The virtual author visit

"What did you do at school today?".
"We chatted with an explorer about his four year cycle trip around the world".

One of the aspirations of a school which uses computers in the classroom is to enable students to engage with the world beyond the classroom. We would like our classes to be able to learn about the world from authentic engagement rather than simply getting their information from dry static sources.

Modern communication technology means that we don't only have to wait until exciting speakers come to school (though we have certainly had our share of these at ISL). Rather, we can invite the writer to our classroom via Skype or Google Hangout.

So it was that Hannah Flandrin-Jones' Grade 6 EAL class, who have been reading Alastair Humphrey's autobiographical The Boy Who Biked the World, got to chat with the author himself on Monday afternoon this week.

Using Hannah's Yoga laptop, her SmartBoard, a couple of cables and a pair of speakers, Alastair appeared right on time sitting in his writing shed. The students had prepared great questions and the technology connected them faultlessly with their hero. It was clear that they loved his book and had given a lot of thought to preparing their questions. The conversation was riveting and went back and forth for 40 minutes. Alastair encouraged them to read his other books and promised to return to discuss them virtually. He even gave the students a scoop about his next adventure to Spain in the footsteps of Laurie Lee, penniless and busking with a violin.

Last year we discussed the SAMR model which helps us to think about ways we can exploit the advantages of computers to give our students incomparable learning experiences. Hannah's students have had just such an experience: preparing for the conversation; meeting the artist in his place of work; and finally researching some of the ideas he gave them during their talk.

I am very grateful to Hannah and her class for giving me the opportunity to work on this project. It was easily set up and hugely rewarding to see the students get so much out of the exciting meeting.

The hardest part is finding the speaker, but in my experience, even well-known writers are often happy to Skype with your classroom. You can usually get through to them via their website. Just tell them your students are enjoying their work and could you have a chat? You've got nothing to lose! Then get in touch with Matt and me; we are very keen to help.