At ISTE this year, beyond attending sessions and trading ideas with other educators, I’ll be meeting with Ross Smith and other members of the Skype in the Classroom team. As outlined here, our student-run businesses at Fair Haven Innovates will have the opportunity to work with Skype to make Skype in the Classroom the best it can be for teachers and students. My students have worked hard over the last six months pitching ideas and setting next steps to earn this opportunity. For this post, I asked the heads of the three student-led teams that have been pitching Skype to explain their ideas and how it makes them feel to lend their voice in creating the learning tools they’ll use in the classroom.

Francis: Student Voice Driven Marketing Campaign

Our team believes that Skype in the Classroom is a valuable educational tool. By creating a marketing campaign around sharing students’ experiences with Skype in the Classroom we hope to inspire experts to sign up, convince teachers to use skype in the classroom, and help students to tell their teachers about Skype in the Classroom. When people see our advertisements they’ll say that is cool that these kids are only in 6th grade and are being inspired by Skype in the Classroom. We hope that our marketing campaign will start a conversation around knocking down the walls of the classroom to allow experts in and we can even use a hashtag to let people submit their own quotes on why they love Skype so they can have their voice heard too.

I feel that our position and opportunity is once in a lifetime and we are very excited and grateful for this opportunity. We feel that most students and kids don’t get this opportunity because most companies do not see the potential in kids. They think we can’t help and I think more companies should do this. But Skype really is doing this and seeing the potential in kids and how we can do good and our perspective can make their product even better since we’re the users.

[Why We Need To Embrace eSports In Education]

Our idea for Skype in the Classroom is to teach students how to teach teachers to use Skype in the Classroom. We are doing this because we want Skype in the Classroom to be easy and fun for teachers. We want teachers to enjoy their time and not worry about how to use it. This is important because every teacher in the world that wants to use Skype in the Classroom with their students deserves to learn how to do it, but they might not have the time or an adult to teach them. Why not have kids help?

It all starts out with empathy. Imagine being a teacher and being new to Skype in the Classroom. Imagine not knowing how to use this Skype in the Classroom and wanting to have a great experience for your students without having to worry about how to use it, how to create the account, and all that time doing that. Well, this is why we want other students just like us to go around to teach their teachers how to use Skype in the Classroom. We think it is a great idea.

During all the planning and working on our project we learned a lot. We are learning how to be a stronger and a more empathetic person. For example, we had to use a lot of empathy so that we know what it is like in a teacher’s perspective or being in a teacher’s shoes. This helps build up our minds to be better and stronger designers. We also learned how to amplify our voice. I think my student voice is important because, although we are 12 years old, we matter. We have a great plan to teach students to teach teachers to learn Skype in the Classroom. Our voices matter, too. We are kids, but we have a great and strong plan that hopefully gets better. I feel very important and powerful to be listened to. We want other companies to know about us, too so that they know that although we are 12, we have a great plan and we are valuable just like anyone else. I feel very special to be a part of this and to be working with everyone thank you so much for helping us make this happen.

Over the past school year we have been working with Skype to reimagine the idea of Skype in the Classroom. We have been pitching ideas to Skype about how we want to help them get student voice into Skype in the Classroom to make it even better. We talked to Ross, one of the people in charge, and his team on how we want to start a YouTube channel. We shared our idea on how we want to run the channel and what content we want to put on that channel. We would want to put the perspective of teachers and students all around the world, so they can share their experiences and maybe get ideas or connect with other classes.

This has been a really awesome experience to see what it would be like if we were to run a business and the different skills it takes to get people to care about what we are doing. We really hope to tell stories through TV shows, commercials, and more to help Skype. It is really important that kids get a chance to share how we feel about things because it doesn’t matter whether your 12 of 42, anybody can make a change in society. When kids share their opinion and experiences through Skype we can really get a good view on how their world works and the way we may be different but the same. It feels really great for kids to share their opinion because a lot of the time kids are not taken seriously. So for us to get this opportunity really means a lot because we can show people that kids can run a business, have opinions that matter, and kids can do more than you think.

