Library Media Tech Talk

In my many years as a school librarian, I enjoyed helping teachers connect to distant schools and other places using Skype, Google Meet (Google Hangouts at the time), and Zoom. It was always a thrill to see students learn about destinations they may never physically visit through such connections. In this article, I want to share my best practices for setting up the library or classroom for a session. I will also share a few resources for connecting with other schools. I strongly recommend this activity regardless of the time of year. I guarantee you everyone will be engaged! Mystery Skype is a global guessing game that uses webcam conferencing calls to connect the participating schools or individuals. You can use Skype, Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or a similar webcam app. The students do not know the location of the other school, and they must guess where they are by using “yes” or “no” questions only. The goal is to guess the other school's location before they guess your...

I started working as the teacher-librarian at Bethel Middle School in August of 2019. In my previous job, I really enjoyed helping teachers connect to distant schools and other places using Skype and Google Hangouts. It is a thrill to see students learn about destinations they may never get to physically visit through such connections. It is also refreshing to see teachers step out of their comfort zones by connecting their classrooms. Since coming to Bethel, I've been looking forward to introducing Mystery Skype to students and teachers. Luckily, I had a teacher in another state contact me about scheduling a session via Twitter in September. I pitched it to a few teachers at school, and we were able to set up a time that worked! Mystery Skype is a global guessing game that uses Microsoft Skype to connect the participating schools. The students do not know the location of the other school, and they must guess where they are by using “yes” or “no” questions only. Prior to the ...

Last week, I received a message from Iro Stefopoulou (@iro_st) asking if I could connect with her via Skype. Iro is a Skype Master Teacher and she lives in the United Kingdom. After a few quick exchanges via email and Skype messaging, we finally met using our webcams. What happened next totally opened up a number of possibilities for us to connect our school using programs that Skype and Microsoft are providing to educators! I want to share some of the highlights that you might want to check out. Microsoft Educator Community The links and resources that Iro shared with me are located on the Microsoft Educator Community website . If you haven't visited this site before, you are missing out on some great opportunities. I'm so glad Iro reminded me of this resource in our Skype session. I get so busy in my job that I forget to check it for the latest offerings. For this article, I will focus on activities that feature Skype in the Classroom. It has been so powerful to hel...

We have made several exciting connections via Skype during the fall of 2016. I want to share about three connections we have made in the last few weeks. These are all special to me for different reasons, and I will share about the significance of each. What is amazing about each of these events is that they wouldn't have happened if not for the magic of social media. If you are not a connected educator, I hope these stories will convince you to start connecting (for your growth and for your learning community). Connecting With Shannon Miller I have previously shared that Shannon McClintock Miller inspired me to create this blog and to become a connected teacher librarian. I heard her speak at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference in 2014. Since taking up these practices that year (and learning more about Twitter through our assistant principal, Mathew Thornton), my professional life has forever changed. I've been blessed with thousands of new educator f...

I'm delighted to be joined by  El izabeth Hutchinson in  this  blo g ar ticle. Elizabeth is a chartered librarian on the Island of Guernsey which is located in the English Channel. She is the head of School's Library Service there which serves the Bailiwick of Guernsey island schools. Introduction    (Elizabeth)   Way back in January I was looking for information about  M ystery  S kype. It was something that I had been interested in but did not know where to start. I found  S tony's  blog post about his first  M ystery  S kype attempt with lots of suggestions on how it worked. He made me feel that this was something that I could at last try so I took the plunge and sent him a  T weet .    This is the Tweet that changed us both! It turned out that Stony was keen to try his  first international  M ystery  H angout and was in the middle of a library  re-vamp ....