By Amy Eller

Skype co-created Skype in the classroom in 2011 (http://education.skype.com) with teachers who were already using Skype to communicate with other students around the world.

And if watching Jairus Makambi, founder of the Cheery Children Education Centre in Nairobi, Kenya lead a group of first grade students in the most rockin’ rendition of the Hokey Pokey you have ever heard,  then maybe the idea of a 4^th grade class in Kansas who realized all their clothes were made in Bangladesh by children in horrific conditions communicating with another 4^th grade class in India about possibilities and solutions to the child labor issue will get you inspired.

And, at the risk of sounding like Miss America, if you are still blasé about technology and how we can create world peace then how about having Fabien Cousteau do a Q&A with your 8^th graders class about life under the sea and how undersea communities are used as training grounds for NASA!

Dyane Smokorowski, 2013 Kansas Teacher of the Year is so smooth and polished in her presentation,  but when she starts talking about hard to reach kids and how their parallel experiences with children around the world ignite the spark that she couldn’t reach you just have to become a believer in the power of the internet and education.

By 2018 there will be over 1.5 million jobs in computer tech that a of now our schools are not providing course work to prepare the students to compete in the tech market and that is the mission of Wendy Norman, Director Skype For Good Microsoft.

Lets get the word out. Bring the experts into the classroom. Allow teachers to expand their curriculum and teach children that this really is their planet and the future is in their hands. Sound too big to be true?

Right now there are more than 80,000 teachers in more than 235 countries and/or territories collaborating in 66 languages. Using instant translators and video messaging to ignite a spark in their students and that is making the world a better place.