I posted a blog about wanting to connect with apps developers, particularly -Google. I work for a children's museum in Baltimore MD. This past school year I created a project that connected a classroom of 4th graders in Howard County MD with a group of students who live in the Central Arava region of Israel. Think "Dune", deep desert region that is also a major agricultural hub in Israel. For the past school these students collaborated in descriptive and narrative writing activities, illustration, story-crafting and storytelling as a means to improve literacy skills. These students worked towards a culminating project that centered on an ancient storytelling art form from Japan, Kamishibai (paper drama. See www.kamishibai.com. Below are two recently posted videos regarding the project. This will offer a solid idea as to the scope of the project.

www.youtube.com/watch
www.youtube.com/watch

What I am looking for specifically are applications that can allow a teacher or project manager in MD, for example, to plan activities or team teach a lesson with a classroom in Israel or Australia or any other site that has internet access.

There are some important limitations that need to taken into account. For example, Skype is not allowed in Howard County schools, neither are most social network sites. The vast majority of teachers have very limited time to spend learning how complicated e-learning systems work. For applications to be useful in a classroom, the apps need to be literally downloadable and ready work. They need to be intuitive in their workings and in-expensive.

Pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps, but if no one asks then nothing will ever get done.

Any creative, out-of-the-box ideas out there?