Communicating with Technologies...

Over the last few years of my life, the way I communicate has drastically changed. There are definitely pros and cons to this change. I went from talking in person, to AIM, to texting and facebooking. Through all this change, I have tried to maintain face to face relationships with people (which is almost harder these days). Students in the future will probably have even more technology so I can't imagine how they are going to communicate. I agree with the book when it says that students can use multiple technologies at the same time. If you were to watch students for an entire day, you would probably be extremely surprised by the amount of technology they use and the time they spend with technology.

Since students are so used to multitasking with technologies, how are we going to keep them interested and engaged in the classroom? One way teachers can use communicating with technologies is through discussion boards. This is a way for students to share information and learn from each other. The book mentions that through online forums, there is no "race, gender, age, and no infirmities-only minds: people talking to people" (p. 141). That statement is very true and I agree those things can sometimes cause issues in the classroom, but what about students who do not use grammar correctly or do not write well? Those students might be scared to discuss through online forums. This issue is addressed later on in the chapter and suggests that teachers should give students opportunities to communicate in person and learn how to have actual conversations first before introducing them to online discussion boards.

Other forms of online communicating include things such as chatting on the internet (AIM instant messaging, Facebook chat) and videoconferencing with others. Videoconferencing on resources such as Skype is a great way to connect with others who are not in the same area or are in different parts of the world.

Communication is such a huge part of everyone's life and it is interesting to read and learn about the different ways people can communicate. If we were thought about the way we communicate on a daily basis, I guarantee at least 50 percent of our communication would be through technology. Is that a good or bad thing?