Skype Play

English Author Connects with Students in Washington State

Last week, we heard this fun story about how students from a high school in Washington used Skype video call to bring literature to life and we wanted to share it with you. After reading author Alexander Gordon's young adult novel called Escape from Furnace, Camas High School teacher and librarian Rosemary Knapp decided to conduct a Skype video call between her students who had read the book and the author Alexander Gordon. Thirty students from Camas High School and the author participated in a memorable discussion via video call across the Atlantic between from Washington state and Norwich, England. The opportunity allowed the students to not only ask Gordon about his books and his writing, but even more, Gordon was able to show the students a mock-up of the cover of his upcoming fifth book in the action series in the United States, Execution. The students were more than delighted to learn that they were the first ones to see the proposed cover!

Rosemary Knapp, the librarian who set up the video call, said "students at Camas High School (Camas, WA) were thrilled to meet Alexander Gordon Smith, author of the Escape from Furnace series. Because he lives in England and we live in the Pacific Northwest, this opportunity would never have been possible without the technical magic of Skype!"

How has your school used Skype in the classroom to connect with an author? Leave a comment and share with us.

For more information on how your classroom can use Skype, visit Skype in the classroom here or on Facebook and Twitter.