Chapter 7

Chapter 7 discussed probably the most used tool for me: communication with technologies. It was probably the easiest chapter so far for me to understand because I was familiar with basically all of the ideas mentioned. The one that I was least familiar with is Podcasting. Communicating with technology is becoming more and more prevalent in household use, in businesses and now even in schools, so I think it is important to teach students how to use these and give them the opportunity to experiment with them.

I think that exchanging ideas asynchronously with discussion boards is one of the most important tools. Like the book mentioned, it gives students who don't normally speak up in class the opportunity to do so. Some students need that time to think through what they are wanting to say and how they are going to say it. Discussion boards are very helpful for these kinds of people. Teachers in face-to-face discussions with their class might think that some students don't know the material because they aren't talking, but in reality, some students just can't think and answer on spur of the moment. I think that having class discussion is great, but then having a discussion board on-line is a good way to follow up to that. I have used discussion boards more and more in my college classes. I never used them before college, though. I have never used ePals or Global Schoolhouse, but as I looked through their websites, I was very intrigued at what I saw. Just the amount of on-line communication and interaction by elementary and middle schoolers was pretty amazing to me. I think it is a very fun idea.

Students/teachers can also exchange ideas synchronously through instant messaging programs offered on many different serves, chat rooms or IRC (Internet Relay Chat). I had never heard of IRC in particular but it sounds like a chat room kind of thing to me. I am not exactly sure how I would use synchronous communication in my classroom. It could be used to talk with students in other classrooms at other schools, if say, we were collaborating with them on something. I think it is often used by students to collaborate with each other about homework questions, etc...

Videoconferencing is my favorite type of communication with technology (as of right now). I think it is a great tool for any classroom. It could be used to connect with experts who can't come in to your class, or to connect with another class, etc... In one of my college classes a few years ago, we teleconferenced with another class in another city because they had a special guest that our teacher wanted us to hear. It was the same course, so we were studying the same material, etc... The book mentioned some very neat programs that would be a great learning experience in an elementary classroom.

Podcasting, like I said, is the type of communication that I knew the least about. I have heard more and more about it lately. (My pastor at my church talks about downloading different podcasts and listening to them.) After reading the chapter and what they had to say about podcasting, I think it is a tool that students would find fun and different, but I am not sure how I would incorporate them in to my classroom.

There were some very familiar ideas in this chapter to me, and some not so familiar ideas, but hopefully as I learn more about these different technologies, I will learn hwo to incorporate them into my classroom. By the time I am teaching in just a few years, there will probably be more kinds of technology to learn about and incorporate!

Are there any other kinds of communication technologies anyone has heard of or thought of using in the elementary classroom?