I think a good way to use Skype in the classroom is get with a another classroom in the US and you can see what they are learning. To see if there Standandards are the same as yours.

I have heard some of my colleagues talk about using Skype in their classes, but we don't have any computers in the gym to even consider it. I believe they were using Skype to communicate with an "adopted school" when it was time for fitness testing preparation. They were motivating each other and showing ideas for preparing for areas of the fitness tests. It sounded really cool that they have kids teaching kids live!

we have used video conferencing within our own district to show other elementary schools our dances that we used for our dance unit. We have a computer that is on a cart and can be moved around the school, it also has a webcam attached which allowed us to bring it into the gym and record our students doing the Michael Jackson "thriller" dance while one of the other schools sat in their computer lab and watched on a smart board how we modified the dance to allow all students to be able to do it. This then allowed them to go to their gym and practice the dance steps. While it could have been just as easy for me to teach the dance to the other teachers and have them teach their classes, we thought this was a great idea to share an idea with another school and allow the students to see their friends from another school doing the dances.

I have not used skype in my classroom but have heard of my peers in social studies using it. They were viewing and sharing lectures. I like the idea of kids sharing dance moves with other kids in the same district. I would like to try this.

You have motivated me to look into other resources in my district and see if or how video conferencing can work. We have a tech department as I can bounce off ideas with as they are always looking for challenges. Once up and running, I would like to compare my PE program here in Illinois with other PE programs across the nation or world wide. I teach in a very diverse school setting and how cool would it be to see how physical fitness looks like in other countries that my students originate from.

I do not have any experience with using Skype in a PE setting. I am not familiar with the capabilities that the program would have in a elementary PE setting like mine. I have a lot of technological tools that i have used and have access to, but SKYPE is not one of them. I will read additional comments and learn with you.

I think it would be a great idea to use with schools in your feeder pattern. This will allow the elementary, middle, and high to be all on the same page of what they are doing without meeting face-to-face. I am at the middle school level and we only meet with the high school PE teachers twice a year. We never meet with the elementary PE teachers so we have no idea what the students have learned before they come to middle school.

Hi Michael,

I love your input on this topic. Being able to communicate with the middle and high school students would be very useful. During certain tournaments we could use Skype which would allow them to be a part of the event without physically being there. This can also be useful to teach certain skills in various units.

I do not have any experience using skype in a P.E. setting but I do like the idea of it. If I were to use it I would try a competition between different schools in the district. For example, during a soccer unit we could compare skills between schools and challenge each other to different tricks, etc. Also, we have a dance unit known as ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) in which all the schools in the district practice different dances and perform them on a particular day. Using Skype would be very beneficial in this unit because we could collaborate with another school to practice these dances.