Skype: Taking over the classroom?

With technology advancing faster than ever, are we finally seeing it take over the classrooms?

Before today’s class I had a discussion with my mother on the expansion of technology, with social media being on everyone’s mind, and classes focused on teaching everyone these advancements. She began to tell me a story of how her generation saw the future of classrooms. She described the teacher as a hologram and the students sitting in the comfort of their homes, learning their daily lessons through the use of internet. All of this was very futuristic in her mind, but are we starting to progression towards this with the invention of webcams and the free use of Skype?

Skype, a new way to communicate via webcam, is starting to taking over the way people communicate overall. It is free and easy to use while giving you the chance to visually interact with the person on the other line.

Today in our PR Issues and PR Writing class we had the opportunity to Skype with two outstanding professionals, Sydney Owen and Bryan Blaise, who are located in Chicago working for two of the top PR agencies in the country. At first when I heard our professor was taking this endeavor on, all I could think of was how difficult it was for my boyfriend and I to get settled with using Skype. It took us a couple of weeks, if not a month to get the ball rolling. So naturally, I thought this was going to be a disaster. However, to my surprise, it was awesome! Minus some glitches here and there, we were successfully able to talk to two individuals that our professor has been non-stop boosting about; all possible by the creation of Skype. Could universities implant this new way of technology into their everyday classes?

Another case where Skype has been beneficial was seen just a couple of weeks ago with a friend of mine. Due to a recent surgery she had done, her estimated recovery time took a little longer than she anticipated and she was unable to attend her classes. Fortunately, my friend is a genius and asked if she could Skype into class from the comfort of her own home. She was able to stay on top of class discuss and as well as continue with her recovering process. When I heard about this, I began to wonder if this could be the beginning of the future for our college classrooms.

Of course, there are some complications with having classes via webcams and it could take a while for it to realistically catch on. However, after today’s class, and hearing about my friend and her experience with Skyping (is that a word? If not I’m coining it!) into the classroom, I think this could be the start of something great. Maybe it is the beginning of the futuristic thinking my mother’s generation had for classrooms.

 

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