The Good and the Bad of Skype in the Classroom

Skype does not have many advantages over the presence of a physical teacher; if our class was to take a vote on whether or not to conduct the rest of our classes in the same way as this past Thursday, I am almost positive it would be unanimously voted against. However, the advantages that Skype does have come under certain conditions. For example, if the teacher cannot make it to the class because he/she is sick or injured, Skype is a reasonable alternative to cancelling class altogether. The class will most likely be less productive than if the teacher was there, but Skype is a good tool to use to come as close to actually being there as possible. With the ability for the teacher to see and converse with the students in the class, and vice versa, class can be run nearly normally. Another advantage of Skype is the potential for its use in online courses, or any other situation where students are from many different parts of the country or the world. With Skype, students can see and interact with an online teacher in real time, simulating a real classroom without any of the participants of the class having to leave the comfort of their own home. Even though it does not mimic a real classroom situation perfectly, Skype is the best tool for doing so at the present time.

While Skype is a great tool for simulating a traditional class, there are many reasons why it does not quite compete with the physical presence of a teacher. First of all, if a teacher is in the classroom he/she will have a much easier time controlling the class. By this I mean that it seems easier to take the teacher seriously if he/she is actually there than if he/she is just a talking face on the wall. Also, discussion in the classroom when the teacher is using Skype can be greatly limited, as we saw in our class on Thursday. This is due mainly to the fact that the teacher cannot hear what all members of the class are saying simply because they are too far away from the microphone, forcing students to get out of their seats and walk to the microphone. This is ineffective for two reasons, one because students are less willing to physically get up and talk into a microphone in front of the whole class than they would be to simply raise their hand and talk in a traditional class setting, and two because it takes a long time for one student to add one comment to the discussion when conducting class this way. A solution to this problem would be to distribute microphones throughout the classroom so that everyone's voice would be picked up, but this would be expensive and tedious. Another problem associated with using Skype to conduct class is its unreliability. The screen freezes quite frequently when using Skype if the Internet connection becomes too weak. This disrupts class and becomes a technical issue that should not have to be dealt with in the middle of class. Even though Skype is the best tool out there right now for conducting class without the physical presence of a teacher, it needs to be greatly improved before it can be considered equal.