11.5:Thing 3

Skyppe hype - it's real. Out of my circle of friends, I know one couple that uses it to communicate while he's overseas. It (or a facsimile of Skyppe) was utilized in The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel and John Travolta. It's really easy to use and free for the most part. I see it being used in the educational and business arenas. One of the unique educational uses I discovered by exploring Vaughn's list of resources is Mixxr - really cool place for language learners to hook up. The list is continuously growing (ways for schools to use it) - virtual field trips, meet an author, collaboration with schools on the other side of the world, etc. And of course business meetings all but require face-to-face meetings so these tools can save loads of money in travel expenses.

One thing I worry about is that we're bringing up generations of kids that won't know how to sit across a table from another person and have a conversation. They would rather text or IM - even sitting literally across the library from the other person. At least with video conferencing, they have to be able to carry on a conversation and speak their thoughts as they flow instead of filtering them as they type.