Skypeing in the Media Center...Finally!

You might remember from this post that I had a goal to try to do some Skype lessons.  Well, as it so happens, I got my ducks in a row early in the year and was able to sign up for some Skype library time with Jenny Levinson, a SLMS in Florida.  We have Skyped a couple of times now and the kids really enjoy it.  I think it's fun for them to not only get to have storytime from someone different and new, but also for them to get to experience that technology.

The first Skype session was with a smaller class because I was a bit nervous about how it would go.  There were a few minor sound issues, and one student lost a tooth during one of the books, but other than that it went well.  The kids seemed to enjoy it so I decided I would try my hand at it again with a larger class.

The next class was a very active Kindergarten class so I was super nervous again. But they did very well, especially considering that we were having sound issues again.  The kids were so cute reading along and they got a kick out of Ms. Jennifer talking about the things she could see them doing.

After this second lesson, I began doing a little technical search to find out about the sound issues and found it has to do with our bandwidth. Unfortunately, the only way I found to fix this problem is to increase the bandwidth and I don't think my county is going to pay for that just so that I can do Skype lessons. So I either try it with an iPad and Apple TV or the app Reflector to see if that will work, or just live with the cutting in and out.  I definitely want to try Skypeing again.  However, I want to fix the sound issue first.

Anyone having this same issue and have any suggestions (besides increasing the bandwidth)?

P.S.  You can find me on Skype @MESMediaCenter.