Skype Skype Hooray!

This is the blog I've been reading lately Langwitches
This blog was started by a 21st century learning specialist and an inspiring educator, Silvia Tolisano. One of the reasons I like this blog so much is that it promotes students learning from each other, globally. Silvia began her teaching career as a Spanish teacher and offers many fantastic ideas about integrating technology in the world language classroom. Silvia is no longer teaching Spanish in the elementary classroom, but in one of her posts from Nov 2008, she discussed what technologies she would use if she were in the classroom today. She touches on each of the 21st century skills: communicate, collaborate, connect, create. Silvia addresses each of these skills with a variety of technologies. Skype is the reoccurring thread. She mentions it's use in three of the four 21st century skills.

Silvia's hype for skype resonates with me. I am relatively new to Skype (and totally in love!). Since using it, I have seen what an amazing tool it can be. In October, I did my first ever (and maybe only?) skype birthday party. I skyped into my sister's house in Bend, Oregon and showed a group of 7 year old girls how to 'wai', say 'sawadee ka', and what the inside of a dragon fruit looked like. I couldn't believe how engaged and excited the girls were. It was at that moment, that I realized the amazing potential of skype. It really brought two distant worlds together for the first time, something that would have been unimaginable just years ago.

So my big question at this point is, how do I use skype in my classroom given constraints such as time zones? (most Spanish speaking countries are on the other side of the world and asleep when we are learning at ISB) AND...maybe someone knows the answer to this (Jeff?) How do I use skype at ISB? (it only seems to work from housing). I would love to talk to teachers here who have used it successfully to learn more.