Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0” Difference In A Child’s Life - Part 2
Note: this is a continuation of an earlier post about using SKYPE to include a student that has been assigned to my class that has leukemia and can’t attend school because of the effects of her chemotherapy. The plan is to have a computer/web cam at her house so she can see and hear us and we can see and hear her using SKYPE which is free web based voice and video over internet.
BREAKING THE NEWS
Thursday I finally felt we were far enough along with getting the “infrastructure” lined up that I could inform the class of what we were hoping to do. I didn’t actually tell them anything, I just did an activity to get them ready to hear about it the next day. I had them write about the following:
Imagine something has happened to you, and you can’t be around other people at all. You can’t leave your house or have friends over, and you even have to be careful about being around members of your own family. You can talk on the phone or watch TV - if you have TV - but most of your family is gone during the day so you are by yourself - and you don’t feel real well sometimes and you can’t eat many of your favorite foods. How would you feel? What would you miss the most? What would be the hardest parts of not being around others? How could others make you feel better if they can’t play with you or even be with you?
The last question was what I really wanted a thoughtful response to – it would be the last thing we would discuss Friday before I told them the whole story. NOTE: I am planning on posting the 4th graders’ responses on their blog once I get it up and going (I know, I know … well MAYBE this weekend).
The ideas students came up with to answer that last question on Friday were truly inspired. “People could write me cards.” “They could send me emails” (one of my 4 students with internet at home). “They could stand outside my window and we could talk that way.” “They could have a MyFace (sic) page and we could write on that and put pictures.” (When I asked later she said she meant FaceBook actually).
Then I broke the news. I explained to the class that unbeknownst to them we had a new student in our class that had been in our class for about six weeks. “So who is it?” I asked. They all looked around the room with puzzled looks. Then I told them her name and about how she had cancer (I’ve found some web pages I’ll share with them next week specifically about leukemia). I explained about their journal entries and discussion we’d just had and made the connection for them.
I reminded them how a few times in the last weeks when they had entered the room I had Skype going and they could see themselves. I told them we had a computer donated along with an internet connection and web cam and that we would use that technology to include her in the class.
Needless to say they were pumped. They are really looking forward to making this work. So am I. Now I am just waiting for a call to come pick up the computer - then I’ll have to make arrangements to install the DSL line, computer and teach her how to use them.
Learning is messy!
December 16th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
This is POWER! What a fantastic way to be inclusive! Will the children in class be able to talk to the child at home using the web cam and skype? What do you use to make it heard by all? - we tried skype with a class in Canada (us in New Zealand) but I go lots of feedback on the soudfield speakers. Great post - can’t wait to hear how it goes!
December 16th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Jody - yes we will be able to see and talk to her and she will be able to see and talk to us. To avoid feedback you can plug in headphones. I have video Skyped on several occaisions with a large group in my classroom. I have a speaker system installed in my ceiling that I plug into the side of my computer (but I have also used speakers plugged into my computer). The headphoness have a mic built in and it picks up sound from the room pretty well but somehow seems to avoid the feedback you are talking about. Hope that helps. I’m sure we will have issues once we get started - and so solving those issues will just be part of making it work.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:26 am
This could be really good for kids who are in long term hospital stays. This could allow those students to be apart of school in a same way. Thats awesome.
December 19th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Wow. Very cool. Good luck!
December 19th, 2006 at 11:23 am
I recently saw a newspaper article about robots that they use in Children’s Hospitals. I can’t seem to find the article, but did find links to the robots that they use. I don’t know if these would be informative with your situation at all, but overall your blog post reminded me of this and I thought it was interesting. Great job getting a student involved that usually wouldn’t have a chance to be involved with the classroom in any way.
http://pebblesproject.org/
http://www.telbotics.com/
December 19th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
[...] Learning Is Messy - Blog :Roll up your sleeves and get messy « Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0” Difference In A Child’s Life - Part 2 [...]
January 15th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
[...] NOTE: This is the latest update about a post from December 7th: Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0” Difference In A Child’s Life and: Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0” Difference In A Child’s Life - Part 2 - about including a student assigned to my class that cannot attend school because of her depleted immune system that we are trying to “Skype” into our classroom. [...]
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:29 pm
[...] This post refers to previous postings (here and here) about a fourth grade student in my class - that because of Luekemia and the chemo/radiation treatments she is receiving cannot attend school. [...]
January 28th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
[...] As someone who embraced technology as a learning tool early on (my first classroom computer was a 64K Apple ll – not even a lle) I’m right there with many in the edblogosphere that have come to the conclusion that the snails pace of adoption by many in education would be enhanced if we had many examples of it truly making a difference in schools. My class has now successfully included a student that cannot attend school because of her leukemia twice using FREE video Skype software (see here and here). Our plan is to do it as many days as she feels up to it. And beyond the obvious implications of that, what needs to be pointed out is that it was EASY. Beyond getting her a DSL line and computer, which took the better part of 2 months, setting up the Skype connection literally took less than half an hour at her house and our classroom combined. My fourth graders that came into this year having close to zero experience with technology beyond video games and phones, hook up the laptop and web cam we use easily after we did it ONE TIME (we’ve done it twice more since). [...]