““

My students and the teams they represent have blown me away this year. I’m excited to finalize the details of our partnership with Skype and let them showcase for everyone how student voice can not only change the classroom, but the world.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

Bringing an expert to your classroom can energize a lesson, create authentic connections, and inspire students! Skype is a powerful and popular video conferencing tool. In a classroom setting, Skype can be used to connect your classroom with an expert.

If you follow along on Instagram you might have seen a special Skype with an expertexperience from a story I shared last week. I work with educators and students in different parts of the country and was so excited to introduce a group of third graders to an expert via Skype. We were able to connect with a Corinth Excavations Educator from six time zones away for a very special experience.

These students had learned about Ancient Greece in a class read aloud. Using Skype in the Classroom’s website, I was able to find an expert on Ancient Greece. After requesting a visit through the Skype in the Classroom platform, we set up a time to connect. It was so powerful to have a live speaker join the class. During this visit the students were able to learn all about water systems in Ancient Greece. They could ask questions and talk to an expert right from their classroom!

[Class Tech Tips: 10 Tips for Using Social Media to Tell Your School’s Story]

Skype with an Expert

In my book Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning for a Tech-Rich Classroom, I talk about the power of virtual reality to spark questions. Here’s an excerpt from a section where I discuss finding moments in a unit to embed digital experiences thoughtfully:

“Let’s first think about a unit as a whole. For example, if your goal is to have students develop an understanding of the scientific method by conducting an experiment, there are places in this unit where technology tools can elevate the experience. In this scenario, you could include a task for students to develop questions for a Skype visit with a scientist from a university lab, or use online collaborative documents to share the results of their experiment. As the facilitator of your students’ learning experiences, you are thinking of the overall mission for the unit first, then working backward to integrate technology in a way that will support your end goals.”

Tasks Before Apps and Skype

I use the phrase tasks before apps when talking about the importance of putting the learning first in tech-rich classrooms. When it comes to finding an expert to invite to your classroom, think first about your instructional goals. You might ask questions like:

• Who has an interesting perspective on [topic] to add to our class discussion?
• Who has a career that is connected to [topic] to show students the real world applications for our classroom experiences?
• When is the best time in a unit of study to connect with an expert on [topic]?
• Who can answer student questions on [topic] that I might not be able to address?
• Who can provide an audience for student creations on [topic] and provide relevant feedback?

A video conferencing tool like Skype can open the world to your students. By locating an expert on a topic and preparing students for a live, virtual meeting, we can place a new sense of purpose into their studies. From a one-day event to multiple interactions with the same person, there are lots of ways to leverage the power of Skype in the classroom.

Getting started with any new tool in the classroom can be a daunting task. You might decide to partner up with another class in your school for this experience, or start with a small group of students. On this list of tips, I suggest a few things to consider as you prepare for an expert Skype visit.

Find an Expert

Skype in the Classroom’s website has a search tool to help you find an expert to bring into your classroom. There are a variety of people on this list, and you can search by keyword and availability. Using the Skype educational resources isn’t the only way to find an expert to invite to your classroom. Depending on the topic you’re studying with students, a friend, former colleague, or acquaintance might be a good fit.

In addition to using Skype’s education resource, you might reach out to a friend who works in an industry related to a topic your students are studying. Alternatively, you might reach out to someone you’ve connected with through social media. This person could include a university professor, zoologist, scientist… you name it! Just like anytime you book a live or virtual guest speaker, you’ll want to make sure to vet this person to ensure they are an appropriate fit for the classroom.

Test Your Network

Once you have located an expert schedule a video call that works with both of your schedules. Then you’ll want to make sure the techy logistics are set up. Make sure to test your network to confirm that Skype will work on your school’s platform. Similar to YouTube, some schools block Skype or might require an administrator to download Skype software to a device. There are other video conferencing tools you can use too. A few options include Zoom, Google Hangout, and Facetime.

Is the wireless connectivity in your classroom lacking in strength? You may decide to relocate to another part of the school for your Skype call. This space might include an auditorium, library or computer lab. If this isn’t a space you normally use you’ll want to test the network there too.

