The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom

Sunday, February 15th 2009 by Neil Stephenson

GUEST POST BY NEIL STEPHENSON.

Neil Stephenson is a grade 6/7 teacher in Calgary, Alberta and has been his district’s 1:1 PD coordinator for the last three years. Neil speaks regularly about technology and inquiry based learning, and was chosen in 2007 as a Apple Distinguished Educator. You can follow Neil’s blog at Thinking In Mind.

Last year my students participated in a year-long, Humanities Project called the Cigar Box Project. In a nut shell, the students walked through Canadian History by “remixing” historical images and artifacts into their own creations, designed to express their understanding while allowing students to use technology to build a holistic understanding of history. Along the way, students crafted historical digital stories, as well as creating voice-recorded, self-assessments that accompanied each Cigar Panel. The project was inspired by the online exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and after our students created their “cigar box panels” last year, the Museum asked us if we would be willing to link our student creations with the National Museum. The kids were pretty excited! There are a lot more pieces to project, and if you are interested, you can read more about the project here and here.

One of the pieces of the project last year was Skypeing with Sheldon Posen, the curator at the National Museum. Since all of our students’ work (sketchbooks, iMovies, Cigar Panels, self-assessments, etc) was posted on student blogs, Sheldon was able to see and comment on the work. He immediately wanted to talk with the kids, not about his work, but about theirs, which was amazing. Using Skype, Sheldon was able to encourage my students, provide feedback on how the student creations compared to the historic panels, and speak about the curiosity the panels instilled in him. It was so powerful to see my grade 7 students fearlessly engaging with a PhD in Canadian History about their work!

This year I am teaching the project again, with some changes and improvements. One new layer is that another school just outside of our city has agreed to work through the same project at the same time as our students. The other teacher and myself use Skype (almost daily!) to collaborate, share resources, plan and track the progress of the project. I speak more with the other teacher through Skype than I do with most teachers in my school! Over the last 4 months, our students have been sharing resources, images and peer feedback through Google Docs, as well as providing providing editing suggestions through Voicethread. All of this has been possible because Skype makes it so easy for the other teacher and myself to collaborate and plan, so much that it feels like we are in the same building.

I have also used Skype to introduce and teach parts of the project to the other school. Similar to Skypeing with Sheldon last year, this year I have become the expert that walks the other students through parts of the project. We have also created some Skype accounts for our students, and have planned some upcoming collaboration times for our students to use Skype to share the historical understanding they are building. As you can see, Skype has played a key role in the success of the project and how I now plan my work on a regular basis.

28 Comments

Eve Benson

Monday, 16th February 2009 at 5:21 pm

I use skype personally and would like to bring it into my classroom. I have noticed that the quality is not reliable. Do you recommend a particular Web cam or have any other suggestions to improve the quality?
Thank you.

Kirsten Holland

Tuesday, 17th February 2009 at 12:21 am

We have had a student unable to attend school due to a very badly broken leg, but she has been able to partake in many of the lessons in class thanks to Skype.

guest_blogger

Thursday, 19th February 2009 at 1:08 pm

@eve – I have always used the webcam on my laptop (an Apple Macbook Pro). It has worked fine for what we have done. Once I set up an external video camera when we were talking to the Curator in Quebec. I did this only because it allowed him to have a wider angle view of the class.

@Kirsten – great idea – I have heard of other teachers doing similar things. Aren’t tools like Skype great!

JoeCorbett

Thursday, 26th February 2009 at 1:02 pm

@eve Benson If you are using a WIFI connection try to make sure you are close to the router. A wired connection would work best, maybe because it offers the fastest connection with the least amount of interference. Hope that helps!

Plans afoot « Andywhiteway’s Blog

Sunday, 1st March 2009 at 7:52 am

[...] of the elements I want to focus on playing with in my school. I remain incredibly excited about the possibilities of using SKYPE in the classroom, video-conferencing with other students around the world. [...]

Interviews Over Skype | ISTE’s NECC09 Blog

Friday, 20th March 2009 at 10:30 am

[...] in K-12 contexts, see Neil Stephenson’s guest post here on ISTEconnects from February 15th, “The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom.” Also check out Howe, Oklahoma, teacher Tammy Parks‘ November 2008 keynote at the Oklahoma [...]

