Seventh- and eighth-grade students at Emmaus Lutheran School have a new Spanish teacher; she lives in Cancun, Mexico.Twice a week Tere Alvarez teaches a half hour of Spanish to Greg Rehberg's class; she commutes, via Skype. Skype's online newsletter describes their service as “a peer-to-peer Internet telephony service that is free for Skype-to-Skype calls.”
So they call their teacher in Mexico through their classroom computer using their Skype program. She in turn teaches them through a Skype link on her computer. Both parties have microphones and video camera links. The link in the classroom is projected onto the classroom SMART board.
Alvarez can hear and see the students when they ask questions and she calls on them by name. She sends them homework and lesson sheets through the link, and they can download them quickly enough. It is similar to the lag a real teacher would have while handing out assignment sheets in class. The students can read aloud, and she can correct their pronunciation.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Students connect to Cancun for lessons
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