Students from Brad Peach’s ninth grade World Geography class in McKinney, Texas, gathered in their high school classroom on a Sunday night. On a screen in front of them, teenagers in Siberia dished to their Texan peers about life in eastern Russia.

Seeing the faces of students across the globe and learning about a culture firsthand brought his students to life, Peach says.

[Read more about technology in the classroom.]

“They wanted to sit right in front [and] be right in the camera; they wanted to really interact,” Peach notes. “This thing is drawing kids out who might be a little wallflowerish.”

The students chatted about sports, school, and food using Skype, a Web-based phone and video service. Skype started in 2003 as a voice service and quickly expanded to include video calls and mobile apps. The service now averages 145 million users worldwide each month.

(Continue Reading: http://education.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/10/11/high-school-students-learning-by-skype)