TCC 4-4 Classroom Tech Infusion

Guest speakers, especially in a rural setting can be hard to find. But here are several sources where you can schedule a visit virtually. Some do interviews; some do field trips.
Skype has been our fall-back guy for awhile when we needed an online interview. They now have a whole new persona...education.skype.com. One of their new features is Mystery Skyping with another class which was an earlier article in volume 4 issue 1. They now have a place where you can schedule these meetings. Some speakers: Roger Day, Paul Czajak, Fossil EDU, Culture, Eileen Meyer, and Night Zookeeper Josh are being offered at this time. You may be one of several classes, but can ask questions. Or are you into sharks, coins, light, African penguins, or native Americans?
In addition to this old friend are NASA, Google Connected Classrooms, and NBC Learn.
DLN.NASA.Gov uses their own web tool for communicating between speaker and class. The above link has a video which explains what is possible. They have four areas at this time: Aeronautics Research, Space Operation, Science, and Exploration Systems.
The information about scheduling is also on that page. NASA TV also has other great resources.

Google’s tools use Hangouts and Google+ to moderate and even record your meetings. They only began in 2013, but are catching up fast. There is an archive of previous field trips. You click on the orange button near the bottom of the page for a calendar archive. Click o the date and it shows what was recorded that date. You wouldn’t be interacting, but other classes are asking questions. There is a video with samples on the page.

NBC Learn is a partner with Google for their events, but there are lots of other opportunities there also. There are Free Resources and Current Events links along with Webinars. Events, which is a little farther down the page, lists upcoming things you and your class can sign up for/join.
Enjoy!