Thing 13: Attend Session of K12 Online Conference 2009

I just went to the K12 Online Conference 2009 in my family room with a cat in my lap! I chose a session under the “Classroom” cateogory presented by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano entitled Around the World with Skype. She did a very thorough job of introducing the use of Skype in the classroom, covering useful topics such as:

• Why Skype? Besides increasing everyone’s global and cultural awareness, you can meet with authors, illustrators, peer classrooms around the world, eyewitnesses to international events, your own classroom teacher on a trip, subject area experts, community members, famous people, and on and on.
• How to Find Partners. Around the World with 80 Schools Ning, Online Projects 4 Teachers, Skye for Educators, Skype an Author Network, and The Eduskypers Phonebook, are a few of the possibilities Sylvia mentions in her presentation.
• How to Get Started. First consider timezones, age-appropriateness of group and subject matter. Email prospective Skypers. Coordinate day and time for initial test session. Send a reminder email that morning.
• Prepare Students. Talk about proper behavior, communication skills, and any hand signals you may need to use – certainly no “bunny ears!” Remind students they are being seen as ambassadors of their school and country. They should look into the camera (not at themselves on the screen), look engaged, and listen attentively. Remind them of internet safety rules (first names only, no addresses). Have a plan for when they’re not talking: take notes, etc.
• During the Call. Consider using the chat feature to communicate with other end to get call started and address any issues that arise. Minimize background noise; remove disruptive students. Sylvia includes a suggested timeline, some possible questions, and some examples of actual Skype sessions.
• Document Your Connections. Take snapshots during the session, use online video and audio screen captures e.g. Jing and Call Recorder. Have non-participating students make observations and ask questions amongst themselves using a backchannel program such as TinyChat, Chatzy, or Today’s Meet. Use Google maps to make a geographical log of your connections – include photos!
• Evaluate Your Session. Sylvia recommends several questions to help make your next session better.
• Benefits. 21st Century Skills, Communication skills (presentation/public speaking), heightens English-language usage awareness when English is not your contacts 1st language, increase student participation, etc.
• Challenges. Classroom management issues, technical issues, helping administrators and parents understand how using Skype is advantageous to education.

This was a well-spent half-hour (including this exercise of documenting my experience for future use on this blog!). We are in the process of purchasing webcams for a couple of classrooms in our school as a “test” run for including Skype as a common practice throughout our curriculum. Having never participated in a session before, this overview was extremely helpful in detailing what I need to think about and communicate with others as they begin this journey. I will recommend this session to all my teachers for viewing this summer as they consider possible uses for video communication in their classrooms.