Practice with Tech

Once you’ve worked out the logistics for scheduling and location of your Skype visit, take stock of your technology. You might decide to download Skype to your device or use the browser-based version. In a classroom setting, you can connect a laptop to a projector or interactive display board. This is a great way to make sure all students can view the video feed. The webcam of the computer can be pointed in the direction of your class so they can interact with the expert.

After you have practiced setting up the video component of the Skype call, you’ll want to check your audio connection. Your students won’t have much trouble hearing the expert if your device connects to speakers you might already use for playing a video clip. The expert may have trouble hearing student questions if they are seated far away from the computer screen. You might have students practice walking up to the computer to ask the questions, or simply repeat students questions as you stand closer to the screen during the call.

Set up Students for Success

There are a few steps you can take with your students to make sure they are prepared too. You can have students develop and practice asking questions to build their confidence and engagement around the guest speaker’s virtual visit. Although the call you have set up will connect to your instructional goals, you may want to review content or specially introduce a subtopic.

Earlier in this post, I shared the story of working with a classroom to set up a Skype visit to extend their learning about Ancient Greece. The day before our Skype call, I led an interactive Nearpod lesson for the third graders to review a few concepts related to Greece (see the lesson here). It was an excellent opportunity to provide extra visuals and a virtual reality experience. This overview lesson helped students focus on the topic and prepare questions for the guest speaker.

Skyping with an expert in your classroom is a powerful way to connect students with the world! Share your experiences and questions in the comment box below.

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, author, speaker, and curriculum & edtech consultant. Visit her site ClassTechTips.com for more ideas on how to become a tech-savvy teacher.

I decided to make student voice part of my life’s work in 2013, at the start of my 6th year teaching Sophomore English. I started that school year with one goal: to take what students loved and incorporate it into the classroom. I made this my mission because I had been teaching the lowest track of English since I started my career. My students hated school and made it clear on a daily basis that they didn’t want to be there let alone wanted to do any work. I was tired of it. Especially because there was nothing wrong with them, they had just been let down by the education system. I wanted to win them back and I knew loving what they loved could help me do it.

I started embracing student voice by asking them “how do you want to show me what you learned?” at the end of every unit. I gave them a week to answer that question and they created amazing things. Students came up with all kinds of great projects that married their classwork with their passions. I had so many engineering, art, and computer science projects in my class that administration actually asked me if I was even teaching English. Students’ grades, and more importantly their attitudes, improved drastically. And every year it got better.

Fast forward for 3 and a half years. It is 2016 and I’m just starting my current job at Fair Haven. The Innovation Lab, the class I made to cultivate growth mindset as I expose students to design thinking, computer science, engineering, and the digital arts, is in its first year. Student voice was still the driving force in my pedagogy as the class was designed around students creating their own STEAM projects.Deconstructing donated electronics and then trying to put them back together was a favorite project back then, as it still is today. Often students couldn’t get the electronics back together, so we were left with a lot of junk for the recycling center. Some students had a problem with this. “Can we make something out of the parts?” students asked. “Absolutely,” I said. The Parts to Arts project was born.

Students made all kinds of neat pieces of jewelry and sculptures out of disassembled electronics, but students quickly realized that now we just have a bunch of upcycled art sitting around. “Can we try to sell it?” students asked. “Absolutely,” I said and I built them an online store to sell their upcycled goodies. They named the store FH Gizmos. FH Gizmos launched in May of 2016. We made $8 that school year. The next school year, 2016-2017, we made about a $100, but FH Gizmos also got an amazing email.

Slack, the massive communication company, had seen pictures of the stuff students were creating on Twitter. They had asked if we could make them something for their new education center to help employees focus. It took us the rest of that school year, all the way until October of this school year, but we did it. While some schools banned fidget spinners, we sold 50 professional quality fidget spinners to Slack. From upcycled jewelry to a manufacturing contract with Slack, my kids were hooked on entrepreneurship because it was theirs. I didn’t realize that entrepreneurship was the missing piece of the Innovation Lab, they did. The class became so popular that it evolved into a full program, FH Innovates, and FH Gizmos became its own class in a lineup of four student-driven classes.

