picture by: innovation.unhcr.org
Skype is a great way to remove walls in the classroom and reach collaborative destinations never imagined previously. Field trips across the country are now as close as a video connection. Classrooms connect with other classrooms across the world. Students connect with experts, guest speakers and others who add authenticity and excitement to learning. How do you make this as seamless as possible? What factors are the most important to keep in mind? Where do you start? These are questions I find myself asking when I begin to plan out a collaborative project that involves connecting with digital tools.
In the article “Dos and Don’t for Skype in the Classroom,” I found several important key pieces that are very relevant to creating a high quality Skype chat with your classroom and whoever you choose to connect with. It addresses many components that I had never thought about before I started my class collaboration in the past, and many issues that I did encounter. Although this article is tailored to Skype, I do believe the tips can apply to many emerging technologies when collaborating digitally in the classroom.
Below is an infographic made with www.easel.ly, that displays the dos and don’ts of Skype in the classroom. The article above describes these components in more depth, but these are the main ideas to keep in mind. Typically I would create an infographic on Piktochart, but I decided to try a new tool. Easel.ly was very simple to use and navigate, but I found its options for graphics and text to not be quite as vast as Piktochart, but hey I tried something new right? Even with these few flawed features, I would continue to explore it in the future.
