Home » Video Conference » Recent Articles:

Skyping Teacher of the Week

I am honored to have been chosen the “Skyping Teacher of the Week” by one of our local TV stations, First Coast News

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.”

K12Online Presentation: Around the World with Skype

Around the World with Skype (English Version)

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.

Skype
http://www.skype.com

Skype connections mentioned:

Here are some great projects, listings and directories to help you find Skype connection partners

Screencapturing & Screencasting Programs:

Backchannel:

Assigned Roles for Students during Skype Calls.

  • Calendar
  • Greeter
  • Share
  • Q&A
  • Photographer
  • Videographer
  • Backchannel Writer
  • Google Maps Placemarks
  • Google Earth Distance
  • Blogger Live
  • Blogger- Word Problems
  • Data Form
  • Time Elapsed

Assigned Roles and their Descriptions

Assigned Roles to Printout

More Skype tips

  • 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?
  • What are your favorite television shows?
  • What does your flag look like?

Overcoming time zone challenges:

Resources

3 Essential Questions: Around the World with Skype

  1. Please share some of the benefits you have observed with our students as you are making connections around the world with skype.
  2. What are some of the obstacles you have faced AND overcome in connecting your class to a global community via video conference ?
  3. How are you connecting and integrating authentic learning via these global connections to your curriculum?

3 Preguntas :Alrededor del Mundo con Skype

  1. ¿Qué beneficios/ventajas  obtuvieron/has observado en  tus alumnos al hacer  conexiones   alrededor del mundo con Skype?
  2. ¿Cuáles son los obstáculos que has encontrado y/o superado al conectar con una comunidad global vía Skype?
  3. ¿Cómo logras integrar este aprendizaje auténtico en tus planes de estudios/en tus clases?

Aprendizaje en el Siglo XXI

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…

Aprendizaje en el Siglo XXI from langwitches on Vimeo.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Subscribe to Langwitches via Email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Choose a Category

In Need of Professional Development?

Contact
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano for customized workshops, coaching and presentations.
Video Conference sessions available.

For a list of sample sessions visit Globally Connected Learning .

Langwitches on Twitter

  • @tagoodwin "Global Literacy"as a right? 2b able 2read,write& communicate in a variety of platforms/media/ that know NO GEOGRAPHIC boundaries 1 day ago
  • @tagoodwin You and I ... having a conversation across oceans...the ability to connect and talking WITH the world...not just ABOUT the world. 1 day ago
  • @tagoodwin "Global Literacy" as an initiative? Unfortunately you might be right in some cases... :( 1 day ago
  • Would you mind sharing? RT @dwillard: @langwitches re: global lit. Our school just authored a "cultural competency curriculum" to do so.... 1 day ago
  • RT @rmbyrne Ken Burns on Storytelling ow.ly/b0RlX 1 day ago

Upcoming Conferences

Like Langwitches on Facebook

Visitor Maps

Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators

Guest Posts

Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

zoe

I invite few guest bloggers to share posts on Langwitches. This makes it especially rewarding to be able to present to my readers an incredible young lady. Zoe is growing by leaps and bounds as a blog writer and commenter. She is a fourth grader at the Martin J. Gottlieb …

(3 Comments)

Annotexting

annotexting

The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty. The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE. Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to …

(No Comments)

Teaching English through Film and Screenwriting…

YouTube

I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …

(No Comments)

Professional Development

edJEWcon- A Visual Reflection of a New Kind of Conference

edJEWcon-toolkit

I am slowly coming down from an incredible high this past week.  I was part of a team (Andrea Hernandez, Jon Mitzmacher and myself), that envisioned, organized and ran an education LEARNING conference. This was a first  for me, since I have only been a participant an/or  a presenter at such …

(No Comments)

Action Research- Quadblogging Trailer

If you are interested in following the blogs of the International Action Research teams on “Quality Writing through Blogging”, take a look at the following trailer and visit the classroom and student blogs to see for yourself the progress they are making, draw your own conclusions about blogging with students. …

(2 Comments)

Perspectives and Talking at Cross Purposes

perspective1

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. My own perspective  was …

(4 Comments)

What am I Reading?

