Pardon the really bad title, but this Skype thing is just way too much fun. Just got off the Skype with Ian Yorston from who Skyped me up from England and sounded like he was just down the road. Earlier today I chatted with Jim Wenzloff in Michigan. And I got contact info for Tim Wilson and Joe Luft, who with any luck will be back to blogging here real soon.
So yes, this has the potential to be all sorts of disruptive, but it can also be productive. I mean Ian and I chatted about the possibilities of collaborations among our kids; hopefully we’ll get back in touch after the New Year. And what about author chats or classroom interviews or… I mean, how easy (and cheap) is this? Just get a microphone and a set of speakers and there you go.
And goodness, what about Podcasts?!? Next Skype I get, I’m going to see if I can record it. (If anyone’s got the how to on this, let me know. I’m thinking I can make it work with Camtasia…maybe? Audacity?) And if I can do that, then the first edublogger-conference-Skype-podcast is scheduled for right after the new year. I call moderator. (Am I strange that the thought of that gives me chills? Really. Am I?)
Here are a few solutions…
http://www.makeyougohmm.com/pivotblg/entry.php?id=267
I’m in. Edublogger-Conference-Skype-Podcast v1.0.
It’s definitely possible to capture a Skype conversation and include it in a podcast. Lots of podcasters are doing that very thing. You need a piece of software to capture all the audio on your system. Some googling will probably turn something up for Windows.
Looks like we were beat to the punch…2 days ago. “Skypecasting” anybody?
http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/001056.html
What about privacy issues? If I know that what I say in casual conversation might be “skyped” on-line, I don’t know that I’d be interested in a conversation. Karen Schneider has been writing a lot about the concept of what is, and is not, public vis-a-vis blogs and conversation. Perhaps before declaring this the “new, great tool” some thought should go into the parameters of its use?
I’m currently reading the book “Nine Shift”. Pardon my paraphrasing here, but the discussion is around comparing the impact of the automobile between 1900 and 1920 with what’s happening with the Internet between 2000 – 2020. In the early 1900’s, there were laws put into place that automobiles were to yield right of way to horse cariages.
30 years from now we’ll be looking at our “privacy” with a smirk on our face. We’ll have less of it, but the issues will resolve themselves and the newfound benefits will outweigh the negatives we focus on today. Heck, look what’s happened to the written word with blogging over the past two years. People are much more “open” in what they put out there. Audio is simply the next step, with video to follow down the road. As all these technologies increasingly converge, we are beginning to see the “automobile” take shape like the farmers did back in 1904.