At the same time I started the Innovation Lab in 2016, I was invited to a gamification conference at UPenn. There I was paired up in a session with Ross Smith, Director of Engineering at Microsoft’s Skype. We hit it off over our shared love of video games and student voice. We’ve kept in touch since then. This winter break, 2018, Ross emailed me to ask how I was doing. I got him on a Skype call, told him about FH Gizmos and the work we did for Slack, and had my students pitch him on ways Skype and FH Gizmos could work together. Fast forward six months, 4 student-led meetings, and over a dozen pitches later and FH Gizmos and Skype are joining forces on a new cooperative: We know student voice can revolutionize their learning, but can it revolutionize the edtech they use? Skype and my kids plan to find out!

Here’s Ross:

One of the most inspiring things about working at Skype is being able to hear about how people use Skype to do good in the world. From soldiers seeing their first born over Skype to kids talking with grandparents to teachers using Skype to connect classrooms. Several years ago, we started a program called Skype in the Classroom which is a network educators can use to find guest speakers, virtual field trips, and classroom-to-classroom connections – all free – to help break down the classroom walls and expand learning. We hear great stories such as students from locations where they may never normally travel 40 miles from their home in their lifetime – connecting with other classrooms around the world. As excited as we are about what we’ve done, our work has been with educators and partners – and our feedback from students has been anecdotal at best. As he mentioned, I was fortunate to meet Chris through our work on games in the classroom – and am inspired by this latest partnership.

Student voice has been eye opening for us on the Skype in the Classroom team. In the last few months of working with Chris and his students, we have heard some great ideas, many of which we hope to implement – and we have had some of our own thoughts validated, as well as some disruptive thinking. It’s been great to connect the students directly on Skype calls with our team.

Clearly there is a lot of research and guidance on “connecting with customers” – and work on “lead user innovation” and a lot of our work has been focused on educators. It’s been great to work with Chris and the Innovators of FH Gizmos on how we can capture student voice for to make our program even more impactful and useful for students and teachers. As we approach back-to-school in September, we are looking forward to exploring many of the ideas that the students have suggested so far, and are excited to continue to brainstorm ideas for how we can improve our experience to better suit the needs and interests of students. Personally, I am so thankful to cross paths with Chris and to to be a part of this wonderful program with his students!

We are in the midst of dramatic societal change. Students today will enter a very different workforce. Globalization of the workforce will have an impact on their future. Generational changes – people are living and working longer will influence the opportunities ahead. Every company is a tech company now, influenced by the pervasiveness of the internet and social media. Just as importantly, the internet and social media provides a platform for students to drive change. It’s why I’m so excited about this partnership.

When we think about how to best introduce students to “new collar” jobs and 21st century skills, what could be better than to introduce them live to a data scientist over Skype? Host a live chat with a VR engineer? Skype in the Classroom opens up an opportunity for students to engage directly with expert in these new collar jobs. And as we work with Chris and his students, we can tailor our programs to help make a difference to introduce students to possibility of these 21st century jobs, serving the students and the needs of employers.

We live in a fascinating age of change – and Chris is doing incredible work to prepare his students for a new world of entrepreneurship and a “gig economy” – the skills that these students are developing will serve them well in this new world.

I wish I had this when I was a grade schooler… I am so optimistic for the future!

Back to me.

I’m optimistic, too. This is an opportunity to take student voice to the next level as we work directly with Skype as we make Skype in the Classroom as empowering for students and teachers as possible. We have three different initiatives we’ll be working on with Skype: amplifying student voice and experiences using social media, creating a guide to help students help teachers use Skype in the Classroom, and making it even easier for teachers and students to connect with the experts they want to bring into their classroom. As we kick off in September, I’m excited to continue to see my students take ownership of their own learning and use the empathy skills we’ve been learning through design to help make Skype in the Classroom even better for everyone. Just as student voice revolutionized my classroom, I believe my kids will be able to help revolutionize the technology they use by sharing their voice.

Next time, I will walk you through what students have done so far, how they are sharing their voice, and where we plan on going.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.