Sorry that I have only just got round to writing the last of the three great conversations I had with colleagues last week. Unfortunately I have been very unwell over last weekend and very busy at school.
Nonetheless the conversation holds its resonance and comes under the “Exchanging and sharing information” strand of the National Curriculum which Claire and Rick have been exploring for there year 3 class. We ended up speaking about linking up with other schools using Skype, (a simple freely downloadable piece of software that allows you to make voice calls over an internet connection) to communicate verbally and then to use a class blog to provide written feedback and an exchange of ideas.
We worked together and came up with the central idea of poetry which would remain the refrain throughout a variety of work in geography, history and literacy. The ICT part will be contextualised and be an application of many new skills.
Rick and Claire have already begun and taken the first steps by talking to their children about communication and how that currently manifests itself – but also they have setup their class blogs.
If there are any schools out there who are willing and able to link up using Skype, to produce perhaps some writing that would great. Please let us know.
I would like to enter into an exchange between classes using Skype. Please contact me as soon as possible at tteehan@wlbschools.com I teach a fifth grade class and am flexible in entering into any type of joint project or communication experience. Thanks!
Hello again Tom,
I’m sorry, but I’ve just learned that downloading Skype is not going to be allowed at school, so we won’t be able to join in with the experiment … pity!
However, the email I received did say that,
‘Instead of Skype, which I understand may have infrastructure security
issues, we have the video/audio communication facility via Marratech which
allows group video-conferencing as well as one-to-one. And of course is
the facility that will be coming with Glow.’
It looks like it will be set up here at Carronshore soon ….. is this of any interest?
Margaret