Students in three 4th grade classrooms recently read an article in Time for Kids about the malaria problem in Africa. They decided to raise money for Nothing But Nets which for $10 will purchase nets for villages. They created posters to be placed around the school and also we on air with WPIN, Paine Intermediate News, to share their knowledge and concern. Through this broadcast, Sue Koch, gifted teacher, shared with the students that her daughter, Sarah, is currently in a village in Africa where she is experiencing the problem with malaria. She had to bike a 3 year old 10 km to a nearby medical unit who came down with malaria. Kristi Stacks, lab teacher, and I decided to use SKYPE to allow Sarah and the students to talk. One morning during WPIN, we SKYPED Sarah who was on a rare visit to the capital. The conversation was broadcast over the closed circuit morning show for all the students to hear. It was great! The quality of the call was perfect. We have made a movie about the project but it is still 11 minutes long. I will try to take a great clip and upload it to share. I can't wait to do more with SKYPE!!!
We have begun to think how Skype could be used in our classrooms. A middle school teachers asked for help in finding a classroom in France that they could Skype. I quickly realized that there was not a good way to find interested classrooms. However, while researching resources for Eduwikipedia , I came across a Skype directory. When I selected the Education category there was only one person who seemed to be truly involved in education. I requested his information because he said he was interested in locating other educators in technology to collaborate with. Last Friday night my Skype phone began to ring. Bill Brennan from New York was on the other line. We began to share how technology is being used in both New York and Alabama. I cannot wait to see where this conversation and collaboration will take us.
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