Thing 4 finally done...yea!

Well tonight I finally had a chance to complete thing three. I Skyped with Amy Brown. I had previously used Skype quite a bit but only with family members. Amy said she had used Skype but only with voice, not video. I used Skype with my daughter who lived in Kalamazoo and my grandson who lives in Wyandotte. I only had one Skpye conversation that I am reporting on, because the deadline for class is at hand! The quality of the connection was decent. I've had better and I've also had worse. Amy's camera must be better than the "cheap ones" because the picture clarity was far better than when skyping with my daughter on her $20 special. There was however, sometimes when I could hear my own voice echo, and sometimes it froze or there was a longer than usual lag. The freezing and lag I could see as potential problems when used in a classroom, aside from usual technology difficulties. I've explained how I have used it personally. Professionally I could see how students who had extended absences have found it beneficial to be able to skype. Amy and I had a good discussion about summer school tonight (she's teaching it and has some of my former students), so I can see how two teachers could share student information, ideas, etc.