http://www.forbes.com/sites/taylorbuley/2010/08/10/skype-ipo-a-hot-deal-hold-the-phone/#48309fc7cfe9
Tool Number 1: Skype
You can link to skype by visiting: http://www.skype.com/en/
The first web tool that we are going to talk about is Skype. Skype is an extremely popular educational and social tool that allows for video, audial, and textual communication between people all over the world (Skype, 2016). This tool allows for multi-person communication, such as multiple-caller phone conversations, group text conversations, and very popularly: group video-conferencing with people all over the world. Best of all, unless you enable any of the add-ons, this is a free calling mechanism! This tool is designed to improve communication amongst people internationally, for either school, social, professional, and/or work purposes (Skype, 2016).
Due to this tool enabling communication between people across the world, it helps with establishing world-wide connections amongst people (Skype, 2016). For instance, in a social studies 10 class, it would be easy to connect with another social studies 10 class from across the world to see multiple perspectives on a topic. This program will help bridge the gap, while also promoting cultural awareness within the classrooms!
As a teacher, I would definitely use Skype to do video conferencing in both my classroom and for my own professional development. For my classroom, I would try to do webinars between my class and another class from somewhere else in the world. For example, if I was teaching an English class and we were analyzing a Shakespeare play, maybe I would connect with a class in Britain who is working on the same play, to get more diverse perceptions on the interpretation of the Shakespeare play. For my professional development, I would use Skype to connect with other educators around the world.
I would not recommend having my students create their own Skype account; we would collectively do webinars using my teachers account, especially with kids under 13 (the age that students should be at or above to use Skype (Skype, 2016)). This would be used for activities being done by the whole class.
Information referenced from: www.skype.com
