November 10, 2008
Grad Students Who Live Far Apart Hold Study Sessions on Skype
Ecology and evolutionary biology can lead graduate students to far-off places: Alaska, Mexico, northern Michigan. But qualifying exams — the dreaded “prelims” — happen just the same.
To prepare, seven doctoral students at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor held weekly study sessions on Skype, the Internet calling service.
“Without this technology, we could not have bridged the geographical gaps,” Liz Wason, a student who spent the summer at the university’s biological station in Pellston, Mich., said in a written statement. She called Skype “an exciting, real-time way of staying connected and preparing for this important step in our graduate careers.” —Sara Lipka
Posted on Monday November 10, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: York U. Students Take to Facebook to Protest a Campus Strike
Next: Online Attacks Continue to Grow and Become More Diverse, Survey Finds
Why exactly does this deserve to be published in CHE? Skype is widely used — particular in science & technology departments — to conduct international conference calls and lab meetings. That seven graduate students used it to hold a weekly study session is about as banal a news item could possibly get.
Now I feel bad for procrastinating and typing this comment.
— Pollock Mania Nov 10, 04:36 PM #
Hmmm, Pollock Mania, sorry you procrastinated and did not get all the “deserved” glory of posting in the online chronicle. The information provided, albeit not as timely as yours would have been, will be very helpful for many of us and most likely encourage us to look further into the benefits (especially monetary savings) of using Skype. Thank you Sara Lipka.
— crimprof Nov 10, 05:03 PM #
I think this article is relevant because I am a new faculty member and am one of the only ones to use Skype to conference with my cohort of doctoral student colleagues. While certain people within various departments may find Skype useful, there are plenty of other departments that think using Skype to video conference is for the few elite nerds who spend hours setting it up.
— Ryan Nivens Nov 10, 08:27 PM #
You would be doing your readers more of a service if you were to inform them that there are a number of alternatives to Skype which work better, cause fewer problems on PCs, and have efficient customer support. Some common ones are ooVoo, SightSpeed, Gizmo5, TokBox and SnapYap.
— J.A. Watson Nov 11, 02:41 AM #
But I for one had never heard of SKYPE until this fall – so it is not that wide spread outside of the more technically oriented entities maybe? If there are alternatives so be it bring them out in an article also not as a sidebar complaint. Please remember that not everyone has T1 support or better for Internet service connectivity. Please also remember that it was not that many years ago that 2400 baud was cream of the crop service using a dial up modem. Things do change but not everyone has the newest and best toys for Internet service as it comes about. If the infrastructure is not present in the area you live then you have to wait a bit until it develops.
I believe the purpose in the article was to highlight a group of displaced students using technology to communicate as they prepared for the dreaded COMPS as part of their doctoral process. In some institutions that would have been frowned upon in others the reactions you see above. These are the type of doctoral candidates I want to see moving into academia because they are using the newer technologies to accomplish their goal – meet the program requirements and yet still be involved in their research.
GO FOR IT! You are going to be successful and your students in the future will be grateful for it as you begin yoru teaching/research careers.
— JBJones Nov 11, 06:18 AM #
Pollock Mania seems to be the sort of person who loves to display her/his technological sophistication by denigrating others who have actual lives away from their keyboards and monitors. I am sure s/he regrets there was no opportunity to include “RTFM!!!” in his/her post. Grow up!
Members of the academy whose primary concerns are not scientific and technological need to see what those who are more proficient are doing to spread the multiple benefits of technology around all disciplines.
— RobJ Nov 11, 07:46 AM #
I’m an administrator responsible for coordinating faculty review committees. This might be a useful way of getting around scheduling problems.
— PG Nov 11, 09:58 AM #
I am supportive of this type of article. I work in a Liberal Arts college where the old school have trouble getting their minds around Moodle, let alone technology such as Skype. The more that mature professors are exposed to this type of technology being used at other instituions, the easier it will be for me to introduce Wimber and Skype into our tool box…thanks Sara
— David Nov 11, 10:00 AM #
Not that widely used – I just learned about it and have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my grandson over Skype. I never thought of using it for conferencing with students – and I teach in a heavily wired distance program.
— TDD Nov 11, 11:10 AM #
Don’t forget the tools you already have. If you are using a CMS/LMS you usually have whiteboards and chat rooms available. I sometimes use them for office hours. However more importantly I have them open for students to use for study groups at their own convenience.
— George Nov 11, 01:43 PM #