Stephen's Untold Stories

Late last night I took a break from studying and I saw on Twitter that a fellow educator who has been working in Hong Kong was asking for someone to Skype in and discuss his or her experience with the K12 Online Conference. I thought I’d take a chance and see if I might participate, and within ten minutes I was speaking with him and his participants live in his classroom in Hong Kong. I was online with them for maybe six or seven minutes, and I must say it was a very rewarding experience.

He was able to get someone from the other side of the world to participate in his class with no notice within minutes using tools that are completely free. It’s a little overwhelming to think how far we’ve come with using technology in education. Of course we still have many miles to go, but I was very glad to take part in a truly global learning experience.

I am so thankful to Vicki Davis for pointing out this story.

A class of 4th graders in Nevada has made a 5-minute video showing how they are using Skype to allow a classmate who has leukemia to still be a part of the class.

http://www.arisleyschool.org/Inclusion.mov (7.3 megabyte video)

This will probably be the best video you’ll see today.

The video is in QuickTime format, so you might need to get the plugin from Apple.com.

Vicki Davis of the Cool Cat Teacher Blog hits another one out of the park with this post!

Using Skype in the Classroom

I think (and hope!) this will lead to even more collaboration between two of my favorite products.

The two companies agreed to cooperate in making their presence and text chat functions interoperable between Google Talk and Skype, as part of a program to jointly enhance their “click-to-call” VOIP initiatives. Google will also become the exclusive text-based advertising provider for eBay outside the United States.

The agreement between Skype and Google is similar to that struck between Skype and Yahoo this March, which also involved an ads partnership. Executives said that the Yahoo agreement was restricted to the U.S., however, while the Google agreement is global.

Link to article

Wes Fryer has a great post with some helpful guidelines for anyone who is considering participating in a skypecast. I highly recommend it!

Guidelines for Participating in a Skypecast

I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a skypecast hosted by Wesley Fryer on Tuesday evening. We had about 25 people participating from all over the US, Canada, and Australia. This was my first experience with a skypecast, and I had a great time. Here is Wesley’s summation of the event.
Wesley also set up a Wiki for us so that we can continue the discussion. Please check it out here.

You can download the podcast of the event here. (21.9 megabytes)

Thanks Hoke!

How hard it must be to work at Vonage right now! What a good deal if you have family or friends or just want to see if they have running fridges in the UK!

read more | digg story

I’ve been using Skype for a while now, and I have been very pleased. If you haven’t tried it, this is a great chance to use it to call regualr phone lines for free. Give it a shot!

Skype, eBay Inc.’s Internet telephone subsidiary, has stopped charging users for dialing up people on traditional landline and mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada.

The Internet telephone service, which has always offered free PC-to-PC calls around the world, said Monday it will offer its SkypeOut service for free until the end of the year. Previously, Skype users paid about 2 cents a minute for calls to landline and mobile telephones.

Users who make outgoing calls to and within countries outside the U.S. and Canada will continue to incur per-minute charges. The company also said it will continue to charge for traditional phone numbers that can be dialed from any phone to reach Skype users.

Link to article

I am a big fan of Skype, and this looks like it will be a great addition.

Web phone-calling company Skype is bringing social networking to crowds as it unveils a service for groups of up to 100 people to hold spontaneous conversations online.

The international phone-calling service, which has signed up 100 million users is adding 200,000 new users a day, said on Tuesday it is previewing a shared communications service called “Skypecasts” along with an upgrade of its core Skype software.

Skypecasts are live, moderated discussions that allow groups of Skype users anywhere in the world to discuss shared interests, from classes to computer support to cultural or political debates. They amount to the conversational equivalent of Web blogs, complementing the written interactions of blogs.

Link to article

I’ve been using Skype for a couple of months now, and I am very impressed with it. I used it to talk to a colleague in Hawaii the other day, and the quality was almost perfect. This device lets you free yourself from the computer with Skype.

Skype, the program for making online phone calls, generally requires users to be tethered to a computer and an Internet connection. The VoSKY Call Center changes that equation, adding some interesting new options to the mix.

The Call Center, which costs $69.95 and is available at VoSKY’s Web site, www.vosky.com, works with an Internet-connected Windows PC. When you attach an ordinary landline phone, you can use it to make calls to regular phones over the Internet at a reduced rate using the SkypeOut service, or make calls directly to other online Skype users, a free service.

The system can also forward incoming Skype calls to other phones — including mobile phones — and notify you when a specified Skype user appears online by ringing your phone.

Link to article