It is a long time coming, but the story I am going to tell you will melt your heart, warm the cockles inside and restore your faith in nice things. It begins with an iPad, two sisters, a determined teacher and a really really long day which saw two technologically illiterate sisters reunited over the World Wide Web. One of the things that makes this story even better is that after the day of training, my Grandma has Skyped many more times with the ease of a seasoned professional. Don't get me wrong the day of training that went into this to make it possible was grueling, but completely worth it.
Before Grandma had even set eyes on her iPad I had set her up with a Skype account and had requested her sister as a friend so that when the time came to Skype her the task was simpler. (NB: Since then however Grandma has added other Brothers and Sisters on Skype so the process will still be given below.) At this stage I also had set up Skype on my iPad and connected her to be able to Skype with me and her eldest Daughter.
The processes are as follows:
Skype Calling
Step 1: Tap the Skype app
Step 2: Making a call, tap on the face of the person you want to talk to. (make sure there is a green tick in the corner of the persons face)
Step 3: Tap Video Call
*if there is no sound check volume on iPad
*if the other person can't see you, tap bottom of screen to get icons, tap camera and make sure it is on front camera.
Step 4: To hang up, tap screen making sure icons come up at the bottom of the screen
Step 5: Tap red phone
*Press the green accept button to answer a call with the video button and to hang up see steps 4 and 5
Step 6: Use hand thing to get out of Skype altogether (spider)
Skype Messaging (like text messages over Skype)
Step 1: Go into Skype and tap persons picture/face
Step 2: Tap blue button (IM button)
Step 3: Tap bottom of page (where it says type message here)
Step 4: Press Send on bottom of screen
Step 5: To return to Skype home page look on to left hand corner for the word "people" and tap.
Step 6: Use hand thing to leave Skype altogether. (spider)
Finding New people on Skype
Step 1: Go into Skype and tap on the + in the top right hand corner
Step 2: Tap Search Skype Directory
Step 3: Type in the name of the person you are looking for
Step 4: Browse until the the person you know comes up
*In many cases people have the same name, so look for things like Country or Suburb to ensure that you find the person you are really looking for.
Step 5: Tap on the person you want
Step 6: Press add contact in the top right corner of the new screen
Step 7: A contact submission form will come up, you can either just press send or personalise the message until you are happy with it and then press send.
Step 8: The request will be sent to the other person and it is now a waiting game until they accept you.
*At this stage, on the home screen of Skype they will have a box with their name under it, however the bubble in the corner of their picture will have a question mark in it, until they accept you, at which time the question mark will change to a X (for not online) or a green tick (online and waiting to talk to you) and to make a call go to Step 2: Skype Calling.
Now while all of this information may seen daunting, once you have done the process a few times it becomes second nature. Yes it was an extremely long day for both Grandma and I, but the results at the end made it all worth it. What I think made all the difference is the amount of times I made Grandma repeat the process of making a call, accepting a call and telling me all the things that could go wrong - and then how to fix it. We started by me making call to her from my iPad and her just accepting the call, I would ring and she would answer. Simple. Then the reverse would happen, she would ring and I would answer. Then I would go into a different room and do the whole thing again.
When we had mastered that skill, I would turn the sound off, or the camera off, on my iPad, and in a different room I would make Grandma tell me how to fix the problem. This was probably the most challenging stage given that Grandma's head was already spinning a million miles an hour, but the reward was worth it.
That night the most amazing thing happened, after some planning by me the night before, it was arranged that her Sister would ring over Skype for their first big meeting. After an antagonising day of practice and waiting the moment of truth had arrived. Of course things never, ever go right the first time, and as I help Grandma over the phone, while talking to her sister on my iPad, it looked like it would never happen. All our hard work would be for nothing!
But no, divine intervention stepped in and saved the day. Finally after an hour of fixing, praying, wishing and hoping I hung up my call with Grandma's Sister and waited nervously on the phone, crossing all my fingers and toes, praying that I would hear her Sisters voice through the phone! Eureka!! It finally finally worked, the moment we had ALL been waiting for, Grandma and her sister could see and talk to each other just as if they were sitting in the same room and not thousands and thousands of kms away.
The next morning when I rang Grandma to find out all the details I found out that they had spoken for over 5 hours!! This roughly meant that Grandma didn't get off Skype until after 2.30am AEDT!! WAY WAY PAST HER BEDTIME!!! Despite that, I could not keep the smile off my face, knowing that I had made two ladies incredibly happy, seriously made my week. And since then Grandma has set up a weekly meeting with her Sister on a Thursday night (our time) so that they will never have miss out on each others important events just due to distance. As it currently stands her Sister has made us all incredibly jealous by taking her laptop outside and showing us the London snow!!!
The joys of modern technology....
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