Thing 19: Skype

After reading about how teachers at different levels use Skype in the classroom, and I would like for students in my school to use Skype while working on their debates and persuasive essays and speeches. When students work on these projects, they choose current, controversial social issues as their topics.  I've always noticed that their understanding of the issues is limited, especially on issues that don't affect our region as much such as immigration.  Although students are supposed to research both sides of the issue, they sometimes have difficulty relating to or understanding opinions that don't match their own.  I would love for students to use Skype to connect with students their age in other areas of the US or world to learn about these other students' perspectives.  Listening to someone their own age explain his/her opinion would probably have a bigger impact than reading an article written by an adult and published in a journal.  It would be nice for students to have conversation via Skype and perhaps even participate in live debates as well.