Silvia Tolisano, the school’s 21st Century Learning Specialist started the program ‘Around the World in 80 Schools’ to bring more awareness to students. “We are promoting global awareness and global connections. Yes, today we talked to Peru and it was wonderful and this shows the students there is a world out there.”
Alrededor del Mundo con Skype (Spanish Version)
Here are links mentioned in my presentation “Around the World with Skype” (English Version) and “Alrededor del Mundo con Skype” (Spanish Version) and further tips & resources for teacher who are looking to integrate Skype into their classroom.
Grand-Friends and Fairytales’ reading hour with elderly people in the community and our Kindergarten classes
Make the topic of your skype call an extension of their learning or reinforecement of a concept, rather than an introduction. If the stuents have an existing background knowledge, they can ask much deeper and more involved questions.
Know something about the geographic location you are calling. Visit it prior to the call with Google Earht. Compare and contrast the community and location.
Devise and activity to practice descriptive language. When two groups of students described themselves over the voice connection and people on the other end had to guess which photograph matched the speaker.
Invest in a good USB microphone.
Start small and simple. Then start getting more and more connections and you will use it more and more.
Don’t try to make a big huge project project out of it the first time you use it. Just call us for 5 mins of meet and greet fun
There is a learning curve for the kids- the more they conference the better they become at learning how to converse, how to listen, how to think ahead to the next visit.
Give each student a world map and each time the class connects with someone, have the students place a dot and name next to where the individual was from to teach geography.
It’s definitely a work in progress , but I have seen the positive excitement, energy and learning that can result from using Skype to connect with others.
One teacher invited her administrator in for the first Skype call and got immediate support. Inviting parents in to a Skype call also guaranteed their support.
If a call doesn’t go well, keep trying.
Possible questions to ask for data collection purposes:
What is the weather like? Ask about temperature, seasons, etc
What time is it where you are located?
What books do you like to read?
What music do you like to listen to?
What movies are playing in the theatres right now?
Video Conferencia entre Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (langwitches.org) en Jacksonville, FL /USA y “Fundación de los Chicos” en Buenos Aires/Argentina.
Aprendizaje y enseñanza en el siglo XXi, proyectos de video conferencias, lecciones con SmartBoards, VoiceThread, blogs, capacitación de docentes y más…
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