In today’s classroom, technology is at the forefront of pioneering a new ways to convert and update traditional curriculum into the digital landscape in order to engage students in an arena, which they thrive, and the discourse of which they are exposed. Canale described discourse competency as mastery of rules that determine ways in which forms and meanings are combined to achieve a meaningful unity of spoken or written texts (Hussein, 2016). There is a wealth of information to digest and through the thoughtful use of media in the classroom discourse, research and debate can be greatly expanded to outside the classroom walls. There are many technological options available for both hardware and software use. For example whiteboards, laptops and tablets are often provided and they can engage learning with a variety of software, streaming and applications. One such app that has a particular versatile use in any learning environment is SKYPE.
SKYPE is a Microsoft application that enables face-to-face video and audio conferencing. Microsoft has developed an entire product called SKYPE in the classroom, which allows educators to use the app for lessons, global classroom connections, virtual field trips and the ability to bring guest lecturers form all over the world directly into the classroom. This concept applies perfectly to building both acquisition and learning skills. Acquisition, which is the process of gaining knowledge though exposure to procedures and events, lends itself to SKYPE in the classroom and all of its applications. For example, through the use of SKYPE one classroom can experience virtual field trips which lets them accompany hikers in the Southwest to learn about geography and rock formations along with solar and lunar patterns, all as virtual experiences in real time. Another class could be using SKYPE to accompany an engineer on a tour through a factory floor to witness the process of manufacturing. 
This valuable knowledge that is gained through acquisition with real experiences taking place that is completely interactive with the students inside the classroom. Rather than students sitting back and listening to a lecture on a screen, they can ask valuable questions that remove the mystery of myriad situations and can prepare them for interacting in the world. Conventional learning, which is the process of gaining conscious knowledge through being taught (Gee, 2016), also benefits from using the SKYPE app in the classroom, as it many be used to learn and research information though sharing, prevents learning in a “vaccum” (Gee, 2016). However, this application requires WIFI access, the installation of which has become a high priority at local, state and national education departments. Therefore, SKYPE is a video activity that expands discourse competence, cohesion of information and coherence of references and shared knowledge (Hussein, 2016). For example, since SKYPE is a video and audio app, a modern classroom could use the SKYPE App to view a guest lecturer from across the globe, allowing a the students to hear international perspectives in real time and interact with experts from around the world. This concept can be taken even further by having the students help choose which geographical region they are most interested in and enlisting a lecturer from there.
SKYPE usage can directly integrate into the curriculum that is the current focus in class, expanding what is learned through information sharing with other classes around the world. For example, a science teacher conducting a lab in stratification can connect his students through the SKYPE app to another lab in a different geographical location where both classes, using regional materials, can conduct the same lab and compare results. This allows the students to engage in a different research environment and have a broader reach of information through information sharing without having to travel across the country, continent etc. According to Gee “ Our socio-culturally determined way of using our native language in face-to-face communication with intimates (intimates are people with whom we share a great deal of knowledge because of a great deal of contact and similar experiences)” (Gee, 2016).
The use of SKYPE in the classroom exposes students to the global community, a multicultural word in which we live and grow to be productive citizens. There is the opportunity to bring cultural diversity into the classroom allowing students across ethnicities to be able to relate to classroom content and feel empowered. According to the Harvard Educational Review “Cross-cultural communication and the negotiated dialogue of different languages and discourses can be the basis for worker participation, access, and creativity, for the formation of locally sensitive and globally extensive networks that closely relate organizations to their clients or suppliers and structures of motivation in which people feel that their different backgrounds and experiences are genuinely valued” (New London Group, 1996).
SKYPE in the classroom can expose students to dialogue in which cultural exchanges take place and there would be real discourse, giving students a worldview they would not otherwise have. For example, a student in Africa can describe daily life in their school in depth, and field questions from an American classroom. There can be a back and forth exchange, which is the first step in breaking barriers and creating knowledge acquisitions through common interests and familiarity.
As educators we can bring media into the classroom in a variety of ways. The modern student is acutely aware of the trends that drive media into the mainstream. The Department of Educations realizes the importance of the addition of WIFI into public schools in order to add dimension to subject content and create equal opportunities. The use of media in the classroom in non-discriminatory, it allows all students the opportunity to have the exposure needed to compete in the modern world. It allows for peer-to peer interaction and instruction as students are already sharing new media with one another, utilizing problem-solving skills. Through the use of multisensory media styles that introduce audio-visual applications, interactive applications such as SKYPE can draw the students into a new discourse while discovering sights, sounds, textures and even tastes around the world. These exchanges guide students to thinking and learning on a higher level, leading to greater understanding in all subject areas.
Work Cited
Gee, James P. “What Is Literacy?, Journal of Education, 1989.” What Is Literacy?, Journal of Education, 1989. N.p., 1989. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
Hussein, Nadhim Obaid, and Ahmed Ibrahim Elttayef. “Journal Of Education And Practice.” The Impact of Utilizing Skype as a Social Tool Network Community on Developing English Major Students’ Discourse Competence in the English Language Syllables Vol.7 No.11.2016 (2016): 1-5. JEP. Issn 2222-1735 (Paper) Issn 2222-288X (Online), 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
The New London Group. A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Haymarket, N.S.W.: NLLIA Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture, 1995. A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Gee,Jim Et Al.,1996. Web. 2016.
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