Podcast Reflection #5: Teachers Teaching Teachers #232 - Skype in the Classroom with George Mayo and Brianna Reynaud (EdTechTalk)

The podcast I listed to this week was about using Skype in schools and classrooms. 

 Skype is a very cool program. I use it to talk with my sister and brother-in-law, because they live in Texas. Skype is nice because you get to have face time with someone, and see their surroundings. It is also good because you can chat while you skype, or just make calls to them over your computer. It is free to download and I think it is very useful. 

The podcast was interesting, because they talked about students using Skype to work with students in different classrooms or schools. However, some districts would not allow teachers to have Skype on their computers, because they see Skype as a personal tool. I think this is where it could cause some problems. Skype is a very fun, interesting tool to use. I think that it's availability in the classroom would be cool, but only sometimes. Do you really need to connect to different classrooms during class? I could see Skype being more of a distraction in the classroom than helpful. 

I think Skype could offer some very good things in the classroom, like being able to have guest speakers or teachers talk from all over the world or just from a different state or district. However, I don't know if I think it should be used on a regular basis. 

 If you are interested in listening to this podcast, you can listen to it here.