All+About+Our+Skype+Project

Chatting across the USA is a video conferencing project that Cherrie MacInnes' 3rd grade students participated in during the spring of 2010. Students in each state researched important and interesting information about their state then taught other 3rd graders across the country using Skype or Google Chat. Information learned about each state was recorded in a 'Chatting Across the USA' journal.

This is a meaningful and exciting way to learn about our country. Student interest remained high throughout the entire project. Retention of information was so much better than if students had only read about each state. During the 20 - 30 minute conferences, students also had the opportunity to ask about the things kids this age are really interested in: food, sports and games! They learned that though there is a lot of diversity in our country, there are even more commonalities.

We would like to continue this project and expand the number of classrooms involved. The project is open to grades 1-5. The purpose of this project is to explore the world around us by using Skype. This project is not limited to the United States. All countries are welcome to participate. Each class will complete an info sheet about their community, state, and country. There are example sheets in the navigation bar, but please feel free to create your own and add them to our getting started page.