Skype is taking its “Skype in the Classroom” initiative further by introducing more online lessons, based on partnerships with international organizations from various fields to educate kids around the globe on important issues. As part of celebrating World Teacher’s Day last Friday, the VoIP service launched several new classes by NASA and British Council—to join in, users are just asked to click of the class plus click on the “Sign up to take part” button.

Photo: A snapshot of the www.education.skype.com loading page

The new classes include NASA’s “Humans in Space,” “Mission Patch Design,” “States of Matter,” ‘Introduction to Robotics in the Classroom” and British Council’s ‘Climate Change: How Can We Help’ among others. Detailed information on the lesson opens after users click on the correspondent box. For instance, the “Humans in Space” event “focuses on the living environment in space. Participants of this event learn what it is like to live and work in space. Physiological, physical, and mental challenges are presented and participants are asked to suggest solutions to problems that astronauts living in space must overcome,” and this is sure to be a great insight into the astronaut profession, both for kids and educators.

The digital events revolving around science, environment, history and technology, are free to join, still participants are required to understand and speak English. The list of 13 partners of the “Skype in the Classroom” project, launched in spring 2011, includes The National Museum of the Royal Navy and HMS Victory, Science Museum London, Microsoft and The New York Philharmonic to name but a few, which provide stunning learning experiences to kids around the globe. The “Skype in the Classroom” initiative engages almost 39,000 teachers, who have created over 2,200 digital events. Recently, Skype launched the “Skype for Peace” crowd-funding campaign to generate money to promote non-violence in all its forms.