Skype Hits The iPhone | ISTE’s NECC09 Blog

Tuesday, 31st March 2009 at 10:23 am

[...] app is also compatible with the iPod Touch giving that device some fresh bragging rights and yet another roll in the classroom. If you have any thoughts or first impressions about the new Skype app for the iPhone and iTouch [...]

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Monday, 20th April 2009 at 2:48 pm

[...] Neil Stephenson’s guest post here in ISTEconnects, “The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom” for more ideas and examples on how desktop videoconferencing can and is being used in schools [...]

Norman Constantine

Friday, 26th June 2009 at 4:11 pm

I used skype to teach a teacher how to use our testing calandar. Our language teachers are using in class to talk with friends and family in the language class country with their classes.

We are adding skype to the image on teacher laptops so that every teacher in the school has the opportunity to use it.

50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom | Teaching Degree.org

Wednesday, 1st July 2009 at 12:52 am

[...] The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom. These amazing 7th graders used Skype as a part of their history project that resulted in their collaboration with the curator of the National Museum in Canada. [...]

Technology Blog / 50 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom

Friday, 17th July 2009 at 10:49 am

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Thursday, 20th August 2009 at 10:00 pm

[...] for many the idea of using Skype in the classroom to enhance instruction still seems far off in some science fiction author’s vision of the future, others are already [...]

Kat

Friday, 21st August 2009 at 12:03 am

I work for the YMCA and we are on a very limited budget. Working with children who dont have a lot, I want them to experience culture through being able to talk to children from other countries. I downloaded skype but am not really cure how to use it or find other classrooms to chat with. If anyone could help me, that would be great. Thanks!!!

Kaya Hardin

Friday, 21st August 2009 at 12:34 am

Kat, do you have a Twitter account? If so, send @isteconnects a message and I’ll send your question and contact information out.

Questioning the potential value of Skype and videoconferencing in the classroom? » Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Friday, 21st August 2009 at 12:59 pm

[...] Stephenson’s post on ISTEconnects this past spring, “The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom,” provides outstanding examples of how a classroom teacher HAS and IS using Skype to bring in guest [...]

My del.icio.us bookmarks for August 21st

Friday, 21st August 2009 at 8:52 pm

[...] The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom | ISTE Connects – Educational Technology – Guest post by Neil Stephenson about using Skype in the classroom, as well as some other cool ideas… [...]

Andy Graham

Friday, 11th September 2009 at 5:09 pm

I would like to volunteer to be test subject for a class. I am Andy Graham, a world traveler and blogger. I have been to 85 countries and traveled for over 11 years.

My Blog is National Geographic Adventurer top 10, Forbes.com top ten, etc, and etc.

I want to do interviews using skype whereby one person is the left, I am on the right and we publish it to youtube.com.

I am 53 years old, tired of debugging all these problems, however very good at this stuff just need help.

Andy Graham of HoboTraveler.com presently in the Philippines.

Karli Wheeler

Monday, 12th October 2009 at 8:39 am

In 2002, when my son had leukemia, and his energy level and immune system was compromised, we were able to keep education a priority using videoconferencing with his class (before Skype). Now, the Living Through Learning Foundation continues this mission, supporting kids with chronic health conditions. (My son is now a very healthy college freshman).
Thanks to all who support these students.

Refugio Herrera

Sunday, 18th October 2009 at 12:57 am

I am masterful of secondary in Mexico, my students are of 12 to 15 years, would like to use Skype in videoconference so that the students share experiences, for example in the class of English that attend our students, my mail refugioherrera58@msn.com

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Wednesday, 18th November 2009 at 6:13 pm

[...] The many Roles of Skype in the Classroom [...]

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Thursday, 31st December 2009 at 2:01 pm

[...] History Comes To Life: An awesome example of how a teacher connected his history lesson plans with a expert in the [...]

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Friday, 5th February 2010 at 11:34 am

[...] The Many Roles of Skype in the Classroom [...]

Rebecca Smith

Wednesday, 24th February 2010 at 6:16 pm

I used Skype in my class to talk to the great grandmother of one of my students about Pearl Harbor. As a class, we Skyped into her home in Hawaii on her 100th Birthday! Her birthday is around December 7 so we talked to her about being there when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Students had lots of questions about turning 100 and about what life was like when she was a child. She had a great memory (and help setting up Skype on her computer). It was projected on the SmartBoard so everyone in our class could see and hear her.