Thomas J. West Music

image: skype.com

Skype has a big challenge they have been wrestling with for more than five years - how do you take the world's largest video phone service and make it more relevant and useful to everyday people?

Their first major beta test of this kind of program, Skype Prime in 2007, fell flat for a number of reasons. The main reason, quite simply, getting professional services via VOIP and video streaming just hasn't become commonplace yet. In my own webcam lessons service, I have found that every single student I have taught so far has turned to webcam lessons for one simple reason: the more traditional methods of obtaining private music lessons simply hasn't worked for them because of their personal situation. Exchanging services via skype is an idea that is taking quite a long time to catch on.

And yet, many teachers have already embraced skype's network to connect their classroom with real experts or even to do a classroom exchange with other cultures.

In response to this strong movement in education towards skype as an exchange medium, skype has just launched their skype in the classroom beta test service. From the website: Skype in the classroom is a free directory for teachers who want to use Skype to bring education to life in their classrooms.

I anticipate that this program will be quite successful. There is no money attached to it - it is a free directory service. Skype is doing what teachers themselves have been attempting to do: find other teachers, clinicians, and experts to network and share with.

I'm going to create a profile and see what happens.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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