Skype & Digital Media in Education

Today as part of the "Educator Bootcamp" I taught two classes, Skype in the Classroom and Digital Media in the Classroom.

Skype is an internet telephony program using
VoIP, which stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol.” It is cross-platform, multi-lingual, and free to both download and use. Skype permits users to make high-quality audio and video “phone calls” over the Internet to other Skype users for for free and audio only at a low cost to land lines or POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) phones.
We discussed ways to use Skype such as:

• Bringing sick students into the classroom
• Skype with students/families in other countries
• Interviewing
• Bringing in guest speakers
• Virtual field trips in the school
• Professional development
• Foreign language and social studies - connect with related countries
• Collaborating with VoiceThread (or other) projects
• Encouraging students to excel when work is viewable by parents and other students

In the digital media class we discussed several different types of media licenses such as:

• Creative Commons
• Copyleft
• Attribution
• Share Alike
• Non-commercial
• Non-derivative

We discussed how different licenses will dictate how the media may be used in the classroom and elsewhere.
We downloaded media such as pictures, video, and audio to use in different ways in an instructional setting. We then uploaded media from cameras, SD cards, flash drives, and camcorders and discussed different methods of storage and delivery.

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