Skype eyes connecting 1M teachers in social network for education

09/22/2011 | 11:22 PM

Videoconferencing giant Skype aims to connect one million teachers by building a social network for educators.

Skype said its "Skype in the Classroom" has so far signed up more than 16,000 teachers to its social network since launching a beta version in December.

“Skype has been going on for many, many years, and teachers have been finding each other and they’ve been finding ways to use the power of Skype in the educational process for a long time. We really felt that it was time to take this to the next level... moving from grassroots Skype in the classroom to an initiative driven by Skype," said Skype CEO Tony Bates on Wednesday at the Social Good Summit, according to a report on Mashable.com.

Bates announced the one-million classroom goal on stage after using Skype to video call a sixth grade class in New Jersey.

“If Skype can have 170 million connected users in eight years, can’t we have 1 million connected classrooms?" he said.

A free community

The "Skype in the Classroom" is a free community that allows teachers to collaborate on projects and discover new teaching inspiration.

It is a "global initiative" in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms.

With the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests, and search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject.

Mashable said what looms as a most useful feature is a “project" tab that helps teachers find partner classrooms for projects and ideas.

"One teacher, for instance, used the platform to coordinate a 'weather around the world' unit. A middle school in Massachusetts regularly chats with an Afghan youth peace volunteer group. Another was able to host a virtual visit from Barbara Bush," it said.

About 900 similar projects have been posted on Skype in the Classroom so far, the Mashable report said.

“It doesn’t have to be a famous person. A busy parent could share their skills from their office in the middle of the day," Bates said.

Additional improvements

Skype on Wednesday announced additional improvements to the platform, including email notifications for projects, a Skype in the Classroom “badge" that can be displayed on a blog, an “I’d like to do this" button on projects that adds the teacher’s avatar to the project page, and an “I’ve done this" button for leaving feedback.

It is also working on some of the suggestions raised at a recent virtual panel with five teachers, such as a Skype in the Classroom widget. ELR/VS, GMA News.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/233175/technology/skype-eyes-connecting-1m-teachers-in-social-network-for-education