Skype Helps to Connect the World (Week 4)

I just read the article from Educase Learning Initiative "7 Things You Should Know About Skype," and several of the topics really sparked my interest.  First, I am an avid user of Skype for personal reasons.  My husband and I don't live near our families.  Having a 3 year old makes it even more important that we are able to see and talk with them.  However, life is busy!  Skype has really helped to bridge a lot of those gaps. We turn our computer on, my parents do the same - and we really just leave it on for hours sometimes.  It's almost like we're all in the same room!  As the article discusses, all we need are computers, a WiFi signal, a web camera and microphones.  It's actually pretty simple - and it's free!  This is even more helpful for my in-laws, as they live in another country!  That's my personal story...

Now, in terms of education, I've spent a lot of time throughout this school year thinking of how I can incorporate the use of Skype into my classroom to create an online learning community.  In my media technology classrooms, Skype could help me to set up Q&A sessions with industry professionals.  I would also like to be able to work with Broadcast Journalism classes in other parts of the country to possibly collaborate on a project.  The author of the article states "Learning becomes increasingly authentic as it expands beyond the walls of the classroom, and being able to have a phone call or a video chat with someone on the other side of the world can make learning come alive."

However, Skype does raise some issues in my classroom, which are also addressed in the Educase article.  As I've addressed in a previous blog post, my school district has a brand new web filter this year.  Skype is considered to be social media, and therefore Skype is blocked in my school.  It's quite a process to have Skype unblocked, so it can happen as spontaneous as I would like it to.  It's blocked for many reasons discussed in the Educase article, such as "Skype requires access to certain network ports, and many network administrators are uneasy allowing traffic to flow in and out of the network this way."  While I understand these concerns, perhaps advances in technology will provide better security for this useful online learning resource.

"7 Things You Should Know About Skype."  Educase Learning Initiative (2007).  1-2.  Web.  20 May 2013.  <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7032.pdf>