Skyping school - one school uses computer program to connect with another
Published: Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
Every weekday morning, first-grader Kristoffer Jones gets ready to read.
He grabs a few books, makes his way across the classroom and settles into a chair. Pulling a book off his stack, he reads the title, "Smaller and Smaller," out loud – into the computer screen in front of him.
It's story time, Skype-style.
Kristoffer and his classmates, students in teacher Tina Boyer-Clauer's class at Sunset Park Elememtary School, are practicing one of the key parts of elementary school: reading to a partner. But instead of turning to the student in the seat next to them, Boyer-Clauer's students read to students across town, in Tamara Williams' kindergarten class at Castle Hayne Elementary School.
The two classrooms read through Skype, a computer program that uses a webcam and microphone to let the students see and hear each other. A Sunset Park student reads a book, then a Castle Hayne student reads a book – then they switch.
Boyer-Clauer got the idea after attending an education workshop nearly two years ago, where she heard about the benefits of using Skype in schools. She was instantly sold, she said, and started hunting for other classrooms her students could Skype with.
At first, those classrooms were far-flung. Boyer-Clauer's students spoke to students in Canada, New Hampshire and California. Then Boyer-Clauer set up her own Skype workshop for teachers in New Hanover County. That's how she found Williams.
The two classrooms read together daily. They've also put on plays together and taken field trips to their respective schools so the students can meet each other in real life.
That way, they get the idea that learning happens outside of just their classroom, Boyer-Clauer said.
"It goes beyond these four walls," she said. "It's not just something on the computer – this is real. These are real kids."
That's hit home for several of Boyer-Clauer's students. Ask first-grader Stephanie Vasquez about her Skype buddy, a Castle Hayne kindergartner named Aniece, and Stephanie starts to grin.
"She's my best friend," Stephanie said.
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