This week, I took 20 minutes out of my day to have a conversation with a group of students… …in Canada.
As you can see, our conversation was not in person, but mediated by the Internet’s video conferencing technology service called Skype. A free Skype account and a video camera allows free, easy video conversations in real time, with people anywhere in the world. It is an absolutely amazing technology, when you think about it. These Grade 4 students, in the classroom of teacher Marcie Lewis, were polite, engaging, and articulate. They asked me questions about geology, careers, and my interest in the Earth sciences. I showed them rocks from my office, and they showed me rocks and fossils they had collected locally along the Niagara Escarpment.
Talking with them was a pleasant break from a morning of grading and bureaucratic maneuvering. How many of my readers have reached out via Skype to create scientist/student connections? It’s astonishingly easy.
Please consider signing up for Skype in the Classroom: http://education.skype.com/
Currently there are only a handful of geologists there – I’m one of them.
Done! Thanks for the tip.
Hi
Are you a researcher in antartica
Do you know anyone who works in antartica
If you do can you give them my email please
this is for a school project and me and my friend.would like to set up a Skype conversations
Thanks
Hi Zac,
No, I’m not in Antarctica, nor do I know anyone there right now.
Try asking Louise Huffman at ANDRILL; she may be able to hook you up with an active polar scientist.
Good luck!
Callan
skype is used a lot in India, but to keep in touch with relatives abroad.. no big phone bills!
I’ve used Skype a lot to connect with collaborators and classrooms around the world. A group called PolarTREC uses Skype & similar to connect polar researchers (and teachers who go along with them to the Arctic & Antarctic as field assistants) with classrooms back home. Isn’t the internet great?!
Yes indeed, it is!