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Skype allows users to communicate via a computer to anyone on the Skype Network for free via voice and/or video. Skype will also allow you to make normal telephone calls with a paid subscription.Here is a video outlining how Skype works:
It's very easy to download the software, add contacts, and then call. I am available on Skype for office hours as explained in the Syllabus.
Integrating Skype into the Curriculum
Skype would be a valuable technology for a teacher for three primary reasons. First, it allows for face-to-face communication with other students, parents, or colleagues. Since it often is difficult to communicate solely by text the addition of a visual image should help teachers more effectively communicate.
Second, Skype connects you with the digital students sitting in your classroom. As discussed in our text, "today's youth have actually become rewired to accommodate the thousands of hours they spend in front of computer screens watching and creating video" (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, p. 15). By tapping into this digital world you can more effectively connect with your students.
Finally, utilizing video conferencing through software like Skype helps students meet the communication and collaboration goals explained in Figure 1-20 of our text regarding the NETS-S standards (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, p. 18). Students will be able to interact and collaborate using video confereincing software at home while finishing group projects.
Here is an example of a company that is connecting native language speakers with students learning a language using skype. Glovico.org provides a service
that connects people with native speakers in Latin America via Skype and provides fair trade, real time language lessons in French and Spanish. (http://www.clearlyso.com/sbblog/?p=768)Overall, I find that Skype is an easy to use software program that brings us one step closer to the promise of the video phone. I hope you will give Skype a try and find it valuable to you in your classroom instruction.
Have any of you used Skype before? Thoughts? Impressions?
I have used skype before, but not for anything too fancy. One of the things I have enjoyed about it though is the fact that you can do group chats. We have utilized this in some of our other classes and while it was frustrating occasionally when classmates computers would freeze or not work entirely it still allowed for an opportunity to simulate a meeting between us all.
ReplyDeleteI have contemplated using skype for my Spanish classes to give them a chance to talk to some native speakers. I have not looked into it with much depth, but I will be very soon. It could also be a good way of doing an oral exam with them in the evening. I know a language teacher that used to do the oral exams over the phone. They didn't have to do it in front of the whole class or while looking at the teacher. While there were such advantages to it there were also disadvantages because doing a language over the phone. There is no hand gesticulations or moving lips to help you decipher the speech.