Skype in the Classroom...

I have used skype over the past few years for many different purposes. I mainly use it for online gaming to communicate with people I play with regularly. I know Mummble and Ventrilo are better programs for voice chat for gaming, due to the fact that both programs lag less. But my laptop never seems to lag much when I run skype behind a program. I have yet to experiment with Oovoo, and probably will later next week. I find myself feeling more prone to use skype though, due to the fact that the majority of my friends use it as well.

Skype in the classroom could be used for various lessons. One could have the students communicate with international students, keeping a penpal that would help them learn about intercultural communications. I would personally use an assignment like this outside of the classroom in a computer literate community though. One could also create a classroom Skype group, where the students could ask other students questions about the homework. This would be more effective than a message board, assuming that the majority of students already use Skype to communicate with friends ad family.

I will probably design a lesson with Skype later down the road, but I need more time to contemplate what I will specifically use it for first.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings