Comment by Pam Shoemaker on July 24, 2008 at 7:31pm

One of the schools in my district has a fancy V-tel videoconf unit. For whatever reason, we couldn't get the audio to work. I fired up my laptop and used Skype and it worked just fine (and free!)

Comment by Patti Harju on August 8, 2008 at 11:10am

Hoping to use SKYPE this school year. I have connected through Twitter with a school in Tennesse. Any great lesssons, ideas plans to share? I can come up with my own, but I love to pick the brains of those in the know!

Patti

Comment by Matinga Ragatz on November 24, 2008 at 8:34pm

skype is amazing...I am currently doing a project with teachers in 5 different countries and we can conference with skype for FREE! Ridonculous!!

Comment by Gary McLearen on December 10, 2008 at 4:51pm

I teach a high school multimedia class in Austin, TX. I'm trying to incorporate Skype into my class. Would anyone be interested in a video class conference?

Comment by Teresa Fulk on June 24, 2009 at 8:56am

I'm a 7th grade social studies teacher who is looking to pair up with another 7th grade social studies class to collaborate via Skype.... anyone interested?

Comment by john warnken on July 6, 2009 at 12:51am

Using Skype to Learn a New Language
Indonesia Indonesia

by jbwarnken
now

I have been using Skype as a teaching tool for three years tutoring English in many countries around the world. Most of my tutoring has been one on one, and I was doing it as a hobby. Recently, I was contacted by a teacher in Indonesia who found me through a website and asked me to help with her English. She is an ESL teacher in Central Java in Pekalongan, a coastal town 200 miles east of Jakarta and off the beaten tourist path.

When we first started, the teacher was just talking with me while at school between classes. Then she asked if I would like to address her whole class. She teaches high school and each class has 40 students. So we went into the classroom and, using her laptop with video and sound, I addressed the whole group.

They then started to come up one at a time and introduce themselves. This has created a sensation there in the school. I am the first non-native speaker they had ever heard or talked with. The students are begging to learn more. The school administration is excited. I have been invited to come teach and have been asked to address 17 other high school English classes there.

In addition, I now have a similar request from an English teacher in Sochi, Russia to do roughly the same thing. I am quite literally overwhelmed here and need help.

So now after three years of tutoring, I am suddenly a star in Indonesia. The Indonesian connection is interesting in that President Obama had his formal schooling there, I suspect in a school very much like this one. Oprah is a huge Skype fan and Obama has publicly stated all Americans need to learn a foreign language. This is why I posted on the this site.

What is also happening is that students are getting excited to learn, and every teacher dreams of excited, motivated students. Language is not the most exciting of subjects, but with the use of technology and Skype it suddenly is very exciting.

I myself am not a formal teacher and certainly not in English. My forte is technology and the teaching of technology. I started using Skype three years ago to teach a group of seniors to use the Internet. I stumbled into a Chinese teacher who wanted to learn spoken English. I used Skype to introduce my group of seniors to the Chinese teacher learning spoken English, and the rest is history. My teaching of English as a hobby is about to overtake my business.

I see Skype as a tool for many types of teaching for the future, from home schooling in small groups to sick students who want to join a classroom in session from home. I believe it is the classroom of the future.

Right now I need volunteers to help in my school in Indonesia and then in Russia. All you need is your ability to speak English, Skype and a headset. We are paving the way for the classroom of the future, where distance makes no difference. I know I am not the only one involved in this as there is a huge underground of language teachers out there. I just want to get the word out to the mainstream.

John Warnken
www.languageangels.com

Comment by Keith Mckemy on August 26, 2009 at 10:33pm

Hello, looking to use skype in the Classroom with 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. I have a career/exploratory class. I know the students would love it. Could someone tell me how they have been using it in the classroom?

Comment by Matinga Ragatz on August 27, 2009 at 10:13am

@Keith Mckemy
I also teach a unit on Career development in the Current Economy and use skype to invite parents of different careers to Q&A thru skype in the classroom. If you have a couple of computers, you can actually divide the students into career interest groups and invite relevant speakers to speak to each specific groups.
Everyone...parents, colleagues, neighbors, etc...is willing to 'come' to you classroom to speak about their job and career choices.
If you need a really cool, slick prepackaged free career course, consider Careerforward as a really cool resource.
Here is a break down of what you get in the course. If you want to check out the entire course to see if it will work for u and your students, here is the link

Keith, these days, most of my special speakers and panel groups come to my classroom thru skype. I also have used many of my world wide Facebook teacher buddies to speak to students about what the international career competition is like and how students from all over the world are preparing for their future. eg. It is cool to have a teacher from England talk live to you classroom.
Hope this helps

Comment by John Thuet on September 6, 2009 at 3:13am

I teach World Studies at to Freshmen in Chicago. My students have very little experience outside their own community and I would love to allow them to speak to real people in some of the cultures about which we will learn. If anyone has any ideas as to how I can connect with willing people/teachers/classes outside the US please let me know.

Comment by Marvin Lee on September 6, 2009 at 9:34am

Go to skypeinschools.pbworks.com
there are lists of teachers all over the world who are ready to skype

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