Why rely
solely on textbooks and the internet for research when your students can Skype
with an expert? How about having students develop their own questions to
further their learning?
A handful
of Los Altos teachers are turning to Skype and Skype in the Classroom to
satisfy student curiosity and transform the acquisition of content knowledge into
an engaging dialogue. We asked Lily Alberts and Melissa Dowling to contribute
to our blog for a guest post on how they are incorporating Skype within their
classrooms. If you teach in Los Altos and would like support with using Skype
in your class, please contact Ellen Kraska at ekraska@lasdschools.org.
Why Skype?
Skype is a great tool to
connect students to professionals when they can’t visit them physically. This
technology also helps students become globally aware of people that live in
different places and are of different cultures. It’s also free!
We
started using Skype because we wanted our students to be able to get all of
their wonderful questions answered. By using this technology it puts the
learning back on our students. Students use their curiosity to come up
with questions that help them dive deeper.
Our Approach
We
looked through our curriculum for topics that another professional/person would
have more insight or first hand experience. Then we used our personal networks
and Skype websites to find specific people to join our class for a Skype.
In
my classroom, I thought it would be fun to find a scientist who could talk
about the environment that they study. I was not able to find one at the
time, but while researching I found an explorer, Mark Wood, on the Skype
website for educators that had explored both polar regions. He was
sponsored by Skype and had talked with classrooms before. During our
interview the students were super engaged and talked about it for weeks after.
Mark Wood our interviewee talked about his travels, his gear, his
experiences, animals he had seen, etc. He showed our students a polar
bear tooth, Inuit glasses (which connected to our Island of the Blue
Dolphin book), and some of his gear. He even helped the students
understand the difference of climate in the polar regions. He was
fabulous!
-Melissa Dowling
In
my classroom, we were reading a story called “A Very Important Day”. This story
was about multiple families who immigrated to the US and on this important day,
they were all becoming US citizens. While we were studying the story, many of
my students had numerous questions about this citizen process. They were all
wonderful questions; however, I realized that I could not answer most of them.
It just so happens that one of my friends, Chris Frost, was getting his
citizenship that same week. I connected with him and told him what we were
doing in class and I asked if he would be willing to skype with my students. He
agreed and on our skype interview, all of my students were able to get their
questions answered and more! My students were so engaged and had fun asking him
questions about his homeland, Scotland.
-Lily Alberts
Before
both our interviews, we had students brainstorm questions that they would want
the person to answer. We then picked about ten questions for the students to
ask and wrote up a script so that students would know what to ask. To help make
a successful interview/ conversations, we created roles for each student in the
class. Our jobs were: greeter, closer, interviewers, data collectors,
photographers, Google Earth/ Maps, and bloggers.
Student roles such as "Google Mapper" differentiate student responsibilities during the Skype video call. |
Tips for Using Skype in Your Classroom
1.
Have the students practice introducing themselves and talking in front of
a camera.
2.
Have students sit on the floor close together so that they all can be
seen.
3.
Talk to students about minimizing background noises.
4.
Talk with students about lag time and if there is a lag to speak slower
or pause to restart.
5.
Be sure to specifically teach each individual job-especially photography. During the call, students
tend to get a bit camera happy and forget that a blurry picture is not a good
one.
Our Next Steps
We
both look forward to Skyping again. Our ideas for new interviews are
many. Here are a few... someone who works on a ranch (ranchos), someone
who lives on the prairie (Sarah, Plain and Tall), a geologist (rocks and
minerals), an electrician (magnetism and electricity), an author, a zookeeper,
another class in California or another country- the possibilities are endless!
Contributed by Lily Alberts, Loyola Fourth Grade Teacher
and Melissa
Dowling, Almond Fourth Grade Teacher