Our eldest daughter is studying abroad for three months; and we were in the throes of keeping in contact sans cell phone. Yikes!
I'm happy to report that we've bridged the gap over the Atlantic Ocean via the use of Skype, a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application. Basically, we both have microphones attached to our computers and can either "dial" each other or IM/chat with each other over the Internet! If we so desire, we could also see each other, if we had webcams attached to our computers. The quality of the audio transmission is excellent; and best of all, it's free for the basic Skype sign-up.
In the computer lab classroom, this could be very useful if you had connections with a distant school, say, in another country. Think of all the fun a language class could have with students of a school in your target language! You could alternate between the voice and chat features for experiences in speaking and writing. The cultural exchange could be very rich as well! Check out my link section to get to Skype.
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