Well, I just finished my first Skypecast “Using Technology in Education” and boy oh boy was it an adventure being the moderator of a discussion like that. Right after I finished I received a review of the skypecast from James Fadden at Allegheny College. A couple of things to add to his review form the host’s perspective.
First Impressions
It was EXTREMELY hard to moderate a discussion like this. At first it was total chaos because I tried to allow everyone to speak that wanted to speak, but I soon found out that there were people (literally dozens) just coming into the conversation to practice their English. Eventually I just began moving people to listening right away and if they wanted to talk they would move themselves to waiting where I would then promote them to talking. That seemed to work pretty well, but it did take an extraordinary amount of concentration to keep up with the conversation going on at the same time while people were chatting with me as well.
Once we had control of who was speaking and when the conversation got much better. We talked about using Skype in the classroom; people’s uses of Skype; a couple of short lessons how to use Skype; we even talked a little about podcasts in general. Overall, for me it was a useful was to meet some more people doing the same thing at other institution’s not only in America, but all over the world!
Academic Use?
That being said, I do NOT recommend it for all academic purposes, at least not to the extent I did before. It is still one of the BEST ways to meet new people and to practice a language, but it has to moderated in a way that makes it useful. I would not, however, use a Skypecast for a lecture course. There are just too many people that want to get in to practice English. Perhaps in a couple of months it will tone down a bit, or Skype will implement some tools to manage Skypecasts a little better, but until then I would be wary.
Recording Skypecasts
The question was asked if there was a way to record the Skypecast and turn it into a Podcast. I actually looked at some options this morning before the Skypecast, but fell into the ethical dilemma about privacy issues. In the end I decided against it, but there are products out there should you want to record a Skypecast. Here is a link from Skype themselves that aggregates them all.
Several people asked me to post the links people were sending, but unfortunately my computer crashed in the middle of the Skypecast and I lost most of those links. Here are the ones I still have.
Blogs for Learning – http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu
Cool Cat Teacher Blog – http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
If there were others you mentioned, please add them to the comments on this page for others!!
Overall Impressions
I was somewhat disappointed with the conversation today because I wanted/want this Skypecast to be a place where we can discuss new and emerging technologies and their uses in the classroom. I think that part of the problem was us trying to get used to the technology and me getting used to Skypecasting. I want to take another shot at it next week and have set up another Technology in Education Skypecast for Tuesday the 28th at 11:00 Eastern Time. Come join us for another stimulation discussion… and if nothing else… entertainment. 
