​Have you ever thought “my students would love to talk to an author like Cressida Cowell, Jane Yolen, Jacqueline Woodson, Kathryn Erskine, D. J. MacHale, Richard Peck, or Jacqueline West?” They might also like to go the Redwood Forest, visit an animal rescue in the UK, talk to a sea turtle expert, visit the Coral Reefs, learn about the Geology of Yellowstone, hear from Dr. Jane Goodall, meet an expert from Australia in the Great Barrier Reef, visit Joshua Tree National Park, or meet a doctor from any walk of life.  The examples are endless and that’s the point! All of this is possible and so much more if you take a leap into Skype in the classroom.

One of the great things about being members of Office 365 is the access to so many educational tools.  Skype in the Classroom is one of those tools. Everything I mentioned above is possible, even talking with the authors I mention above. With Skype in the Classroom, you can bring the world to your classroom and with no extra costs! 

Skype boasts six ways that you can connect to the world: 

• Virtual Field Trip 
• Skype Collaborations 
• Mystery Skype 
• Guest Speakers 
• Theme Collections/Lesson Plans
• Special Events

With today’s limited school budgets, going on field trips is becoming harder and harder.  With Skype, you can take virtual field trips (many of which are live) and the person leading the trip can answer almost any questions the students can come up with. It’s awesome! 

Virtual Field Trip: 

With virtual field trips, you get the chance to talk with experts from across the world (live or recorded, depending on your time zone) on topics that range from the Rain Forest in Brazil and the Lisbon Zoo in Portugal to Egyptian museums in Cairo and the ancient city/state of Corinth in Greece! There are so many places and so many trips that your class can be a part of!

Skype Collaborations:

Skype Collaborations is the place where classrooms come together to work on a shared project. Imagine your students working with students in another state or country. When I was a student, we would write letters to students at other schools and if the schools weren’t too far away, we would get together at the end of the year for a celebration.  Skype collaborations can make this experience so much better!  

Mystery Skype

Mystery Skype is a Skype lesson that you set up ahead of time with another class or person.  Students use problem-solving skills to figure out where the person or class is located. If this sounds challenging, it’s not.  There are many teachers in the district who have already done Mystery Skype and the setup is quite simple. 

Guest Speakers:

 Through Skype there are 1000s of professionals ready to talk to you and your students about 100’s of topics on which they are experts.

Themed Collections/Lessons: 

Skype now has an updated website making it even easier to find what you are looking for. In my opinion, one of the most exciting parts of Skype in the Classroom is the number of activity plans that they have created. All the lessons are aligned to ISTE standards, which our Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science standards are modeled after.  They come with learning objectives, activities to do before and during the lesson, and reflection activities that teachers can do with their students.  

Special Events: 

Perhaps one of the most exciting things that Skype offers is Special Events. They have special Skype sessions with people like Dr. Jane Goodall and Cressida Cowell, author of “How to Train Your Dragon.”  I can’t wait to see what they have planned for this year! The bonus to all of this is that even if you can’t be there live, you can get the recording and still do the activities with students.

For many schools, finding someone to come and speak to the class about something they are an expert in can be difficult due to time or budget constraints.  Skype solves that problem by connecting teachers with experts who are happy to speak with students and share their experiences. 

For more information, go to  https://education.skype.com/

If you have any questions or thoughts, leave your comments below and we’ll see you next week!