A dear friend and Technology Coach once said, "Technology! It takes a village." I laughed and loved the saying and still use it from time to time. And so what if integrating technology in the classroom takes a village. The inhabitants of our village share and collaborate and help each other to continue to grow and learn.Technology connects us in ways that we never could have imagined. It connects us to our global village! Take a look at some of our villagers.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Skyping With the U.K.
When one of our second grade teachers wanted to Skype with a class in another country, her Tech Coach turned to Twitter to ask if there was another teacher outside of the United States who wanted to Skype with a second grade class in Memphis, Tennessee (Elvis country). She found a first grade teacher in a school just north of London. It can be a challenge communicating with a class in another country due to the differences in time zones. But we scheduled a Skyping session for 9:00 AM Memphis time, which was 3:00 PM U.K. time - right before their dismissal. We had some slight communication problems in that we saw and heard them but we couldn't seen them actually moving. It was fun for our boys from an all boys schools to see a coed school and to listen to their accents. We got a chance to exchange some questions also. We asked each other about the current weather. Interestingly enough, England was warm and sunny and we were overcast with drizzle, which is just the opposite with what you would expect. One little girl asked if any of our boys had been on any interesting trips. One of our students told of his trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and told them of the huge chocolate bar he had. When asked if the children in English had Hershey bars, they said, "No." I have to admit that I was a little surprised by that. I think that if we had had enough time to ask if they had Hershey "Kisses" they would have certainly answered with a yes!
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