Silvia's bookshelf: currently-reading

Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of GlobalizationLost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live SquidThe World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First CenturySECRETO BIEN GUARDADOThe Digital Diet: Todays Digital Tools in Small BytesFacebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

More of Silvia's books »
Silvia Tolisano's currently-reading book recommendations, reviews, quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

Action Research: Quality Writing on Blogs


In the month of March 2012, an International team of 4 elementary school classrooms are conducting Action Research about quality writing through blogging. You can support them by giving them an authentic global audience and modeling quality commenting on their posts.

Here are the participating classrooms with links to student blogs.
International School of Prague (3rd Grade)- Team Czech Republic
International School of Zug and Luzern- Team Switzerland ( 4th Grade)
Martin J. Gottlieb Day School- Team USA (4th Grade)
International School of Bangkok- Team Thailand (5th Grade)

21st Century Learning

The Evolution of the Classroom Schedule

schedule-pencils-1-1

Thank you to Andrea Hernandez for the image of the classroom schedule that inspired me to put the following  visual of the Evolution of the Classroom Schedule together. No Pencil Class> Computer Class> 21st Century Learning > Learning It will take classroom teachers, who understand that “21st Century Learning” cannot …

(No Comments)

Annotexting

annotexting

The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty. The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE. Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to …

(No Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm in Action

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

Screencasting Apps for the iPad

Explain Everything

Teaching ourselves, our students and other educators how to use screenshooting (images) and screencasting (video) tools is a relevant skill to have that integrates in so many areas. Think Tutorial Designers (A role from the Digital Learning Farm) or the Flipped Classroom model. Being able to create, share and take …

(7 Comments)

The Teacher as a Conductor of an Orchestra

Slide14

Should Teachers Be More Like Conductors? This bog post from 2009 took me to the following TED talk by Itay Talgam. Although I am not a musician, nor listen to much classical music, I was mesmerized. This TED talk was geared towards organization leaders, but I so agree with Tania …

(4 Comments)

Global Education

Perspectives and Talking at Cross Purposes

perspective1

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. My own perspective  was …

(4 Comments)

Walking the Walk: Action Research

back-up-tak-with-action

I have been blogging for 6 years now… I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches) I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part …

(4 Comments)

Curriculum21 Podcast Episode with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay

c21-podcast

I had the opportunity to speak to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Two educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives as well as thousands of other students and teachers from around the world. Vicki is a teacher from Camila Georgia. She blogs on the Coolcatteacher blog and …

(1 Comment)

Blogging With your Classroom

Hyperlinked Writing in the Classroom- From Theory to Practice

what2link2

This is the follow up post to the theoretical Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing. The post ended with Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom. I am ready to bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom! Can one just start “throwing” …

(6 Comments)

Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing

typwriter-hyperinked-writing

Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word “hyperlinked” is still being underlined in red as I …

(6 Comments)

Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

zoe

I invite few guest bloggers to share posts on Langwitches. This makes it especially rewarding to be able to present to my readers an incredible young lady. Zoe is growing by leaps and bounds as a blog writer and commenter. She is a fourth grader at the Martin J. Gottlieb …

(3 Comments)

iPads

iPad Apps and Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom iPads Apps

I felt it was worthwhile to update the Top Post (over 25,000 views) on Langwitches: Bloom’s Taxonomy for iPads I have added links to each app represented on the visual.   Remember: Exhibit memory of previously-learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. describe name find name list …

(6 Comments)

My Ten Most Used Apps to Become Fluent on the iPad

ipad

It is no secret, that I enjoy my iPad tremendously. I even proclaimed, now and then, that I love it! From the beginning, I approached the iPad with one goal in mind: I wanted to become fluent in using it. There is a distinct difference, in my opinion, between being …

(4 Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

Digital Storytelling

Transliteracy- QR Codes and Art

qr-code-jamie

Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means …

(11 Comments)

Why and How to Participate in Teddy Bears Around The World Project?

TBAW-project

I posted a few weeks ago about the ongoing Teddy Bears Around the World (now in its fourth year) project. The project blog and hub can be be found at http://www.langwitches.org/blog/travel/teddybearsaroundtheworld/ I have created a How-to-Guide in order to articulate how and why to join such a project, to make …

(3 Comments)

Teaching English through Film and Screenwriting…

YouTube

I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …

(No Comments)