 Skype: Bringing the World to Your Classroom Mid-South Tech Conference December 10, 2009

First Things First: Getting Skype into Your Classroom  Skype will not download in Memphis City Schools and possibly in several other districts.  As an alternative, you can run it completely from your USB flash drive.  Only requires about 25 MB of storage space on your flash drive.

Making Skype Portable  On your home computer, download and install Skype.  Find the skype.exe file where it installed.  On your USB drive, create a folder and name it “Skype”.  Copy skype.exe into “Skype”.  Inside the Skype folder, create a folder and name it “Data”.

Making Skype Portable (cont.)  Create a new file in Notepad, and name it “skype.bat”.  In this text file, add the following text: skype.exe /datapath:”Data” /removable  Save it inside the Data folder, and exit Notepad.  Now Skype is portable for any PC.  Your call history, account settings, and other personal Skype settings stay on your USB flash drive not on the computer.

An Alternative: USB Skype Memory Phone from Von-Phone Plug and Play No need to install Skype on PC Currently $

Must Haves  Webcam  Microphone  Speakers  High Speed Internet Connection  Someone to call

Who Can I Call?  Like-minded educators  People willing to Skype into your classroom.  Authors  People you already know—parents, grandparents, community members

Ideas for Skype  Support ESL students or foreign language learning  Pen Pals  Read Alouds  Real conversations with real experts  Collaboration without boundaries  Homework helper  Virtual Substitute—Monitor your class.

More information  classrooms/ classrooms/  in-classroom-or-just.html in-classroom-or-just.html  education education  

More Information (cont.)  use-skype-in-the-classroom/ use-skype-in-the-classroom/  school.html school.html   teachers-authors.html teachers-authors.html 