Half a world away, students learn to Skype home

By Takara Onowo

ROME, Dec. 5 - Maintaining cross-continental relationships with family and friends has become a snap for the computer savvy student.

For the majority of students studying at John Cabot University, Rome is a home away from home.  So how is it that students today are staying in touch with loved ones back home?

For starters, blogging. Instead of writing one lengthy e-mail to a friend back home, JCU students have found a quick and easy short cut.  A growing number of JCU students are opening up their own blog spot to keep friends and family updated with day-to-day adventures.

 

JCU visiting student Amy Hall finds blogging helps her keep in touch with family, even the ones she would not regularly phone. “It’s nice. They can comment on my pictures and blog,” she says. “It’s nice to know they are thinking of me.” 

Back home, students would email and use instant messenger programs to stay in touch. Today, study-abroad students are turning to Skype.   

Skype is a program that has been around since 2002. But, as is the case with first-time study-abroad students,  it is only now becoming mainstream with many JCU students.

Skype is an online telephone calling service that is commonly used with a web cam.  There are several Skype calling plans -- some available free and others with a small fee. Each Skype connection allows students to hold conversations with those back home face-to-face and at little or no cost. 

Skype enthusiast and visiting JCU student Audrey Hoefer has one complaint about Skype though.  “Skype still can’t do anything about the time difference,” said Hoefer, “but the technology is amazing, I feel like I’m not so far away sometimes."   

JCU students have not ruled out traditional forms of communications all together. Many JCU students rent cel phones, and a hand-written letter from a loved one back home is still welcomed. 

Regardless of the form of communication, JCU students are not having a problem keeping loved ones aware of their exciting adventure in Rome.