Use of Skype

Skype is a newer technology that allows you to have face-to-face conversations with whomever you wish. Skype also has many platforms and devices that allow its use such as on your phone, computer, or TV. It's great for doing things such as celebrate a birthday, hold meetings, talk to far-off loved ones, work with distant colleagues, and literally anything you would normally need to do in a group. The best thing about skype (in my opinion) is that it is completely free for its basic features such as facetime and instant messaging. If you pay a minimal fee, you can do a lot more things with more people--such as calling cell phones, access WiFi, or send texts to other users. There are two different methods of payment, either pay-as-you-go or buy a subscription.

I chose to meet with a fellow classmate, Chad Ferguson. I know the assignment mainly wanted us to use people from our group projects but I figured this would suffice because I have Chad in my intro to programming class and we tend to communicate quite often. All we needed to do was create a user account, search for each other's screen name, and dial it up. They make it quite simple. It was cool how it makes it look like you are making an actual call with the icons and "call in progress" and what not.

Using this type of medium can be very helpful. This is do to the fact that not everyone lives in the same town and not everyone has time to meet at the same time. So when using skype for group projects, it is very handy. In terms of how I felt while using it, it feels kind of wierd and yet satisfying at the same time. It makes it convenient to have skype on with your group members while they are doing the same thing as you because you could just have someone talking to you in the background, collaborating on the same things, versus having awkward or frustrating moments in person. All in all, skype is a great application to have on your computer and I can see myself using this or facetime, if needed, to conduct projects with others.