In the past few years, the ways that humans communicate have changed; we can find millions of people on Facebook, give instant updates from Twitter, and talk face to face with anybody in the world through the video-chat system Skype (and it’s free!). This podcast, Skype in the Classroom, through edtechtalk, detailed new ways that teachers are utilizing Skype in their classroom.
The inspiration for this podcast came from the Skype educators website where they are currently testing a system for teachers to connect and interact with each other and with resources on the web. Teachers have the ability to add other teachers as contacts so that there can be constant and easy communication and exchanging of ideas. This new version of Skype also has a feature that allows educators to add their favorite resources to a database that is organized into different categories, such as arts, culture, and language. On top of that, there is a tab for guest speakers where teachers can go and recommend one or look for one on a specific topic. Like Delicious, Skype also has a feature where you can save some of your favorite things that you discover. That way, you won’t have to forget them or save the links in some other account.
The speakers say that using Skype has been very unique, fun, and enlightening in their classrooms. One teacher says that he used Skype in order to help his students better understand certain concepts while using real world examples; he asked many different experts to record a short discussion about certain topics so that his students could learn exactly what was going on in the real world and why these things are important. I imagine using Skype as a way to connect with students in other countries, almost like a pen-pal relationship. We could share what we are working on in class with them, they could do the same, and it would be all about exchanging ideas while also experiencing a new culture.
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