Chapter
8- Communicating and Networking with Websites, Blogs, Wikis and More
Focus Question- How
can teachers use email or instant messaging to foster information exchanges
with and among students?
In todays society
emailing and instant messaging is everything.
Not only for students but for parents as well. It seems like parents are always emailing
teachers to ask questions about grades, behavior, really anything. Students use both of these technologies to
communicate. They also use texting,
which the book didn’t mention. To answer
the question though, it seems like it would be pretty easy for teachers just to
email the parents back instead of calling them, or having them come in to
talk. Teachers can also email the
students to answer questions about homework.
Email seems like the more professional way of talking on the computer
instead of IM. Instant messaging uses an
informal language.
Moodle is an
online course management system. Moodle
offers several different management functions such as keeping and posting
grades, selective content releases and various filtering options. You can have a free version, or subscribe to
them. Moodle helps and embraces differently learning and teaching styles.
Summary-
This was a very
timely focus question for me. I just got
assigned to a new teacher in my online class.
Her whole motto is texting is best.
She would rather us text her our questions than call her. I know the focus question didn’t ask about
texting but personally I think that would be best. It is so rare to meet a person that doesn’t
text. My mom gets emails all the time at
crazy times from parents and students. I
think one down side to emailing is people don’t respect the time anymore. They feel like it is okay to email or text
others at 2 or 3 in the morning. Other
than that, the technology of emailing and IM has created a different more
helpful relationship for students and teachers.
I think email is a 'dead' form of communication with students - it requires students to go to their email and since many don't use it, it is not as effective as texting. Texting is by far a more efficient way to communicate with students as you probably know! :) Unfortunately, the current lack of monitoring for accountability makes it less desirable from the K-12 administrative perspective and thus it is often less used.
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