I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but this week’s assignments were very informative.  Broken record! That is a cliché that should be obsolete. It could be replaced with “scratched compact disc”. No wait…what am I saying music is all digital now. Anyway…back to this week’s assignment. This week was all about online communication tools. 

There are many types of online communication tools. Some that seem commonplace to me and some that I was pretty much unaware of. 

Email is such a part of my everyday life that I could not imagine life without it. It seems like a large portion of my day is spent reading and sending emails. I don’t remember snail mail taking up some much of my life. It seems like I used to go to the mailbox, grab the mail, sort it, throw a large portion in the trash unopened, and then keep the bills. With email it seems like a constant receiving and sending of relevant and irrelevant messages even after all the spam has been filtered out.  

Chat is another communication tool with which I am fairly familiar. I personally do not like chat rooms because it seems like they were created for people with ADD. I mean I like my conversations to be focused and orderly which is seemingly difficult to accomplish within a chat room. My experiences with chat seem to all go about the same. It starts out simple enough with a question or comment posted, then a few quick relevant responses, then a few irrelevant responses, then a couple of “come view my photos” posts, then a few more relevant and irrelevant posts, then an “earn $5000 a month from home” post, and finally everyone is either mad, confused, or off viewing someone’s photos. I guess the chat is a good communication tool when you have the appropriate safeguards in place and a moderator that keeps things focused.

Blogs and Wikis have been covered well in earlier assignments and have became part of my vocabulary. I like blogging for an effective means of expressing opinions and posting information. I will definitely have a class blog when I start teaching.  Wikis will also be part of my teaching tools as well. I like the idea of having students contribute to Wikis as an ongoing class project.

The online communication tool that I had not really considered as a communication tool was virtual worlds. After this weeks reading and assignments I now understand how this can be used. I have watched my son on Club Penguin and would not let him chat while he was on there out of fear that some weirdo was on the other end. But I can see that if used appropriately it would be a fun way to communicate. 

Again, not to sound like a “scratched CD”, but this week’s tech explorations were probably the most informative piece of the assignment. I was really impressed with the various “tubes”. Studenttube, teachertube, and youtube education will all be a part of my teaching toolbox.  As will the math dictionary for kids. Spicynodes.com will be really useful in creating a class website and prezi.com will help me spice up my presentations if I can use it without causing motion sickness as the site warned. 

Edmodo.com was probably the tech exploration that I learned the most from. I was not aware that this kind of resource was out there. With all of the craze over social networking it only seems logical that I should create a social network for my class. It seems like everyone is already used to communicating in this context so it would be natural and unforced. I think that setting up an online community for my classroom will be a great way to keep students and parents apprised on important classroom events. 

This week has been yet another interesting and informative experience.