The site functions like a match.com for classrooms. Browse around and you’ll find Yellowstone Park Rangers offering to Skype with classrooms about geology and ecology; a Greek school looking to talk to students around the world about what kids eat for lunch; and a London grade school teacher looking to have a global chat about the Olympics.
Read
the comments there and it’s pretty amazing – educators from Brazil,
India, Australia, Denmark, and the US all collaborated on a program back
in January that I can only imagine is coming to life this very week.
While
obviously this is a great resource for teachers (and I might just share
it with ours next year, should they be interested in getting involved),
it made me think about how we might schedule a regular chat with
cousins or friends’ children in other parts of the world around a topic.
While “video pal” doesn’t have the alliteration of pen pal, I think it’s pretty awesome. –Liz
Learn more about Skype in the Classroom on the Skype Website. You can also check out editors picks by topic on the Skype in the Classroom Collections page.
Hi, you may also like a tool we launched recently called Härnu which you might also consider a penpal 2.0 app. Härnu enables you to connect with others around the world in your own language. We’re at http://www.harnu.com . Thanks!