I spent most of my Thursday afterschool trying to set up the Dell laptop connected to the data projector working with Skype. Hmmm....after 3 hours (or so after skyping Donna numerous times interrupting her while she worked on her master's project and ate supper) we seemed to get it to work. It seems that the Dell I have has a built-in microphone and the headset just didn't want to work with skype. My MacBook worked PERFECTLY but I don't have a connection cord to the data projector.
The next morning, I was able to skype the teacher, Mr. Bill Theobald, in Waterloo Illinois. THEY start classes at 8:00 AM! All my grade five and sixes piled into the library at 9:05 (I had warned them that I didn't know what to expect) and promptly the pre-setup Dell had somehow unset itself up. We had no luck with it...so we went back to my tiny Mac...and it WORKED. The kids had a blast. They did get to talk to some of their epals; as well after the classes changed there they talked to some 6th graders.
Anyhow, THANKS DONNA!
We definitely want to do this again.
By the way, we connected with the Waterloo Illinois class via Epals www.epals.com A teacher can get 35 free email accounts with this service and access to classes all over the world. I've been doing Epals with my social studies classes for about three years now with mixed results. If the class writes back on a regular basis it is a wonderful experience; if not the kids get frustrated. This year, I've agreed to exchange with pretty much any class that's written to us. Waterloo Illinois has been the most faithful correspondants. Check out the city site at http://www.waterloo.il.us/
