After our international skypecast on Sunday, I skyped SSAT ICT lead practitioner Alex Savage last night to talk further about using Skype in the classroom. He admitted to being quite wary of using Skype on a network because of the potential security risk of having to open up new ports which could then become vulnerable to hackers.
Alex would know a lot more about this than me being an ICT teacher. He did however suggest Flashmeeting as a 'network friendly' alternative which doesn't require the opening of new ports and still offers a similar experience to Skype.
We tested it out during our discussion and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. The audio quality was not as good as Skype because Flashmeeting works on a lower bandwidth and only one person can speak at the same time which takes some getting used to.
You can record a conversation including video if you use a webcam and if you have a piece of software like Total Recorder, you can capture the audio as a mp3 file which you can then edit in Audacity as part of a podcast. Alex has written about using Flashmeeting on his blog in the amusing post Virtual Training and Chocolate Cake
I shall definitely be exploring Flashmeeting more and recommend that others do too. Thanks for the tips Alex. It's good to talk.
This sounds absolutely fantastic! I will have a better look at it and try it out. A few years ago we had a go at videoconferencing and we had loads of technical problems and also because of the time difference with Germany, finding a suitable time was a nightmare. SO we gave up but this could be a good way to do it and it could be useful to use with pupils taking part in a school exchange so that they get to know each other before hand. I also send a video of them, but this could be a better idea.
I will definitely have a go!
thanks
Esther Mercier
Posted by: Esther MercierEsther | 05/12/2006 at 18:28
Hi Esther,
Thanks for your comment. You'll have to tell us how you get on.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 05/12/2006 at 19:38