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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Skype Call Hooray! Our second Skype call with Mrs. Wells' 4th graders in Ozawkie, Kansas went much better. I found my web camera, so they were able to see us this time. Since both Mrs. Wells and I were participating in Jen Wagner's project entitled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we decided to have our students read the book together during the Skype video call. My students read the left hand pages, and her students read the right hand pages. After the reading was over my class surprised her class with a song. Two of my students were our cameramen. Corey, handled the web camera so our Skype buddies in Kansas could see us, and Wayne used our Flip camera to make a video of the event. We had a few sound issues, and need to learn how to use the Flip camera better. I also need to invest in a better microphone. I created the videos for viewing using Windows Movie Maker. We hope you enjoy the videos. Feel free to leave us a comment.

To piggy back onto my last post about Alan November's call to make students contributors to their own learning, I wanted to share the "Skype Jobs" of my students. There is a sense of excitement in the room, when our students get ready to conduct a Skype call. I almost want to compare it to a "traditional" vision of a newsroom before a deadline. Everyone is buzzing, running here, running there to get ready for their job assignment. Don't ask why, but I have the memory of a scene in the "Watergate"movie with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in my mind

Here is a variety of ways to use Skype in education. Many are specific to certain professionals.

"The Complete Guide to The Use of Skype in Education"

An excellent resource for preparing students to learn while using Skype.

An interactive guessing game using skype.

"20 Essential Tricks Every Skype User Should Know"

"Met Any Good Authors Lately? Classroom author visits can happen via Skype (here's a list of those who do it for free)"

Google has now established a connection community for GHO just as Skype did for their classroom connections. 

article Steve talked about on Skype

"Welcome to ISTE "Unplugged" 2010! Located next to the Blogger's Cafe - look for the large "Learning Unplugged" banners. In the wide hallway overlooking the Korbel ballrooms. (If you have questions please email Kim Caise (kcaise@gmail.comkcaise@gmail.com ), 'kcaise' on Twitter/Plurk or Skype (koolkat051) for questions or assistance.) "

I have no idea what the school change movement looks like in Australia, but I did get to speak to a class of perspective educators last evening. I was sitting comfortably in my living room, in my recliner, with my laptop on my lap. At the same time my good friend Ian Gibson was in front of the class in Sydney Australia. I occasionally Skype into his glass to have a conversation on some educational topic.

This podcast is a recording of a conversation over skype on May 14, 2010, with Dean Mantz in Sterling, Kansas, Dean Shareski in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Cyndi Danner-Kuhn in Manhattan, Kansas, and Wesley Fryer in Edmond, Oklahoma. For the past several years, each participant has taught pre-service technology classes for undergraduate college students. In this conversation (which runs long, about an hour and a half) topics ranged from how course activities are selected, structured and assessed, epiphany or "a-ha" moments in teaching, changes which have been made to the course or how the course is taught (mixing face-to-face, online and blended modalities) and how to best leverage face-to-face interaction opportunities with students. LOTS of great ideas here. Check the podcast shownotes for most (if not all) of the referenced websites, curricula and resources from our conversation. This podcast is labeled (part 1) because we plan to continue the discussion in upcoming months!

I've spent the last day and a half testing it out, and so I've had the opportunity to use nearly every feature of the service.  If you were to ask me how to best describe it, I'd say it is like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and Gmail merged together and formed one, super social, Omni-beast of a website.  The interface is elegant and beautiful, the features are easy to use, and you can "Circle" up with as many people as you want.  However, it isn't without its flaws.