Skype

Skype-Something Really Exciting!
I installed Skype on my laptop, and while I was unable to contact anyone else in our class, I was able to contact one of the facilitators from the workshop I took part in back in June. The conversation was brief, but I am excited about the possibilities here. A clear classroom application that I can see right off that bat is that of having guest speakers come in via Skype. While there are some definitely some logistical hurdles I will need to investigate, I think there is real potential.
One possibility, as alluded to above, is that of having in a guest speaker or lecturer come into the room via Skype. In some of my classes I assign articles as additional reading. How much more of a profound learning experience would this become if the students could pose questions directly to the article author?
Some hurdles I can see for me would be to insure that the classroom PC could support the program, some of them are fairly old. Likewise, unless we can reconfigure the room, only one student could really be on screen with the guest at a time, so the “feel” of the classroom environment would be lost to the guest. In addition, some extra hardware, such as a webcam and audio gear would be necessary.
Another possibility would be to really enhance a conference with additional speakers coming in on Skype. This, again, is very valuable in my context as travel monies and those set aside to support conferences are shrinking due to the economy. This application can offer a very useful alternative.
At the same time, as I usually do, I would like to make one cautionary note. As mentioned above, some of the personal touch is still lost. Though we can see and hear one another, the person is still not in the same room, and that changes the interaction in a profound way. Likewise, while my initial experience was very smooth, I am working on a brand new laptop, with webcam built in and so forth. I wonder what the quality of the connection would be like on more dated hardware. So before I give this my complete support I will play around further. What are your thoughts?

Jim Mc Intyre