Classrooms have been transformed. Blackboards and a half-used boxes of chalks are quite far from what teachers can now achieve by embracing tech-solutions such as Skype. The possibilities of eLearning have broaden the scope when it comes to training and education. Teachers can connect classrooms across the globe or even get their pupils in touch with NASA scientists. Curious? Keep reading to learn some creative ways of using Skype inside schools.
Skype across the frozen oceans
Expedition educator Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop is passionate about ocean science, and also teaching about it. A former school teacher, he founded the Digital Explorer program to share his expeditions across the Frozen Oceans with classrooms all around the world.
With the aid of the Digital Explorer program and Skype video calls, lesson plans on the Arctic get real as over 3,000 students are able to discover the importance of this remote region and its delicate ecosystem from their classrooms. Jamie’s passion for being out on the ocean is palpable as he describes the remote region of the Arctic: “on a still day the air is a cloud of fairy dust, like walking through a cloud of speckled diamonds,” he muses for all kids to learn.
Students Stand at the top of a Glacier through Skype
What about witnessing glacier tops? Last month students from the UK had the chance to enjoy via Skype how the ice of Eyjafjallajökull is rapidly retreating. In addition to climbing the glacier in a super jeep, they had the opportunity to skype-enter an ice cave and cross powerful glacial rivers.
Their guide was Pall A. Davidsson, the founder of Vox Naturae, an Icelandic NGO that works to raise awareness about the importance of global snow and ice. Armed with Skype on his Nokia Lumia smartphone and Lenovo laptop, Davidsson hosted the Walk on a Disappearing glacier in Iceland via Skype.
Mystery Skype!
It is time to play a geography game! Invented by teachers and played by two classrooms on Skype, students have to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions.
![skypelearning2_Thumb[1]](https://news.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads//2015/03/skypelearning2_Thumb1.png)
When it comes to education, eLearning and new technologies can transform otherwise traditional teaching environments to create compelling experiences for generation y. In fact, your own PC can become your classroom.
