Voice Over the Internet Protocols (VOIP) Skype

Skype is one example of a tool that allows you to use the computer like a telephone except you use a headset (headphones and microphone) or your computer's speakers and a plug in microphone. It needs to be downloaded (very easy process) and a password and login set up. It works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket PC.

Features

Skype has voice chat for up to 5 participants in different locations and text chat for up to 48 participants in different locations. There's also a range of cost based services such as SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail available. In addition there's a video program called Festoon that works with Skype.

Cost

Free conference calls for up to 5 participants and free one to one calls to and from computers. The only cost is for your time online.

What it's good for

Skype is great for talking with people, whether for personal or work use. It's basically free teleconferencing. For example, you and your face to face group can arrange to have an expert, in a different location, introduce and guide you through a process or activity (like an online product), without having to pay for travel. It makes it possible for you to co-facilitate or interact in workshops with remote participants eg. work with participants in Hobart, Sydney and Darwin while you're physically located in New Zealand.

Why it's good

Skype works well through firewalls (this may freak out your IT security people). It is just straight through talking (like on the phone) so you can hear people laugh and respond directly to what you are saying. It works well with most bandwidth on a one to one basis and there are no other fancy tools to distract. Because it’s voice, you can minimize it and have it running in the background while viewing/using other tools or activities, for example, a Word document, web browser or slide presentation.

Problems/downside

Skpye is not education specific, so if you don’t want to be bothered by people you don’t know, just provide the absolute minimum information about yourself. Just fill in the required fields only when signing up and pass this on to your learners too.

There can be a problem with multiple participants (max 5) with the last person ‘in’ experiencing time delay. This could probably be solved if you include a 'dummy' computer as the last one in. Some people have reported problems with low bandwidth.

Skype doesn’t have some of the other tools useful in classroom style voice chat (whiteboard, joint web browsing).

Examples to check out (places to play are marked with an *)

The easiest way to check it out is to download it and organize with a friend to test it out. Click to download from the Skype website.

Alternatives

Yahoo Messenger, ICQ are free. Yahoo also offers video.

Wimba, Elluminate both cost.

CompuEd is a low cost Australian alternative (10 users for $85 Aus for a month) which also offers a whiteboard, application sharing, web browsing and file transfer. It’s well worth a look.  Here’s the sort of thing you can do with a shared whiteboard.  Thanks to Viv Evans for permission to use this graphic.

Criteria/factors re tools and processes - Skype

Criteria		Comment
user friendly	Yes	Easy to download, set up and use.
push or pull in kind	Both	If you leave it running on your desktop it will notify you if someone wants to talk to you. Or you can preset a call time and then open it just when you need it.
low or high interaction with participants/facilitators	High	Very high interaction (or can use in lecture style)
synchronous or asynchronous activity,	Synchronous	Synchronous for voice and can use asynchronously for text chat
facilitator skills of a low or high level	Lowish	Fairly low as there’s only the voice (which is constantly on) and the text feature to monitor.
participant skills of a low or high level	Low to medium	Medium for download and set up of mike and speaker/headset then low as it’s very easy to use.