One of the most popular services evolving as a result of inexpensive computers and more widely available internet is Skype. Worldwide there are over 170 million users (2011). The reason is pretty simple, Skype provides the ability to communicate anywhere there was internet for free (to another Skype user) or for nearly free to a non Skype user/device.
So what does that have to do with your local charter school? You may be surprised!
Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 and while I don’t pretend to understand their strategic reasons in doing so, I do understand the Skype like solution they now offer as a core component of Office 365 for Education. It is called Lync 2010, soon to be Lync 2013, and is very cool!
The power of Lync is not the ability to use it as a phone system, although it is equal to or better than Skype in this regard. The real power of Lync is the clever array of additional communication capabilities it provides. And whether you are across campus, across town, or on the other side of the world, you will come to find these features indispensable.
There are four core features in Lync 2010. However, before you can fully appreciate these features, you must understand how “presence” dramatically enhances these features. Presence is the simple but powerful color coding next to your name (and photo if you desire) that designates your availability to engage in communication and guides your associates to the most appropriate form of communicating with you.
Think of presence as a virtual “Do Not Disturb” sign posted on your office door. One that changes to “Available” automatically, to “Away” if your keyboard is idle for predetermined amount of time, and it reads your Outlook Calendar, automatically setting your presence based upon meetings listed there.
We communicate in fundamentally different ways when we understand the availability of our intended audience. Presence in Lync will help your associates communicate with you more effectively.
Now let’s look at the four core features of Lync, one by one, to evaluate the potential to improve your communication capability. The features are:
- Instant Messaging
- Resource Sharing
- Video Conferencing
- Telephony
Instant Messaging
At first glance, Lync 2010 looks like another desktop application resembling Yahoo, MSN, or Gmail text messaging systems. Whoopee…
Not so fast…
Lync has way more capabilities just in the instant messaging department. First of all it has presence indicators that include more than a mere “online” or “offline”. Presence indications include, Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, Off Work, and Appear Away, all in context of “where I am today” displayed in your associates Lync window.
Instant messaging on your desktop is an indispensable tool for the classroom, especially when most schools declare classrooms as cell phone free zones, to avoid constant interruption. But by using Lync your staff can abide by the rules and IM their associates, family, and friends – all from their desktop.
Other Instant Messaging features include message transcripts for archiving, automatic message forwarding to email, and non-delivery notification. You can also record any Lync session for review later.
The new version of Lync 2013, will be integrated with all of the major social media platforms (if enabled) and in doing so can serve as the collection point for all of those important conversations.
Try doing all of that with Google or Yahoo messaging!
Resource Sharing
Lync allows you to share resources with members of your team one at a time or many at a time. By resources, I mean documents, programs, or your entire desktop view. This provides a very useful teaching and collaboration platform.
Assume for a moment that you have a document on your desktop that you wish to show a team member. With link, you can send a document directly to anothers desktop, share a view of the document by extending your view to another, or you can share your entire desktop with another user or group of users. And you can give control of the remote user to manipulate that document, such as editing it, notating it, or working collectively on it.
The possibilities are endless and can extend outside of the school to students or parents as well. Indeed, the free Live@EDU services for students, is now powered by Office 365 for Education.
Video Conferencing
This feature blows my mind and if it was the sole capability of Lync 2010, it would be worth it. Oh, I keep forgetting it is free!
Full on video conferencing systems can be very expensive. But with a $20.00 web camera and a set of speakers, you can turn an ordinary PC into a video conferencing platform. And it requires no advance setup, notification, or subscription. Just click on a user from your list, and then click the video button and the rest is taken care of by Lync.
Those of you who spent $20,000 on HD video systems, don’t worry. Lync is engineered with most of the popular high definition video systems in mind, and for good reason. For professional quality video presentation, a $20.00 webcam simply won’t cut it, but Lync is very versatile and capable of handling that high definition system as well as simple webcam sessions. And the new version of Lync 2013 adds new features to video conferencing to accommodate the best possible video signal on each device.
On either end of the spectrum and all point in between, Lync is an excellent platform for video conferencing. Video conferencing brings a whole new level to interactions with team members and is an essential part of content delivery for the classroom.
Telephony
Although Lync can be configured as the complete public phone system for your school, that requires an on premise server and significant configuration. For schools with existing phone systems this may not be practical, but for new schools it can be a very good choice.
However, in a default installation, Lync is a VoIP (Voice Over Internet Phone) system that connects all of your team members (both in and out of the physical building). Call quality is very good (used Skype lately?) and again, it requires no advance setup or configuration, it works right out of the box.
The clever thing about telephony in Lync is that you don’t need to know a users phone number.
Simply use the search box to locate team members and click on the telephone icon. Lync rings your team member and notifies them of an inbound call. And feel free to add others to the call, it costs the same! (still free)
Summary
Lync, a component of Office 365 for Education, is a messaging and resource sharing system. It provides a connection between you and your team members allowing you to communicate real time, share documents, presentations, or complete desktops. It delivers video to your desktop either from a meeting or as a video call. It can make and receive telephone calls right to your device. And it is available on all endpoints with a browser or as an app for iOS and Android.
“Lync Me” certainly makes more sense in the school than “Skype Me”, give it some serious consideration.
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