Ch. 7 Response

Communicating with Technologies
The description of the teenager using many different types of media at the same time is very like me. I will often be watching TV while doing something on my computer while talking on my cell phone.

Exchanging Ideas Asynchronously with Discussion Boards
Many people need time to think of how to respond in conversations or to answer questions. I am this type of person. Using discussion boards allows this type of person to respond when he or she has thought out an answer and is ready to respond. The discussion boards are also helpful in that they are usually about a specific topic, which enables users to know what the topic is and separate thoughts about this topic from thoughts about other topics. The use of discussion boards can be very useful in the classroom as they are a good way to communicate over long distances, which can be helpful when working on projects with students or classrooms in other places. I checked out ePALS and several projects, etc and found it to be a very interesting website, which I would consider using in my classroom. Also discussion boards can be very helpful for the types of students discussed previously, who like to have time to think about questions before answering them.

Exchanging Ideas Synchronously with Interactive Chats and Messaging
Internet Relay Chat is chatting between groups of people. I have never done this and I think I would be very confused. I used to use instant messaging a lot in middle school and highschool years. I definitely did discuss homework on IM and I think it was a good way to communicate and learn from other students. It was also helpful (and a tiny bit challenging at first) to communicate with several people at once. I think I even compared some of my learning from the various people I was talking to. I think allowing students to use IM could be very useful if they are working on projects with students in other schools, but probably not students in far away time zones.

Making Connections through Videoconferencing
I think videoconferencing is a good way to get students to learn from experts in the fields they are learning about instead of just listening to the teacher, who does not know as much as the expert, lecture. Videoconferencing seems like a cheaper way for students to learn some very interesting things, such as things in outer space and Holocaust survivor stories, without having to travel to museums or lecture halls. I think I will use videoconferencing in my classroom if possible and I will be sure to follow up the sessions with activities that build on the knowledge just learned.

Broadcasting with Podcasts and Internet Radio
Before this class, I had been very unfamiliar with podcasts. I am beginning to learn that they are recordings that can be heard over the internet. I think these can be useful in classrooms as students can present projects, etc using their voice instead of writing or some other form of presentation. I also like the idea of using podcasts as a form of communication between students in far away schools. This allows students to actually hear each other when they communicate, which is a nice change to simply reading messages. Before this class, I had never thought of using iPods for anything other than listening to music. I see now that students can use these to listen to podcasts as a part of learning. I checked out the learninginhand.com website and found it to be very interesting and it contained lots of information on podcasts and iPods.