Collaborative and Distance Communication Platforms

I am just going to be honest, the fact that we can communicate with other people that aren’t anywhere around us with the use of a little device is amazing to me. That may seem so trivial and like duh, of course we can do that, but to me it’s incredible. I really don’t understand exactly how it all works, but I am really glad that it does. In this post I want to focus on one form of distance education that I think takes it to a whole new level, Skype.

Skype is owned by Microsoft and I figured what better way to define it than through its own personal site:

http://www.skype.com/en/about/

Skype is communication app that allows people to have practically face to face communication over video chat. Text messages and audio I files can also be sent over Skype, but it is most popular for video chat. Now not only can we communicate back and forth from any corner of the world, we can actually see each other while we are doing it.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/skype/1

This site brings up another great feature of Skype, which is that it is free. It is one of very few sites that people can talk to each other from across the world for free. Long distance calls, or even the old school way of letters and packages can be very time consuming. These ways are more expensive and you also don’t have the privilege of actually looking at the person you want to communicate with. My friends and I have always joked that if one of our friends can’t make it to something we would just “Skype them in”. We were always referring to dances or parties, and we were always joking around, but it is pretty incredible that we actually could if we wanted to or actually need to. Skype is awesome for keeping in contact with friends and family, but can it be used for serious things?

http://blogs.skype.com/2012/05/24/5-real-benefits-of-using-skype/

This blog discusses the benefits of using Skype for business. Some of the benefits include spending less money on international conference calls and saving money on business trips that you won't actually have to go on. Skype is really just another incredible app that makes our world a little smaller.