Journal 8: Internet Telephony -NETS V

Internet Telephony: "A category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls. For users who have free, or fixed-price Internet access, Internet telephony software essentially provides free telephone calls anywhere in the world. To date, however, Internet telephony does not offer the same quality of telephone service as direct telephone connections.

There are many Internet telephony applications available. Some, like CoolTalk and NetMeeting, come bundled with popular Web browsers. Others are stand-alone products. Internet telephony products are sometimes called IP telephony, Voice over the Internet (VOI) or Voice over IP (VOIP) products." (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Internet_telephony.html)

Internet telephony is basically telephone calls through the internet. There are different web programs like Skype that provides the medium to make telephone calls through the internet. These phone calls are usually free of charge and can be used worldwide. There are some programs that even allows you to make a video phone call if you have a web cam connected to your computer.

I followed a discussion about internet telephony but it barely provided any information about how internet telephony works, instead I learned that there are a lot of different ways that you could use a web cam in your classroom. I saw some really extremely cool stop-motion animation movies that students made with the web cam. The videos portray specific vocabulary words used in literature like foreshadowing, personification, and morphing. You can have students make their own short story film in almost any subject. One of the educators filmed a science experiment that his students were conducting.

A suggestion from one of the educators was to have students create a tutorial using the web cam. This is both fun and educational for the students. Another educator films himself replaying the day's activities and assignments. He then uploads these videos onto a class website for students who missed class. This was a way for him to motivate his students to keep up with class work and to continue participating in classroom activities even if they are absent for the day. Another educator used the web cam to connect with another classroom from a different country. This allowed for his students to collaborate with students from a different culture within the classroom. Overall, I learned that there are a zillion different ways to use the web cam in your classroom to motivate student learning and create an environment for creativity.