What is an offline conversation?

An offline conversation is an activity where your class records videos and sends them back and forth with your partner class using “Shared Folders”.  You do not connect through live video in real time with your partner classroom in an offline exchange. Here is a video on how to use Shared Folders to have an offline conversation. 

Offline exchanges can help your students build on the live video experience. The offline “School Tour” activity and "Art from the Heart" activities are great alternatives for schools with low bandwidth and connection problems.

Teachers have found that offline exchanges give all students a chance to participate and form more thoughtful questions and responses for their partner classmates, as they have more time to prepare, rehearse, and record their videos. Many teachers and students enjoy doing the activity before or in conjunction with the “Get To Know You” live activity.

We recommend that you follow a specific structure so that the “offline” exchange still feels conversational, so it would go something like:

• The first classroom shares their first video
• The second classroom shares their first video
• Then, each class shares a video responding to their partner class’s original video
• You can repeat this structure as needed as you ask/answer questions

Keywords: share files, asynchronous, video upload, virtual pen pals, dialogue, Camp Tour, first exchange, offline, network quality, bandwidth, shared folders