Dear Kaia: Voicethread and Video

I see once again how you connect with people through your PLN. On William Chamberlain's class blog, he and his students met Kaia and her father while visiting Kaia's blog on the Comments4Kidz site. After being contacted by her father, he spoke to Chamberlain's class using Skype. Jabiz, Kaia's father, actually teaches English, History and Geography in Doha, Qatar, and has a blog named "The Intrepid Teacher." Soon thereafter, the class decided to make a video for Kaia since she can't read yet using Voicethread. All of the above mentioned technologies linked these people together. That is so cool! It also taught the students how to communicate globally and have compassion for another person who may be younger or come from a different culture. Kaia's blog is completely precious. She finds beauty within her "less than elegant" surroundings, as any innocent child would. It is a lesson that you can learn from people in other cultures and that you can learn from a child. I love her father taking a picture of her, while she is taking a picture of the ground.

Jabiz's blogsite is surprisingly a lot like a teacher's here in the U.S. His main concern is the spread of Swine Flu and the school closings it has caused. He talks about E-learning or virtual learning, and how he is using it since the students cannot come to class. A lot of times, I think we assume we are the only country that uses all of this new technology, but this assignment has reminded me that is not the case at all. Teachers in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world use YouTube and blogs. They have the same frustrations, challenges and dreams that American teachers have. I love the picture of the two boys walking down the street. It looks so peaceful and happy.

I think Voicethread is an awesome new concept and will be widely used. Voicethread is a new way for teachers and students to talk, share images, documents and videos. I've seen it mentioned by some of the people I am following on Twitter. The fact that it is supervised by the schools ensures the content will be topic specific. Each week I am learning more and more about how to connect with people all over the world.

One is able to teach AND learn by simply using the technology of Blogger, Skype, YouTube and Voicethread. This class reached out to a little girl and inadvertently her father just by visiting her blog site. They never dreamed they would learn about a teacher and his classroom in the Middle East.