Skype is a  free internet tool that allows you to make free phone calls and video conferences  (with chat) to Skype users around the world (and low-cost phone calls to any phone).  Imagine connecting  your students to a favorite author, a class across the country, or citizens of a distant land -- all for free.

Skype for Teachers connects classrooms and projects around the world.

Here are some examples of teachers and kids using Skype in the classroom and the learning that follows.

Children in this classroom meet with peers  3 times zones away, thus bringing home lessons about the rotation of the earth.

 

Students in this Canadian classroom are engaged in a long-term collaborative study of a novel with a class of students in the midwest, and they are using blogs, wikis, text messages, and skype to support their communication.

 

Mr. Mayo's students used Skype  for his students' interview of a Harvard faculty member who had written a book on a topic relevant to their unit of study.

 

Check out this list of teachers around the world, at all grade levels, who are interested in conncecting with other teachers/classrooms via Skype.

This teacher offers valuable suggestions for making video conferences valuable beyond "cool tech tool" factor.

Recording Interviews Using Skype

If you want to get into advanced blogging or podcasting and want to record high sound quality  interviews conducting via Skype, the tutorial on the Blogarithims blog shows you how.