The clip is thanks to Warrick Wynne.
Today at the end of the school day I walked into a classroom to catch up with a teacher about workforce planning for 2010 and saw the face of a young teacher, currently in Laos on the interactive whiteboard. The young graduate teacher in Laos had worked at my school for the two previous years and has decided to teach o/s for 12 months [Gen Y teacher].
Anyway a fellow Gen Y teacher was using skype to talk to her about what it was like to teach o/s when I walked in. Besides being blown away by the use of technology to catch up and share experiences in “real time” at school it got me to thinking how easy is this to apply to teaching and learning.
Social media is a powerful way to interactive with people in many different places and “learn” and can be used for “good” rather than “evil” as is often betrayed newspapers.
After a brief conversation I left – not before exchanging an address with a principal colleague in Scotland who wanted to set some conversations up between students.
The clip above I think reinforces the need to encourage and support teachers to push the boundaries. Great stuff.
If anyone is interested in making similar connections with their students just post a message and I will get back to you.
Thanks Dean
Working on the time zones as you suggested and as I was doing this one of my kids picked up my skype address from home and connected. We talked about what I was bringing home for tea -instead of ringing.For me it was sort of “unbelievable” for him “sort of normal”. Thats the gap.
Trying to role model is important for all my leaders [formal and informal] but thanks for the acknowledgement.
Looking forward to the unveiling of the Ultranet.
Mark
Skype is great in the classroom – as long as you can get your timezones lined up!
I’ve been working with a group of Prins looking at workplace reform who I had Skyping and working collaboratively on their planning in Google Docs. It was inspiring to see them follow your lead, Mark and trying to become better models for their teaching staff before they get left too far behind! It was good for me too, as I was able to slip in some Ultranet references at strategic times!!
Greg
I agree with the idea to hook kids up, as well as us. Have added you to my “new” skype contact list: m_walker2 on skype. Chat soon
any reason to hook up kids with others around the world has to be good. Skype is great ay … I had a similar experience the other day with a class talking with one of their classmates who is currently in Mexico with his family working as a volunteer at a sea turtle sanctuary. He walked around with the laptop telling us all about it. So cool!
gregc5 on skype – Greg