We have incredible user-friendly digital tools that can connect us to those places, people and ideas that enrich and inspire our students learning experiences! Though real-world field trips are invaluable experiences, logistics of time, cost or distance aren't always aligned in our favor. Students can make critical connections between themselves, their learning and the world outside their classroom through inquiry-based virtual learning experiences.

Here are 3 great tools along with challenges to try in the year ahead!

Image Credit: Blog.Skype.com

SkypeInTheClassroom
Play Mystery Skype with another classroom from around the globe...or right next door. Connect with educators and guest speakers from around the world to inspire your classroom.Take your students on an adventure in their own classroom by taking one of these virtual field trips with Skype. Example: Monster Project

• Play Mystery Skype
  
• Take a Virtual Field Trip
• Find Guest Speakers
  
  

6 Creative Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom via Edudemic

Mystery Skype: Teaching with Technology to Connect Students Worldwide

CHALLENGE: Create an account and login to Skype in the Classroom. Browse the Options above and find one project that you would like to implement in the year ahead.

Connecting Classrooms to the World via DitchThatTextbook

#skype2learn

#MysterySkype

@SkypeClassroom

EDU Hashtags

QuadBlogging is a free service that matches 4 classrooms together to follow and comment on blog posts. Register your class for QuadBlogging and you will be matched with three other similar classrooms. After being matched, it is up to you and other teachers in your quad to continue the blogging relationship for as long as you would like.

QuadBlogging Connects Student Writers with Global Audiences [Edutopia]

Build an Audience for Your Students' Blogs Through QuadBlogging [FreeTech4Teachers]

CHALLENGE: Consider Kidblog or Seesaw as platforms for your students to share their learning and to publish writing across the curriculum. Which one do you think will be the best tool for your students in the year ahead? How could you use these tools to make students' thinking & learning visible?

Seesaw:

Features + Tutorials

KidBlog:

Why KidBlog?

The Value of An Audience

Nepris: Connecting the Classroom to the Real World

'Students from kindergarten through high school level will benefit from interacting with industry experts, whether as part of their lessons or by problem solving in real time with those mentors. This sort of collaboration is something that can change students' lives and career paths. By collaborating to solve real problems in the classroom, a student becomes part of a team, similar to that in the work force.'

CHALLENGE: Browse STEAM projects and expertise available in Nepris. Share an idea that you find which connects to your curriculum areas of study or could be adapted to fit your needs.

Email: eeastman@houstonisd.org
Website: edtechreflections.com
Location: 5445 West Alabama Street, Houston, TX, United States
Twitter: @elizbtheastman