Connecting Classrooms

I remember being a student and having a pen pal in France. It was arranged by our teacher and we each got a student to communicate with. Of course, our only contact was writing letters and maybe they would send us a picture so we could see what they looked like. It was an interesting experience to learn about culture and language.

With the help of technology, we see students connecting with other students in new and exciting ways. Watch this video below for a creative way for students in Brazil to practice their English speaking skills.

Schools are using Google Hangouts and Skype to connect classrooms across their district, the country and the globe. Conversations between teachers start on message boards, twitter, and other social media. That correspondence develops into connecting classrooms for single meetings, scheduled projects, and long term collaborations where video conferencing is only a small part.

Connected Classrooms with Google has created a hybrid virtual field trip & connected classroom opportunity. Classes can participate in live events where they can interact with the presenters and other connected classes using Google Hangouts. Or since each event is recorded with Hangouts on Air, classes can watch previously recorded events.

Here are a few I really love:

Jim Henson's Creature Shop

Dog Sledding Thru Google Glass

I also really love the Mystery Skype project where you connect two classrooms and they have to guess where each group is located.

Here is what it can look like in the classroom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZdMnkWHG7s

Challenge yourself to connect with another classroom this year. Try another school in the district or another district in the state. Open up the world to your students this year.