A Skype Call is a Learning Call - activities during and after the call

Last week we had our first skype call with Kenn Nesbitt.  As mentioned in a previous post, we had been using the guidelines drawn up by Silvia Tolisano, so that all students were aware of their roles before, during and after these calls.  Earlier in the week some our our Grade 3 students had already been responsible for researching about Mr Nesbitt in the library and by using the computers in the IT lab, other students had been responsible for using Google Earth and Google Maps to find out what it was like in Spokane, where Kenn Nesbitt lives.

Everyone was very excited on the morning of the call.  We had some students who took the role of greeters, and in each class 5 students had been chosen to ask Kenn questions.  We all listened to him talking about how and why he became a poet, and we enjoyed listening to the poems he shared with us.  During the call, some students also had the job of taking photos and movies.

Later that day I spent time in each class with the students who were responsible for the post-skype jobs.  Some students were bloggers and added to the Grade 3 Poetry and Song Blog, others turned the photos into a slideshow using Animoto and some worked on editing the movies in iMovie and sharing them on YouTube.

Here are some comments from one of the Grade 3 team about the process we went through and what she thought were the highlights of the call:

• Everyone knew what he or she was doing
• Everyone had the chance to participate and use IT, either before, during or after the skype call
• The reflection activities were done immediately afterwards while they were still fresh in everyone's minds
• Students were excited to see what others had published on the blog

We are skyping with Kenn again this week - what an exciting way for our students to learn about poetry!