my classes and workshops. When the teachers in my last workshop interviewed Emma via Skype about our interaction through Skype they were excited about technology. Most of the teachers had been reluctant towards technology but Skype is one of those fantastic free tools that gets teachers new to technology motivated to try the technology. For this reason, I love to show teachers and administrators Skype. Skype is one of the top tools I introduce to teachers, administrators, and my students. This tool has tremendous learning potential, is free, easy to use, and has incredible buy-in.

I have been fortunate to have people in my Skype network who will Skype with me at the spur of the moment or make themselves available for my various classes in Germany. This year I have been fortunate to Skype in the following ways:

• Emma and her son Skyped my class of 5 year-olds. Her son taught my young language learners how to make an origami box.
• Emma also Skyped my adult learners to answer their questions about the UK elections and to teach them British idioms.
• Steven Anderson has Skyped my administrators, teachers I’ve trained, and adult classes. Topics usually include what makes a great Skype lesson and the ideas for integrating Skype in schools.
• Matthew Farber’s sixth grade class Skyped my adult class and answered questions about the differences between Germany and the US.
• Candace Townsley’s sixth grade class Skyped middle school students, my director, and toddlers about the Wild West.
• I have Skyped with several educators to train them online or their staff. Please feel free to ask me to Skype with your staff! I love doing this!

In the process of training teachers to integrate Skype effectively with their classes and using Skype to get my German students to interact with students worldwide, I have found several incredible resources. Feel free to share these resources with other teachers. Consider showing Skype to teachers taking the first steps with technology and who may be very reluctant to try integrating technology in their classrooms.

Skype in Education

Technology 4 Kids Wiki: Skype Resources
Using Skype at School (The Dummies Series)
Skype in School Wiki
50 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom
Student Inter-school Debating with Skype by Lois Smethurst
Giving Students Skype Jobs by Langwitches
Skype an Author Wiki
10 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom
Motivating Adult Learners: Skype an Expert

Finding Classes to Skype

List of Classrooms Ready to Skype
Want Ads by Classes Wanting to Skype for Specific Project
Skype Other Classrooms- List by Sue Waters
EPals Global Community

Recording Skype Sessions

Automatically Recording Skype Calls with MP3 Skype
15 Apps for Recording Skype
Using PowerGramo

More Resources

Improving Skype Calls by Sue Wyatt
How to Produce Video Interviews for Your Blog With Skype
Using VuRoom to Hold A Skype Conference
Improving Skype Calls by Sue Wyatt

Langwitches Presentation: Around the World with Skype

One of the best Skype webinars I have seen! Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano’s Presentation, Around the World with Skype!

Challenge:

Try any of these resources and blog about your experience. Blogging helps you reflect and decide how you can apply this learning to improve your instructional methods.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are your ideas for integrating Skype into the classroom?

In addition to this blog I have been posting a few times at the Cooperative Catalyst blog, which is a fantastic forum to read various opinions on how we can transform education. The educators have vast experience and pour their hearts out in every post. This post I originally posted on the Cooperative Catalyst blog and wanted to share with you.

Give a child a cardboard box and magic happens.

The ratty, old box becomes an airplane and the child the pilot or a hospital and the child the doctor. The cardboard box takes them on adventures and helps them explore imaginary places in their minds. The cardboard box brings them joy and inspires creativity and imagination. With a few tools, they are inspired to build upon, transform, and reinvent their cardboard boxes.

Then our children are sent to schools….

which replace the former boxes. They are taught that learning happens within walls. They are taught to learn a certain way. They must sit in uncomfortable desks for long periods of time. They must remain silent and do work. They must follow the rules and stay away from the Internet. They must stop playing and daydreaming and listen to their teachers. They must sit for hours and fill out the bubbles of a test and if they don’t do it correctly then they’re forced to repeat the gruesome cycle for another year. This type of education prepares them to work in cubicles. The children who are unfortunate to be born in bad neighborhoods suffer the worst of schooling. Their schools often look like prisons. This type of education prepares them to be in prisons. In general, most of our students are learning to follow the rules, listen to authority, and forget the imagination and creativity they had as children with cardboard boxes.

Many of us have heard Sir Ken Robinson’s message, “Schools kill creativity.” This is the problem, but what is the solution?

We want our children to be creative and create. We shouldn’t want them to think outside the cardboard box; we should want them to transform and revolutionize the box just like they used to do with cardboard boxes. See, we inherently are gifted with the ability to dream. When we are children even in the worst conditions we still come out dreaming and seeing the world as it should be. Our imaginations take us to better worlds and we dream idealistically. We don’t see the barriers of reality placed by others. We don’t just see ratty, old boxes.

This is the problem, but what is the solution? So how do we as educators ensure our schools don’t kill creativity? How do we become catalysts for change?

How do we begin to reverse the damage of schooling?

We need to find ways to convince teachers not on this forum to use technology not because our students use it or will be expected to in their careers. We need to convince teachers to use technology to tear down our classroom walls. Use technology to show students that their voices can travel the world just like ours voices do when we tweet, update a status on Facebook, share a blog post, or collaborate on a ning. We need to convince teachers to use technology to motivate students to continuously research and to show them that their work transcends beyond the class bulletin board.

We need to convince teachers to develop Personal/Passionate Learning Networks (PLNs) so they hear these messages and learn to reflect and evolve their instructional practices.

These aren’t the only solutions, just the beginning.

Yet, how do we inspire teachers to react and act?

How do we go beyond spreading the word through blogs, conferences, and workshops and get teachers to act?

I believe we have educator leaders in our Personal Learning Networks (PLN) who get buy-in. Here are things I have seen them do:

• They are passionate in their writing and presentations.
• They show real examples of how these ideas impact students.
• They commit personal time to ensuring the educators they speak to have the resources to carry out the action. Often this is in a wiki or posted on their blogs.
• They record their presentations and spread them. We should never be embarrassed to be viral. I don’t see this as self-promotion. We need to be louder and not worry about offending others. In fact, we will offend others, because anyone changing a system does. We want our messages spread. Celebrities and even our youth do not find any shame in putting up their videos on Youtube, etc. That is why they go viral or become trending topics.
• They research the art of giving presentations. They watch the TED Talks and read books and blogs on this subject.
• They read books and blogs by revolutionary thinkers.

Does this describe you? Were you a bit embarrassed to think it did? Don’t be! We need educator leaders to be fed up, stand up, and begin spreading a message of change. We need the goal to inspire reaction and action. So now how do we as educator leaders begin to collaborate and add power to this message?

Challenge:

Let’s collaborate to find a way to change the system.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!