Christa Knoell

 Internet tool, Skype  What can it be used for  Advantages  What research has been done  Recent study on University students  What can be done to improve the learning experience

 Internet service that allows people to communicate through video and voice.  663 million users as of September 2011  Owned by Microsoft  Skype to Skype users free of charge  Skype to landline/mobile phones charges to an account

 For educators  Connecting with other teachers around the world  Post ideas  Useful because teachers are able to get advise, learn about different teaching styles and can also connect with guest speakers.  Skype in the Classroom Skype in the Classroom

 Explains and provides links  Resources for using Skype  Promoting education  Promoting communities  Ideas for parents and teachers  Other useful websites  Useful because it gives great ideas to benefit students, parents, educators, and administrators.  Awesome ways to use Skype Awesome ways to use Skype

 Self Organizing Learning Environments and Self Organization Mediation Environments.  Developed by Professor Sugata Mitra  Program to allow children to learn with technology and limited interactions with teachers  Granny Cloud Mediators talk or tell stories to students over Skype  Useful because it gives students a wide range of resources and allows them to be culturally educated in a personal way.  Soles and Somes Soles and Somes

 Sugata Mitra  Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education and Communication and Language Sciences  Newcastle University, UK  Research began in mid 1980’s Wanted to know how children learned and how well they self-organized  Earlier work Hole in the wall experiments Provided students with digital resources Minimal Invasive methods  Soles and Somes

 Skype vs. Telephone Year Billions of International minutes using Skype Billions of International minutes using a telephone

 According to TeleGeography more people are now using Skype as their primary tool to communicate internationally.

 Incorporate Skype into education.  Research question:  How can Skype benefits education as a whole?

 The purpose of the study was to examine what undergraduates at Arizona State University thought about the usage of Skype in multiple areas of education and if it was thought to be beneficial in a classroom setting.

 A survey was given to EDT 180 class and consisted of 24 students  Ages ranging from 18 to 47  The majority of the students were education majors  Only 23 responses was collected  The survey contained 9 questions regarding Skype

 What source do you use and receive most of your information from? i.e sports, news, entertainment  Results:

 78% of the participants answered internet as their primary source for gaining information.  This was to show that people have already integrated internet into their learning process so adding Skype would be an easy transition.

 I think a video conference is the most beneficial and successful method to have a parent teacher conference if the parent is unable to attend in person?  Results:

 The majority of the students agreed that a video conference program, such as Skype, would be the most beneficial  It would be beneficial to the student, parent, and teacher because a video conference is still very personal. It is also convenient for all parties because it may be done any place with a computer and internet access

 If you are taking a Italian class and are assigned an E-pal from Italy, on scale between 1 and 5 how beneficial would video conferences with the E-pal be?  Results:

 Out of the 23 participants 73.8% said that an E-pal would be beneficial for a language learner  Allowing the use of Skype in a language class would make the learning experience much more personal and active for the learner

 After gathering all the information the researched showed that Skype would have a great impact on education and would aid teachers and parents to become more involved  Schools across the district should integrate Skype into their curriculum

 Skype is a very valuable tool  Education majors support Skype being used in the classroom  Skype can change the way students learn and lead it into a positive direction  Major research is in progress  Sugata Mitra  This district can be the next pioneers

 Encourage all educators to assimilate Skype into their lesson plans  Provide Skype seminar for educators to learn how to incorporate into their teaching  Provide valuable resource for beginners using Skype  Provide outlets for feedback on using Skype in the classroom