Skype technology connects local kids

About 40 fourth-through-sixth-graders sit in rows facing a wall filled with the projected screen of a computer desktop in the Lincoln Elementary Media Center in Iowa City.

At the same time, across town at the Mark Twain Elementary Media Center, another group of students sits in wait before a larger-than-life computer screen.

The two schools have four miles and the Iowa River between them. But with a few clicks from teacher-librarians Ernie Cox at Mark Twain and Salina Hemann at Lincoln, the wall disappears and the students appear on each other's projected screens through webcams and the computer application Skype.

The two schools are connecting their students to discuss their favorite books among the 2010-11 Iowa Children's Choice nominees.

“It really is a new technology for us to connect and share literature,” Hemann said. “It's a way to connect these kids without putting them on a bus and driving across town.”

Five students from each school took turns on a recent Friday delivering a report on their favorite book.

Adam Zabner, 11, a Lincoln sixth-grader, was the first from both schools to deliver his report and decided to make the occasion special by wearing a tie over his T-shirt, which drew a few laughs from the Twain students when he stepped in front of the camera.

The experience of facing a wall and talking to students on the other side of town was an odd one for Zabner, who delivered a report on the novel “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz.

“It felt funny, like I was talking to the people behind me instead,” he said.

For other students, such as Mark Twain sixth-grader Tyler Jackson, 12, it was just as nerve-racking as any public speaking occasion.

“I was nervous because people were staring at me,” Jackson said.

Other connections

Hemann and Cox are making a local connection, but other teachers are going even farther.

Teacher-librarian Kathy Kaldenberg at Solon schools has been using Skype to connect with other schools around the world for more than a year. What started as a professional development tool has turned into a way to connect students in Solon to anywhere in the world.

“I see myself as a liaison or an instigator, I help teachers with the technical connection to make this possible,” Kaldenberg said.

A group of Lakeview Elementary fourth-graders discussed their favorite novels among the Children's Choice awards with a class from a parochial school in Omaha, Neb., during a media center visit last week, but that was relatively close. Kaldenberg has used Skype to connect with schools as far away as Australia.

For some of the Lakeview students, their video trip to Nebraska was not that out of the ordinary. Several students said they use Skype at home with their families to keep in touch with distant relatives.

Fourth-grader Mackenzie Pentico, 9, said it was fun to meet people from all over the world

“I was surprised to see they liked the same books as us,” she said.

Video conference technology isn't exactly new, but the program Skype allows it to be completely free and relatively low-tech, making it ideal for schools.

Occasional glitches

But it doesn't always work out perfectly. Depending on the connection speed and day-to-day network conditions of participants, video and sound quality can lag at times. The Lincoln-Twain book talk didn't have any connection problems, but Kaldenberg's class had a few frustrating moments when their connection to Nebraska fell behind and was difficult to make out.

Bandwidth and security concerns have led some districts such as Cedar Rapids to block the Skype application completely until their network can better handle the strain.

While the bandwidth can be a problem, Kaldenberg views Skype as a powerful tool to expand the horizons of the Solon students.

“We're in a small rural town in the Midwest. Without this, we cannot get out there to see how things are different around the globe,” she said.