Thursday, September 9, 2010 | DeKalb County's Oldest Newspaper |
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Photo by Dusty Plunkett
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Students from Julie Caminiti’s fourth-grade class at Williams Avenue Elementary School interact with students in Chicago on Thursday using Skype.
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Skype’s the limit for students
Published February 4, 2010
The Skype is the limit at Williams Avenue School in Fort Payne.
Students in Julie Caminiti’s fourth-grade classroom are using Skype – a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls over the Internet – to communicate with peers in other parts of the U.S.
On Thursday, Caminiti’s students communicated with another fourth grade classroom in Chicago. Students compared things like their favorite things to do in their respective cities, favorite foods, favorite movies and discussed various geographical differences.
“We were able to compare our life with their big city life,” Caminiti said. “To prepare for the Skype session, my students had to come up with 10 questions to ask, study about Alabama and make a movie clip about our state.
“My students are learning more from this hands-on preparation than they could from anything else. I have never seen my students this eager to learn until now.”
Caminiti said she later hopes her class will be able to Skype with students in other countries, such as England.
“My students now have the ability to communicate with other students from all over the world,” Caminiti said. “While my students are using Skype, we have the ability to not only hear the students, but see them as well. My students actually feel like they are in the same room with our Skype friends.”
During one recent Skype call, Caminiti’s students connected with another fourth grade classroom from Vestavia Hills in Birmingham. During that Skype session, the classrooms shared math problems and problem-solving information, she said.
“The students were excited to exchange information about each others’ classroom and school as well,” she said.
Caminiti said, within one week of having Skype in her classroom, she had received emails from Idaho, California, Illinois and New York.
“With each state our class Skypes, we will interact to share math facts, state facts, science experiments, and many more educational activities,” Caminiti said. “I look forward to learning and growing with my students as we interact with people from all over the world. My classroom will never be the same.”
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The Fort Payne Times-Journal | Publisher: J.D. Davidson
811 Greenhill Blvd.NW, Fort Payne, Alabama 35967 | Tel: 256-845-2550 | Email
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