Skype in the Classroom
Many
teachers all over the world are beginning to use Skype to make their
lessons more engaging, exciting and interactive. From Modern Foreign Language
(MFL) lessons to Geography, Skype
video allows children to discover and immerse themselves in a discovery of new
cultures, languages and ideas, all without leaving the classroom. Furthermore,
as shall be discussed later in this article, Skype is a fantastic means of
communication for classroom teaching staff.
On Thursday 18th September 2014, members of our PGCE were privy to observe a live lesson in progress via a Skype connection. This was an especially valuable experience since I, among presumably many, were anxious about teaching a full class of 25+ children and curious to note any techniques employed they may have been of value. The Year 3 class we observed proved to be as invaluable an experience as we could have hoped for. The class teacher introduced us and his class of pupils to one another over Skype before turning off his own computer monitor so that the children would not be distracted or concerned by a large room of adult trainee teachers watching their lesson. Through Skype, we were able to observe how the teacher engaged his students in the lesson by the use of props, understandable language and the variety of activities.
On Thursday 18th September 2014, members of our PGCE were privy to observe a live lesson in progress via a Skype connection. This was an especially valuable experience since I, among presumably many, were anxious about teaching a full class of 25+ children and curious to note any techniques employed they may have been of value. The Year 3 class we observed proved to be as invaluable an experience as we could have hoped for. The class teacher introduced us and his class of pupils to one another over Skype before turning off his own computer monitor so that the children would not be distracted or concerned by a large room of adult trainee teachers watching their lesson. Through Skype, we were able to observe how the teacher engaged his students in the lesson by the use of props, understandable language and the variety of activities.
(Above: Still from Skype lesson, Thursday 18th September).
Although in this example the use of Skype was merely to observe a lesson, the medium could be used in other ways. It’s obvious advantage in the aforementioned use in a MFL lesson wherein pupils could contact and converse with children from another school in a different country. The children could take it in turn speaking in their native languages, allowing for a more enriching experience and to learn of another people’s language and culture first-hand. Skype is increasingly becoming a common medium for communication and could be used as means to contact fellow teachers or parents, an immediate example of such a case is when a parent is unable to make it to parent’s evening and the teacher may set aside a twenty-minute period to bring them up to speed.
Overall, Skype is becoming an increasingly popular means of communication. It is free to download and to make calls on, and it is incredibly simple to use. However, aside from the occasional communication failure, as with all things school-based and Internet-related, it must be monitored correctly to keep pupils safe. As with everything e-Safety related, the use of Skype must be regulated, and children may only communicate on a school’s Skype account in the company of an adult, and only to a known party. Referring back to point I made in my introduction, another potential problem of Skype is that pupils can now see and learn of all these new cultures and talk to other pupils from our own country without needing to leave the classroom. In this technology-driven era we live in, as future teachers, we need to find a balance between classroom-based learning and encouraging pupils to explore the world around them by means others than a video-conferencing tool on a computer or tablet.