Skypecasts Put to the Test - EduTechie.com

jeffvand — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:51:21 -0600

Well, I just finished my first Skypecast “Using Technology in Education” and boy oh boy was it an adventure being the moderator of a discussion like that. Right after I finished I received a review of the skypecast from James Fadden at Allegheny College. A couple of things to add to his review form the host’s perspective. Original article from EduTechie.com.

First Impressions

It was EXTREMELY hard to moderate a discussion like this. At first it was total chaos because I tried to allow everyone to speak that wanted to speak, but I soon found out that there were people (literally dozens) just coming into the conversation to practice their English. Eventually I just began moving people to listening right away and if they wanted to talk they would move themselves to waiting where I would then promote them to talking. That seemed to work pretty well, but it did take an extraordinary amount of concentration to keep up with the conversation going on at the same time while people were chatting with me as well.

Once we had control of who was speaking and when the conversation got much better. We talked about using Skype in the classroom; people’s uses of Skype; a couple of short lessons how to use Skype; we even talked a little about podcasts in general. Overall, for me it was a useful was to meet some more people doing the same thing at other institution’s not only in America, but all over the world!

Academic Use?

That being said, I do NOT recommend it for all academic purposes, at least not to the extent I did before. It is still one of the BEST ways to meet new people and to practice a language, but it has to moderated in a way that makes it useful. I would not, however, use a Skypecast for a lecture course. There are just too many people that want to get in to practice English. Perhaps in a couple of months it will tone down a bit, or Skype will implement some tools to manage Skypecasts a little better, but until then I would be wary.

Recording Skypecasts

The question was asked if there was a way to record the Skypecast and turn it into a Podcast. I actually looked at some options this morning before the Skypecast, but fell into the ethical dilemma about privacy issues. In the end I decided against it, but there are products out there should you want to record a Skypecast. Here is a link from Skype themselves that aggregates them all.

Several people asked me to post the links people were sending, but unfortunately my computer crashed in the middle of the Skypecast and I lost most of those links. Here are the ones I still have.

Blogs for Learning - http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu

Cool Cat Teacher Blog - http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

If there were others you mentioned, please add them to the comments on this page for others!!

Overall Impressions

I was somewhat disappointed with the conversation today because I wanted/want this Skypecast to be a place where we can discuss new and emerging technologies and their uses in the classroom. I think that part of the problem was us trying to get used to the technology and me getting used to Skypecasting. I want to take another shot at it next week and have set up another Technology in Education Skypecast for Tuesday the 28th at 11:00 Eastern Time. Come join us for another stimulation discussion… and if nothing else… entertainment.

An Interview with Stephen Rose

mpasiewicz — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:02:54 -0500

In this 13 minute recording, we'll hear from Stephen Rose, the CIO of the American Council on Education. Listen in as he shares some background on ACE, background on technology issues of interest to University presidents, and learn more about solutionsforourfuture.org

VOIP at UMN

Robert H. McDonald — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 07:27:43 -0500

Well, it is day 2 and I am blogging live in room w205a and listening to melissa and louis describe the university of minnesota's transition to a voip infrastructure. They are using an open-source pbx and are working now to transition from voice mail to unified messaging for 18,000 users.

Many people in this room are already using some sort of personal voip at home - skype, vonage etc.

Talked about issues with 200 year old buildings and wiring issues at UMN.

Louis is talking now about having the time to transition to the best voip solution for your situation. His current PBX is stable and should give him till 2008 to get his VOIP in place.

Finding that SIP support from vendors is still very limited.

Stil finding power issues with voip - no power means no phone from end point.

Well, it is obvious that VOIP is still no easy solution but is really getting to a point of real market penetration.

EDUCAUSE | VOIP

Skypecasts Put to the Test - EduTechie.com

An Interview with Stephen Rose

VOIP at UMN