She made contact through Facebook (from home, naturally, because our filter is “protecting” us) and asked if he’d be interested in Skyping in to share his experiences and do a question and answer session with her students. He said yes, so we’ll be Skyping during her 5th period class on October 6th, from 12:14 – 1:12 pm MDT. Her other classes can attend via an in-school field trip (if they don’t have anything pressing going on in their 5th period class), and a couple of other Business teachers will bring their 5th period classes as well. We’ll also be ustreaming it out so parents can watch (everyone is welcome to drop in but, as always, we’ll focus on making sure the technology works for the students, the ustream is a bonus).
Oh yeah, the guy? Jason Shellen. He’s currently CEO of Thing Labs. Previously he was an employee of Pyra Labs and worked on Blogger as it was acquired by Google, and he was the founding product manager of Google Reader.
Once again, it's great to see teachers and students reaching out to others, and others being kind enough to give some time. It's so darn easy that I'm wondering what everyone is waiting for? Who could you bring into your classroom?
Unfortunately, it seems like instead of asking "Who could you bring into your classroom?" some people are instead asking "Who can we hear from but keep as much out of the classroom as possible?"
ReplyDeleteNot only does that ignore the amazing potential for two way dialogue and exchanges of ideas that the internet provides, but the fact that schools even have to worry about such things is somewhat disturbing in its own right.
That's fantastic. New to your blog. Love your thoughts and ideas. Motivating and inspiring and frustrating all at once! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI was searching blogs to respond to, in requirement of a TE Technology course, and was most interested to find your blog in reference to skyping. Just prior to this I read a blog concerning skyping in reference to aiding H1N1sick student-class separation. I can see that using this technology for special class events would be very productive in class instructions also. It was further informative to learn of u-streaming out, as an added benefit to parents to also watch. I have been away from academics for a while and find the technology being used through teacher education studies to be amazing.
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