[November 22, 2008]

Students 'Skype' with South Africa

SANFORD, Nov 22, 2008 (Sanford Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
South Africa is more than 8,000 miles away from Sanford, but for San-Lee Middle School students Friday morning, that distance didn't seem so far.

Gathered together in the school cafeteria, seventh-grade students at the school used video conferencing to ask questions and chat with their peers in Pretoria, South Africa.

The program was a culmination of events for International Education Week, a week sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Department of Education meant to prepare Americans for global experiences.

"I hope that they will be able to see that by using technology, they can connect to other people," said seventh-grade teacher Vincent Pienaar, a native of South Africa who helped organize the event. "It's another way of showing them we are becoming a global village."

San-Lee students quizzed their South African counterparts on a range of questions, including "what kind of music do you listen to" and "what kind of holidays do you celebrate?"

Seventh-grader Alex Palme was curious about how old people had to be in South Africa before they could receive their driver's licenses.

The answer: 18.
"I learned that they do a lot of things we do," Palme said. "It was cool to talk to someone in a different country and see how their lives compare to ours."

Pienaar, who teaches at San-Lee Middle School as part of a program known as Visiting International Faculty, said he got the idea of video conferencing when he moved to the United States and had to leave his wife and daughter behind for about six months.

"I had to find a way to communicate with them," he said. "I discovered this Skype thing and it was just wonderful. I thought, "How can I incorporate this into education?'"

Skype is a service that allows people to make free phone calls over the Internet or chat online using video or messaging by downloading the program.

The seventh-graders have been learning about the African continent this year, and Mariah Reives said she has enjoyed studying the history of different countries.

"It's still pretty interesting to learn how other countries became independent and other historical events that happen," she said.

Pienaar said in the future he hopes to be able to teach a lesson and broadcast it to different countries.

Right now he is also uses the Internet to allow South African and U.S. students to collaborate on a Wikipage. That online site allows students from both countries to browse facts about the continent and contribute their own presentations, information and photos.

Gennai Saboia, an English-as-a Second Language teacher at J. Glenn Edwards Elementary School who is also part of the Visiting International Faculty program, said her main goal is to teach students about different cultures.

Saboia, who is from Brazil and in her second of three years at the district, added that she has enjoyed her time teaching at Lee County Schools.

"I think the best moments for me were when I had the opportunity to share my culture, and it's amazing how involved (students) get and how curious they are and how much they want to know," she said.

To see more of The Sanford Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.sanfordherald.com Copyright (c) 2008, Sanford Herald, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: