Skype

When first using Skype, I couldn't really figure out the phone call/video cost situation. I looked on the website for information and it didn't say anything about video chat or IM being free. I heard of people using it all the time with no cost so I knew it wouldn't charge, but it was surprising to me that this information was not on the website. A strength that Skype had was that it was very easy to search for people. If you know the name or username, all you have to do is type it into the search box and it will pull up all the possible people. A weakness of Skype would definitely be loss of connection. While Skyping with Roxana, we lost connection about 3 times. Not only the loss of connection was a weakness, but the video chat was also delayed. The video of her would freeze for a few seconds but I could hear her voice. Sometimes, even her voice would be cutting in and out. It was fairly easy to figure out, although I still had some confusion about the phone call charges. Roxana and I were discussing this and concluded that the charges must only be for when you actually call someone's phone number and there is no charge for video messaging/IM. I think that students could use Skype if they were learning about another classroom across the country or even another part of the world. As long as both schools have internet access with a webcam/mic, they should be able to download Skype and video chat with other students. They could have a list of questions they both wanted to ask each other to learn about this part of the world and even the other's personalities by seeing them face to face.

Roxana and I texted each other to get our usernames. We found each other and attempted to start the video chat. At first, I could just hear her voice and figured out that I have to click the video icon. We didn't need much assistance in working with Skype. We just talked with each other about it and played with the different buttons. Something I found interesting is that when we were video chatting and IMing at the same time, she was telling me that there were games on her IM screen. My screen didn't have games. She then explained that Skype was built into her computer when she got it and all she had to do was set it up. I have a Mac, so I had to download it from the website. The application that is similar to Skype for Macs is called iChat. I think iChat is 10 times easier to use and figure out. There are two options on iChat: you can either video chat or IM a friend. The difference with Skype is that it has the option to make a phone call (but it will cost). Since this was our first time using Skype, we did not know any other usernames so we could only chat with each other. Roxana said she found out that you can have up to 24 people at once chatting. I couldn't find that out on mine, probably because her computer already had Skype and mine had to be a download version. We were discussing the fact of 24 people chatting and couldn't decide if that would be a good idea or not, especially with the frequent loss of connection that happens. People would be trying to talk at the same time and because of the delay, probably wouldn't realize that they were talking over someone else.

I think that students should collaborate as much as possible. Collaboration is essential to help students with social skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. A situation where I could see them not needing to collaborate (but could) is independent reading time. Obviously if it's independent reading, students will be reading a book of their choice alone and analyzing the material for themselves. After they're done reading, they could possibly discuss in groups with peers what is happening in their specific book, or they could write a personal reflection that would not require collaboration. When using Skype, it is hard not to call it collaboration when that's exactly what it is! You are talking to another person in some way, whether it be IMing or video chatting.