Hi everyone!
The ICT resource that I have been using when I have my English lessons (I’m studying to become a teacher) is Skype. I’m fortunate enough to know an American family living in the USA and they have children that can Skype with my students. The really good thing with this family is that the children are being homeschooled, so we can work together. The American children will get a task from me and their mother to, for example explain how they celebrate Christmas in the USA. Then we all will Skype together with them so they can tell my class about Christmas in the USA.
In order to use Skype you have to be a member and know someone else that also is a member. If both of you are online you can just call them up and start a video chat with them. To be able to make this work you need a computer with internet access, a web camera and audio. The program is free to download from www.skype.com and it does not cost anything to use it.
This resource can be used together with the teachers and everyone in the class. Or if you want the students to practice talking to an English speaking person you can have them talking one and one on Skype. The students can practice making themselves understood. And if you are lucky to have a class from another country as a pen pal, the student can both see and talk to their pen pals.
This resource is harder to use if you do not know people living in another English speaking country. But if you do know people this resource is so appreciative to use. The students really enjoy seeing other children and talk about how they live. For a lot of the students it’s eye-opening seeing and hearing about how they live in other countries. This tool makes everything seem more real for the students when they can interact with other English talking people.
/Malin Karlsson
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