Skype, the internet communication platform, has announced that a major project to connect teachers and students around the world has passed the twenty-thousandth member mark... Skype, the internet communication platform, has announced that a major project to connect teachers and students around the world has passed the 20,000 member mark.
Skype in the Classroom, which launched in March, is a free online community that invites teachers to collaborate on classroom projects and share learning skills.
Teachers create a profile that sets out their interests, specialties and location, then search using keywords for partner classes, teachers or guest speakers around the world to collaborate with on specific learning projects.
“It helps students globally understand and examine the very things that shape their views of society, cultures, economies, business and education,” said Tony Bates, president of the Skype Division of Microsoft, in a recent interview. “It fulfils something that many of us have never had, or at least haven't had easy access to in the past.”
Recent projects have connected students through discussions on contemporary topics, book clubs, language learning and musical performance. While used mainly by teachers, others are increasingly participating. “Olympians, NASA scientists, earthquake experts, celebrities, book authors, political activists and lots of other experts and students are making their way into classrooms across long distances,” said Bates.
Bates said the scheme had been well received by the teaching community, with teachers from over 170 different countries now signed up and “dozens of new projects added every day”. At present secondary schools use the platform most, but students of all ages are participating.
“Distance learning has been around for a long time, and technology has helped it come a long way”
The programme's rise reflects the growing uptake of distance learning globally. There have been a spate of mergers and acquisitions in the space this year, such as the tie-up between the US-based Livemocha (the world's largest online language learning community) and Brazilian education giant
Abril Educação in September. In November, Pearson purchased
Connections Education which delivers online schooling to 40,000 children in the US.
Bates said Skype in the Classroom's ultimate goal was to connect a million classrooms, and many more if possible. “Distance learning has been around for a long time, and technology has helped it come a long way, but the power of this really unlocks as we get to a billion people, and access to the internet and technologies like Skype stretches further into developing nations,” he said.
Skype, the internet communication platform, has announced that a major project to connect teachers and students around the world has passed the 20,000 member mark.
Skype in the Classroom, which launched in March, is a free online community that invites teachers to collaborate on classroom projects and share learning skills.
Teachers create a profile that sets out their interests, specialties and location, then search using keywords for partner classes, teachers or guest speakers around the world to collaborate with on specific learning projects.
“It helps students globally understand and examine the very things that shape their views of society, cultures, economies, business and education,” said Tony Bates, president of the Skype Division of Microsoft, in a recent interview. “It fulfils something that many of us have never had, or at least haven’t had easy access to in the past.”
Recent projects have connected students through discussions on contemporary topics, book clubs, language learning and musical performance. While used mainly by teachers, others are increasingly participating. “Olympians, NASA scientists, earthquake experts, celebrities, book authors, political activists and lots of other experts and students are making their way into classrooms across long distances,” said Bates.
Bates said the scheme had been well received by the teaching community, with teachers from over 170 different countries now signed up and “dozens of new projects added every day”. At present secondary schools use the platform most, but students of all ages are participating.
“Distance learning has been around for a long time, and technology has helped it come a long way”
The programme’s rise reflects the growing uptake of distance learning globally. There have been a spate of mergers and acquisitions in the space this year, such as the tie-up between the US-based Livemocha (the world’s largest online language learning community) and Brazilian education giant Abril Educação in September. In November, Pearson purchased Connections Education which delivers online schooling to 40,000 children in the US.
Bates said Skype in the Classroom’s ultimate goal was to connect a million classrooms, and many more if possible. “Distance learning has been around for a long time, and technology has helped it come a long way, but the power of this really unlocks as we get to a billion people, and access to the internet and technologies like Skype stretches further into developing nations,” he said.
