FENTON, Michigan — Tomek-Eastern Elementary School is nearly 3,000 miles away from Bogota, Colombia, but through technology the two classrooms are meeting face to face.
There were simultaneous giggles and “hellos” between students as they saw and heard each other for the first time recently through Skype, a computer video chat.
Students from each school took turns asking questions that had to deal with their respective units they were learning in class. The Fenton students, who were learning about rules and laws in their country, also learned about some in Colombia, while students in Bogota asked about lifestyles in America, more specifically what daily life is like for the second-graders in Fenton.
The teacher from Colombia asked if the students go to school in winter, which the students responded with a collective “yes.”
“If it snows too much, we get snow days off. We get to stay home,” said one student in response to the question.
The two classes conversed in English, the school in Colombia is bilingual.
Teacher Sara Eastman’s second-grade class served as the pilot for using Skype in the school district.
It’s likely it won’t be the last time the two classes — or any other class in the school building — converse with the help of Skype.
Tomek-Eastern Principal Brett Young said he hopes other teachers in the school jump on board and bring the technology into their lesson plans.
“This is one of those experiences that can really just help with the whole learning process,” Young said. “It’s so easy from the classroom to make that connection to another continent.”
This adds one more way for teachers to bring the international aspect into their units, as part of the school’s International Baccalaureate program.
Young said teachers have said they want to use more technology and expects they’ll be more interested after the staff meets to talk about how the process went over. And Eastman’s experience is expected to be shared with the other school buildings in the district.
However, the legwork falls on the teacher. For the Skype session, Eastman had to find a class that was interested in partnering with the school — which she did through the IB’s website — work with the teacher in Colombia to find a time that worked and learn what the other class was learning.
Young said the idea of using Skype in the classroom has been talked about for awhile, but was finally being put to use.
Although Skype itself is easy to use, Young said there are many hurdles when bringing it into the classroom. The school had to go through the Genesee Intermediate School District, freeing up its firewall for the amount of time the class would be using the program.
Jerry Johnson, spokesman for the GISD, said other schools — Kersley, Goodrich, Clio, Davison, Lakeville, Atherton and Grand Blanc — in the county-wide district have used Skype in the past. Schools also are able to connect with each other in the district, as well as outside of the district through GenNET.
Johnson said he anticipates using video to connect outside of the school will increase in the classroom, as part of the ongoing transformation in the digital age. As kids are born into the use of technology, they’ll expect no less than the use of it as they learn.
“The capability is there. It really allows districts to tailor their programs to meet their unique needs and students,” Johnson said.
If Fenton decides to use Skype more regularly, Johnson said he doesn’t anticipate it to be a hassle, as long as the district plans ahead.
Eastman said the Skype session wasn’t initially built into the unit, but she thought it would be a powerful experience to talk to children from another country about the subject matter.
“I hope giving them these kinds of experiences will broaden their way of thinking,” Eastman said.