Thoughts on Gmail Chat

Our group collaborated well to try out Google's new text, voice, and video chat, and I think that working together, we came up with a good group response.

For my blog reflection, I thought I'd share my initial thoughts on our first official "online chat meeting."


Good points:
Convenient/always available from any web browser via Gmail, no downloading required (for text chat)
Chat works pretty well


Problems:
It's easy to get confused with several windows going at the same time, especially if they have some of the same people talking in them
Inviting could be confusing (hard to remember who was invited and who started the chat. Also, having to scroll up to the top is not a very elegant solution, especially if the chat has been going on for a long time)
Not well suited to having large numbers of people chatting at once (a dedicated chat program like Xchat does that better).
Had trouble getting Voice and Video to work (the software wouldn't install on Tim's older XP machine).

Uses:
Small group discussions (especially for groups who are working on a project together)
Virtual office hours (for one-on-one or small group conferences)

Overall Reflection
All in all, it was a little bit frustrating getting used to the new software, especially since mine was the old computer that couldn't run the video and voice software.

I still think the text chat is inferior to stand-alone chat software like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and (especially) Xchat. However, having the text chat software native to the website and usable with any reasonably up-to-date browser has tremendous advantages that compensate for the slightly lessened performance.

Artifact: Group Three Project One Report

Other blogs in my class

Dr. Wang
Kandi
Sonya
Kala
Rosyln

IT648

Well, the summer has officially begun. I'm scrambling a bit to catch up in my classes, because I was out of town at the RCU curriculum meeting focusing on UbD and DoK, co-hosted by MSU and MDE (how's that for alphabet soup?).

Long story short, I'm excited about the approach that MDE is taking. For too long the state tests have focused on memorized information (Webb's Depth of Knowledge 1), and so, in order for their students to pass the tests, the teachers in these areas had to focus their teaching on a broad, but shallow level. I hated doing that when I taught US History, but you do what you have to do.

Now, they're rewriting the tests AND providing teachers with more tools (Understanding by Design is the name of the framework they're using) to teach more in-depth understanding.

I'm sure that IT 648 will be informative and educational, and I'm looking forward to the class!