by Suzanna Wong
What?
- Face-to-face interaction through videoconferencing
- Can use Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, or Zoom (free)
Why?
- Invite guest speaker: e.g., after an author study, students can meet the author, biologist research on butterflies for science unit on insects and bugs.
- Virtual field trips: studying polar bears? Take a virtual field trip to Churchill Manitoba.
- Mystery Skype: students use keywords such as equator, hemisphere to find out the location of another class, somewhere in the country or world. This works very well before I Skype with an Australian class.
- Skype collaborations: via Skype teachers can connect with another class and work together to develop inquiry-based projects. E.g., working with another class from Australia to research on different endanger animals in Canada and Australia.
- Videoconferencing require students to use multimodality, multimedia, and multiliteracy skills; perfect for cross-curriculum projects.