Excuse the Cliche of the Day

Since I am creating a Wiki on how to incorporate Skype into the teaching and particularly the library, I thought this week’s focus should be on Skype. The second reason for posting on Skype is because I didn’t find this week’s reading terribly interesting, let alone something I wanted to write on. So the readings forced me to find an article to read and blog about, which led me to “Skype Hype” by Eric Nee. The article does not deal with using Skype in schools, but it does offer something interesting viewpoints on Skype and its importance. The crux of the article is that even though “Ebay may have overpaid for Skype, don’t discount the importance of VoIP” (25). Prior to Ebay purchasing Skype, Ebay’s stock price had dropped because many analysts felt that Skype was not worth the 4 billion dollars that Ebay paid to acquire the company. Nee however feels that Ebay has decided to tap a potential that no other business has yet to do. Nee believes that Ebay will incorporate Skype into their online auction as well as other avenues. Why is this important to Ebay, simply put, “Skype operates what is by far the largest internet phone (VoIP) service in the world. That makes it bigger than Sprint, for one, which ahs 40 million customers” (25). Those 54 million users/customers will hopefully and likely spend even more money on the Ebay site. All this translates into two technologies merging that will hopefully breed something even greater. Meg Whitman, CEO of Ebay, believes that the purchase of Skype will only make Ebay stronger. She states, “Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community” (26). At the heart of that quote is what brings meaning to schools, which is that educators/libraries are in the business of selling and communicating. If we are not selling our lesson plans, books and ideas to our students, then we are not doing our jobs. The only way to do our jobs well is through communication. And there in lies Skype, a program built for 21st century communication. Just as Ebay took a chance on Skype increasing its revenue, educators and schools must take a chance that Skype can increase student engagement, learning and a desire to learn. Skype has the potential to make this shrinking planet of ours even smaller, thus bringing together students from all over the world in a way that has never been seen before. Just imagine a student studying for a French quiz with a student from France on Skype all the while the French student is studying for his or her English quiz with the American student. Excuse the cliché, but the possibilities are endless.