All Schools Should Skype

by Eric Sheninger
Principal, New Milford High School (NMHS), located in Bergen County, NJ

Last fall I was at a workshop and was intrigued to learn how schools were using Skype in the classroom. Needless to say I was sold immediately on the educational possibilities. Upon returning to school made it a mission to pass on this information thinking that all of my teachers would be as enthusiastic about it as I was. I had never used the program, but all I heard was how easy it was to Skype. I soon developed this vision of walking around my building and seeing multiple classrooms using Skype to engage our students like never before. So I sent out a very detailed email to my entire staff explaining how easy it was to set up Skype and ways in which it could be used during instruction. With these step by step instructions I was sure that it would only take days before teachers began to use this Web 2.0 technology as a free video conference tool.

Weeks and months went by and I heard nothing about Skype. If this wasn’t bad enough, I then did some investigating and found that none of my teachers had used it at all. So where did I go wrong?  Some pondering led me back to knowledge acquired during my administrative training. If I wanted my staff to buy into using a type of technology, no matter how simple it is to use, I had to model how to use it for educational purposes. Now I had a plan! So over the summer I learned how to Skype and trained a few of my staff members. Using Delicious I collected links on how Skype was being used for education. My passion and excitement became contagious after engaging in a few discussions with staff members.  Finally, my vision of teachers using Skype in the classroom was about to become a reality.

At this point, I cannot take any credit for what I am about to write about. One of the teachers that I had Skype discussions with was Colleen Tambuscio. Colleen teaches a Holocaust course at NMHS and takes 10-12 students on a Holocaust Study tour every year to Europe. The following is some background information on the program taken from the NJ School Report Card Narrative:

New Milford High School offers students a comprehensive Holocaust/Genocide education program. This program is run by Colleen Tambuscio, the 2005-2006 Bergen County Teacher of the year. The course includes an instructional component both within the classroom setting and beyond. Activities include the following:

• an elective course entitled The Holocaust and Human Behavior
• a two day educational seminar to The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC
• a day-long symposium with Holocaust survivors
• a funded overseas experiential learning opportunity to study the Holocaust at sites in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.

The goal of the program is to provide students with educational experiences that help foster an understanding of the value of all human life and that challenge students to examine their personal attitudes and behaviors while grappling with the historical complexity of the Holocaust era.

Colleen was already familiar with Skype as she had used it for personal reasons, but was now excited to utilize it in the classroom. Let me tell you, she had some fantastic ideas.

On Monday September 14th, Colleen “Skyped in” a guest speaker, Shalmi Barmore, from Israel for her Holocaust class. The topic of the lesson for the day was to define the term "genocide" and analyze this definition as it related to the term "Holocaust". Mr. Barmore was able to give historical insight into the creation and use of the term "genocide" and the history behind labeling the genocide that took place during WWII as "The Holocaust". Mr. Barmore shared scholarly information on the use of these terms from his years of experience in education at Yad Vashem - Israel's Holocaust memorial.  Students were able to interact directly with Mr. Barmore in real time through a vibrant discussion. Colleen also plans to Skype to her Holocaust classes from Europe this spring when on the Study Tour!

 

In a recent email this week, Colleen explained to me other ways that she plans to use Skype in the classroom. I have included these below:

 

“Last night I had dinner with a friend of mine from USHMM who is the expert on Latin America and the Holocaust. She was in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay for a month working with local schools and teachers. She worked with a teacher and students in Uruguay on a survivor project. Their local survivor stories were not documented anywhere. Through the registry at USHMM she set up an opportunity for the students to document their local survivor stories which were not in the database at the Museum. This is exactly what we will be doing this year in Trsice, videotaping and writing up the stories of local survivors in the Trsice/Olomouc region that have not been documented.

So as you can imagine, we will be documenting these for the registry at USHMM.  Prior to this initiative, she is going to set us up with the students in Uruguay so we can SKYPE and have a conversation about the process involved in this project. They don't speak English so I asked Lisette Morel this morning if she could interpret for us and she was thrilled to help out." 

LOTS OF POTENTIAL HERE!

 

“Today in Holocaust class first period and as a result of a discussion in my 8th period yesterday, we emailed the author of a book we are reading on the Armenian Genocide some questions about Armenian survivor understanding of the Holocaust.  What did they think after their ordeal about the Holocaust?  Why is there such Armenian discontent in their culture against the Jews?  Does this stem from their time in Turkey or is religious indifference? etc.  Lots of great questions.  I know the author because he has spoken at our CHE (Council of Holocaust Educators) conferences in the past.  He will respond to the kids.  Then, we asked him if he would SKYPE into our class next week so we can discuss these issues !!! I'll let you know.”

 
Simple, free technology such as Skype can add a whole new dimension to the learning process.  As educators we can now easily move beyond the walls of the classroom and provide authentic-learning experiences for our students that are relevant, meaningful, and engaging. With this being said, it is teachers like Colleen Tambuscio that make this happen in classrooms across the globe.  Bottom line is this: I am so glad that I learned to Skype!

Comments

[Mr. Gauthier]

Outstanding post. I am a Middle School Social Studies Teacher and I would love to get on a list for other schools who would like to connect classrooms and share projects and presentations.
Feel free to contact me.

[Jasna Aliefendic]

Eric,

Here is a list of the authors who will Skype with students for free. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6673572.html

[Tara Seale]

I am always impressed with administrators who think out why the teaching strategies (especially related to technology) are not taking hold in their schools. Modeling is key for teachers teaching students and administrators influencing teachers. I am not sure if you have read Scott McLeod's blog post on 15 questions to ask about technology leadership in your district, but you are exemplifying an administrator who is taking charge and modeling for teachers to follow. Great job, and thanks for sharing your post.
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/07/15-questions-to-ask-about-the-technology-leadership-in-your-school-district.html

[Lindsey Barlow]

Hi Eric,

Sharing this story is such an important piece of the puzzle. Once you get a teacher who is willing to stretch themselves and bring these learning experiences to their students, these teachers should be celebrated in blogs like this. Share their successes in faculty meetings, on school blogs, in the parent newsletter, take them to conferences to present. Glad to hear you were able to spread your passion and ideas into the classrooms with the help of this teacher. Hope it continues.

[Karenne]

Wow, Eric - what a great example, thanks so much for sharing it, I particularly love the fact that your school's students are now able to get information related to their learning direct from "horse-mouths".

This making learning real is a very exciting development in education. Thanks for being a pioneer.

If I were to make any sort of suggestion then I would say, add video - not only so that the students who missed class that day can see what happened but so that the video can be reviewed and discussed even further (sometimes in the excitement of a conversation we miss details).

It would also mean the parents of the children would also get the chance to participate in their child's learning and if you placed it on youtube, other children your students ages, and other teachers would also be able to participate in this learning - perhaps even connecting you further, say with schools and students around the world...

hope that's not too ambitious a suggestion, just a thought.

Take care,
Karenne (kalinagoenglish)