Ch. 7 Communicating with Technologies

Chapter 7 talks about the growing use of the internet for communication. The chapter discusses that the internet has made many things possible such as online classrooms. I will definitely agree that I probably would not be where I am right now if it was not possible for me to take classes online. My only reason in choosing to go back to school and not find a job was the option to take many of my classes online or early enough in the day that I could be home for my children when they get home from school. Another reason that I wanted online classes was because I live 45 minutes away from the nearest college. This form of communication has enriched my life as I know it has for many students that want to further their education. Chapter 7 also discusses the importance of online discussion boards. I have had to make many online discussion posts since I have been taking classes. Though I see the use of them for online classes, I feel that when I have a class on campus and still need to post online that it is not as helpful to me. I feel that many of the topics that we are required to discuss can easily be done in class without me needing to keep track of how many posts I made and if or if not I responded the correct amount of times. I can see how these discussions can be beneficial, but I feel like it is not always helpful to me. On the other hand, I do feel like using instant messaging helps me. I must be the type that wants instant replies. When you told us about the Google docs that was an awesome tool. Marissa and I needed to work on a lesson plan for a class and we uploaded it to Google docs and both of us were on IM and discussing what we wanted to change in the lesson. It really worked out great. I also IM my friends and family that I see online from time to time. I think that these types of technologies could be useful in a classroom to extend your class discussions. I just feel that if I was to use these that I would need to find a safe site that I can set guidelines on and monitor the discussions for meaningful learning taking place. Our class would be great since you can only get into the discussions if you are a student in the class and there are guidelines on what the topics are for the discussions.