My Experiences with Skype

I had several of years of experience with Skype before joining the education department here at Willamette (I've chosen not to share my Skype name because I chose an embarrassing one when I started my account and Skype wont let me change it). I first came across it while living in Japan as a free and easy way to keep in touch with my friends and family back home. I was attracted by the idea that I could speak with anyone, anywhere at anytime without having to worry about how much time I was spending while having sound quality greater than a normal telephone line, as well as the opportunity for live video. I used it the most to speak with my parents in Salem once a week. I also used it for group chats with friends in different parts of the world (in my case, me and a friend in souther Japan, one in Osaka and another in the United States). Difficulties I experienced include unpredictable data rates leading to reduced quality and unexpected dropped calls. On the whole, however, it was much easier to use and better quality (not to mention less expensive) than any phone line I have ever used.

For the same reason, especially given my connection with a school that has connections with Japan as a central part of its mission, Skype could be an excellent tool for my classroom. I have long wanted to set up a live chat with students in Japan, and a video chat through Skype would be a very nice way to do this. The most significant hurdle for me, matching class-times between America and Japan (which do not line up at all) has nothing to do with the tool itself and could be overcome by having one class come to school one day at an odd time. I haven't yet been able to set something like this up, but it remains a possibility that I would like to explore.