Using Skype in school - some tips

Overview

When thinking of using a service such as Skype it is important to remember a few points:

• this service is not controlled by Buckinghamshire County Council and as such the Local Authority can accept no responsibility for its misuse
• a service such as Skype should only be used by, or under the direct supervision of, school staff. It should not be used by pupils in an unsupervised environment
• it is important that your school network is suitably configured so that pupils cannot install a copy of Skype, or gain access to the program if it is installed for staff to access

A protocol for using Skype usernames

Staff Skype usernames

If you or other staff are using Skype at home as well as school, it is a good idea to set up a separate username for each location. That way you can work between classrooms (and other schools) using your "school based" username and then save your "real" username for use at home.

For example, if your name was Jo Brown at St Derek's School in Bucks, you might use jobrown as your Skype ID for use from home and create a username similar to stdereksjbrown for use in school.

Class Skype usernames

It is important that individual pupils are not indefiable or contactable through school - so if you would like to use Skype in class it would be wise to create a series of class usernames, such as:

stdereksclass1
stdereksclass2
stdereksclass3
...
stdereksclassn
etc.

These usernames should have passwords that are not known to the pupils - otherwise it would be possible for pupils to log in as their class from home.

Sharing contacts within school

Once you have established your usernames and added them as contacts, it's easy to share them around school. View the Sharing your contacts with another user demonstration to find out how to do this.

Ensuring privacy and security while using Skype

Setting your privacy settings correctly

Ensure that your privacy options are set so that you only receive calls or chat messages from people on your contact list (i.e. people who you know and have chosen to add) or people who you've shared your details with. It's possible to have someone on your contact list but not share your details with them, so this option is even more private. View the Setting privacy options for use in the classroom demonstration for a walk through of how to do this.

Never set your status to "Skype Me"

Your status is a very important aspect of using Skype - it lets other users know whether or not you can or want to accept calls. While using Skype in school you should never set your status to Skype Me - this overrides your privacy settings mentioned above and allows anyone to call or message you. View the Setting your online status demonstration to see how to do this and what each state means.