Skype puts face to school talks

Imagine attending your son's parent-teacher conferences in Bellevue — while you're de­ployed overseas. By using the Internet video­conferencing program Skype, schools in Bellevue, Omaha and Papillion-La Vista are of­fering that opportunity.

Using Skype makes the in­teraction between teachers and parents “a lot more personal than a phone call” because it is face-to-face contact, said Papil­lion- La Vista South High School media specialist Anna Bley.

Bellevue Public Schools used Skype to connect with a de­ployed parent for conferences last fall but can also offer it to any parent who is unable to make it to the conferences. The deployed parent and teachers were all positive about the ex­perience, said Cathy Williams, the Bellevue schools' commu­nication director.

Papillion-La Vista South High is offering the technology for parent-teacher conferences today, for the first time. It cur­rently is the only school in its district offering the Skype con­ferencing.

“We have a fairly large number of students who have parents in the military,” said 11th-grade counselor Teresa Holton. “We're trying to offer a means for them to communicate with the chil­dren's teachers.”

Omaha makes arrangements for parent-teacher conferences over Skype as needed. Ponca Elementary uses the technology to talk about assignments with a student hospitalized with leu­kemia.

It also lets the student's classmates keep in touch.

Skype allows students to com­municate nationally and interna­tionally. Papillion-La Vista South teacher Ray Keller used Skype in his advanced-placement Ameri­can government class Friday to connect with people in Afghani­stan, and one of the school's for­eign language classes connects to a person in Germany through Skype. “It gives a unique opportunity to take our students outside of the school,” Bley said. “It knocks down the wall of the school — takes the students around the world.”

Williams said Bellevue schools use Skype as a way to welcome families. If a family in Germany is looking to move into the dis­trict, the school faculty can vid­eoconference with the family, or Bellevue students can Skype with the German student.

“Skype has really opened up a whole new world,” Williams said. “We'll be doing more and more with the classroom. It's really connecting students globally.

“The advancement in technol­ogy just over the last couple of years has provided such an open­ing.”

World-Herald staff writer Mi­chaela Saunders contributed to this report.

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