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Based on blog by Whitney Hoffman, 3/2/11
I like to read about the various ways Skype can be used, but I thought this example was very applicable to online classroom environment. This 7th grade teacher offers 15 minute study sessions through Skype. She pretty much offers this session as a mini tutoring session for her students. Her students' test scores improved after she started offering this service. I think the author’s point of this blog was to show us how we can use technology to communicate better with your students. I think Skype is a great option for students to offer office hours for any level of school. This blogger thinks you could use other forms of technology (online chat, twitter, texting) to assist your students with course questions as well. I think it is definitely worth a try to see if works for you next class. I know Skype can be used for many other education reasons, but I believe holding virtual office hours makes accessibility easier for almost all of your students who have online access.
Hoffman, W. (2011) Innovations on the cheap-skype office hours (Web log message) Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/groups/personalized-learning/40907
Using Skype for virtual office hours is a great idea and I would never have put these two together. In my situation, we have students at the Career-Tech Center from 16 different local districts, from a five county area. Most students ride buses to our school. Most morning students don’t have the option to return to Traverse City at the end of the day and the afternoon students usually can’t stay after the afternoon session. Office hours and tutoring are difficult and using Skype to help students would be a good solution. Thanks for sharing this interesting idea!
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