Thing #6

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home

I chose to blog about skype.com. This is a website I had heard of, but I had never really gone and checked it out. I have a new laptop which has a webcam and I honestly bought one with a webcam so that I could use it to call my best friend on Skype. She recently moved to Florida and we have been friends for a long time, so we thought Skype could ease the pain of being separated. I still had not checked it out because with school and work I haven't had the chance. When I saw that it was listed on the top 100 for this assignment, I thought "here is my excuse to finally sit down and see what this site is all about." I never realized how easy and useful it would be! I love that I can use it to call someone on video using my webcam. I can also use it to chat with someone or to call someone without the webcam. It is also nice that long distance calls are free. The whole service is free from what I can tell. I think it could definitely be used in a classroom. If a child is ill or has to miss school for some reason, the teacher could get on Skype while he or she is teaching and the child could watch from home. Also, it could be used to video conference with the whole class after school hours. It also could be used to have conferences with parents. I know all of this could possibly be done on the phone, but with Skype, it feels like you are there with that person because you can see them. The only drawbacks are that some parents will not have computers or webcams. Also, if your webcam is poor quality, I noticed it can start to freeze up at times.