Videochat, Audiochat, Skype, and IP Telephone Service

Welcome to the early days of audio and video Internet communication. This is like the early days of the automobile.

Did you know that people used to put oatmeal in their radiators in the old Ford Model-T? Yes, oatmeal, the American breakfast food that is not that popular with Japanese visitors to America and Japanese students living in America.

The oatmeal would cook and enlarge, filling in and blocking holes in the radiators.

The World Wide Web and email on the Internet are easy today, as is connecting to the Internet. It is not that many years that it has been easy.

Audiochat and videochat, however, are another story. These are early days on the Internet and when you use them, you are helping to pioneer in the grand adventure. In a few more years, they will be developed technologies, we hope. Now, however, they may take a bit of work.

In case you are not familiar with all of these different types of communication, we would like to make a few comments about them and how they relate to communicating with our teachers.

Videochat

This is the newest technology and the most difficult. It requires the most bandwidth and the picture is not great. However, you can see the person. We think this may replace the telephone some day. If you are not familiar with videochat, do a Google! and get more information. If you are not computer savvy, we recommend that you ask a computer savvy friend or relative to help you with this. For some people, computer savvy and those new to computers, it can be very easy. For some people, due to their provider or another reason, it can be a real challenge to get this going. If you have a camera though, this is great! We recommend it highly.

Audiochat

This is a bit simpler than videochat. If all goes well, the sound is perfect. This is like a free telephone. If you are not familiar with audiochat, do a Google! and get more information. If all doesn't go well, you will need to check your firewalls, restart your software, and do other things. If you are not computer savvy, we recommend that you ask a computer savvy friend or relative to help you with this. For some people, computer savvy and those new to computers, it can be very easy. For some people, due to their provider or another reason, it can be a real challenge to get this going. This is great too!

Skype (http://www.skype.com/intl/)

Skype is a free Internet telephone service for calling other people who have Skype. Some people love it and it works perfectly for them. Other people hate it due to interference and technology issues. We recommend trying it and seeing how it works for you. This is great for some people!

IP Telephone Service

Aaron Teaches was made for teachers and students to reach each other through cyberspace. IP telephones lets you use cyberspace for reduced international and local phone bills. If you have IP telephone service, it probably costs you 10 yen or less per minute to telephone North America and only several yen per minute to call someone in Japan. This is not free like the other methods, but the cost does reduce phone prices significantly.

In whatever way you may use, we wish you the best in having trouble free connections with our teachers.

Good luck!