Things # 15 : Skype

The first instant messenger that I knew was ICQ, then I knew about Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger (Live Messenger) and then Google Talk. Most of instant messenger now support voice and video conference by utilizing high speed internet connection. I could remember in the past, when people did conference call, there was a second or two seconds delay to hear the complete voice messages from each party. But, with the tremendous evolution of internet speed connection there are no longer any delay in voice conference call.

Now, services like Skype, Yahoo!, Google, Windows Live and many other companies offer video conference through their platform, it is free and easy to connect as long as each parties are connected using same platform. But, if you want to have call conference or video conference through Skype from computer to land lines or mobile phones, or do more than two parties video conference then you will need to pay some extra money on it.

Having a video conference in a classroom will be an interesting experience, especially for lower grade class, how they can interact and talking with other person through computer like meet their favorite author, meet with their favorite movie star, meet with other students from other school and do a collaboration on certain topic or even do a virtual teacher exchange, where teacher from other school (or even other state or country) teach certain subject using video conference tools.

With nowadays high speed internet connection, mobile data technology, laptops and screen projectors it's very easy to do a video conference and share it to the whole classroom.