The Skyperiment

20130220_7893We very carefully (quietly) placed the iPad in the Art center and waited to see what would happen…

First, the children thought it was a television show.  They looked and immediately got back to playing.  That says something about the power of peer play vs. TV, doesn’t it.

After about two minutes, one of the students in the City PK pressed their nose near the camera and began to wave emphatically at the backs of our students.  A small crowd hovered over the City campus iPad and began to holler hellos.  This got our students’ attention.

“Who is that?”

“What are they doing?”

“Where are they?”

All of these questions were directed to Mrs. Pless and me.  We redirected them right back to the children.  After much waving back and forth, one  child finally said, “Where are you?”  They answered, “Winchester Thurston!”  The expressions on our end were priceless.  They turned with amazement to us,  “They’re HERE!”

Shhhhhh……

Be very, very quiet….it’s a surprise. We are going to be trying out a Skype experiment tomorrow with the children. Here’s the plan. We are in cahoots with the city campus Pre-K. Both of us will be running Skype during morning choice time. The catch? Our iPads will be carefully placed in one of the centers and we do not plan to introduce the connection at all.

How long do you think it will take them to catch on?