Friday, November 14, 2008

Crosspost on Classroom 2.0 and Giftededucation 2.0

After seventeen years of using technology in the classroom, I hate to admit it out loud but we finally did our first video conference. Our students and students from a school in New Jersey participated in The Pringle Project. Each student designed packaging to mail a single Pringle, there was weighing and measuring volume along the way. With help from the IT guys on both ends we got the video conference set up using Marratech software. (Skype is blocked by our district).

The looks on the kids' faces when they "faced" their partner were priceless, you would have thought they'd just landed on the moon. As each kiddo introduce him or her self then revealed the condition of their partner's chip to the webcam, hurrays were heard and fists were pumped in the air. One of our students decided to mail his chip in a hollowed out orange. When his partner appeared on screen he was wearing surgical gloves and holding a moldering, dripping, black box!! Hint: fruit does not make good packaging when sending a Pringles chip through the mail. Teaching is good, N.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello. I understand what you experienced, having quite a bit of experience with Marratech.

I have access to Marratech rooms and use them frequently for tutoring math. I would be glad to arrange for international peer conferences, specially around a creative math project I am producing and about which you can read at http://collares.org

I am a college math instructor currently teaching at CCRI.edu

I can be reached at pbaques@hotmail.com and you can also find me in Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.