Thing 15

Skype is a great tool for communicating and bringing the outside world into the classroom (and the classroom into the outside world). While it can seem difficult to some teachers, having a technology person on hand to help troubleshoot any problems makes the process quite easy. Teachers on my campus have used Skype in a variety of ways. We are a very international school, and our families tend to move around quite often. Recently, one of our families was relocated to Indonesia. A few weeks after moving, this student's class at my school Skyped with her. She was able to share with them how things were different in Indonesia, both in regular everyday life as well as at school. This was a great lesson on different cultures.
This same class adopted a low-income 2nd grade class in another state last year. Around the holidays, the students at my school sent books and homemade bookmarks to the students they had adopted. These books were for them to take home as many of them didn't have a single book in their home. After exchanging a few letters back and forth, both classes finally got the opportunity to Skype with each other. This was another great lesson on how different people's lives can be. 
Another set of students at our school had the opportunity to do a live video conference with members of the NOAA, as our students had studied and become "experts" on certain oceanography topics.
I would love to see our teachers set up Skype with professionals in order to talk to our students about their area of expertise. For instance, I know many authors will Skype with students about their books and/or the writing process. It would also be great for our students to get the opportunity to Skype with a scientist/marine biologist or someone else who could pique students' interest in these areas. At the same time, it was very empowering for our students to get to share their own knowledge with the true experts in the field.