Week 5 Journal Reflection-Facilitated Chat

It's pretty interesting to me that there are several different chats available. From Skype to Facebook Messenger. Your chats can vary from video chat, voice chat, or even just chat through writing. In the past week, I participated in two different types of chats. I first participated in the class chat on September 20th with 5 other participants. There were a total of 4 people on video and 2 people on voice chat. We used Adobe Connect. The second chat I participated in was through Google Docs on September 25th. I was working with a partner on the Netiquette rules.

I thought the first chat was more interesting to me because it had a face-to-face interaction. I liked that you could see facial expressions and put a face to the name. I did notice it was hard to talk sometimes because of the lag on the Internet. We ended up talking at the same time or not hearing each other because of the connection. Overall, it was great. I think once we got the hang of waiting for each other to talk, it went pretty smooth. I really felt more of a connection with this chat than with just typing.

The second chat was good because I worked with my partner on our assignment. My partner and I discussed the rules we had come up with a group, what we wanted to include, and what we were both visualizing for our infographic. It was great because I was able to share my thoughts and listen to her ideas. It really made a difference to talk real time, vs. just leaving comments for each other. I felt like it made it so we both were on the same page with the assignment.

In the end, I believe there are certain chats better for different conversations. I like that video chat is more personable, voice chat is like the phone, and typing is a simple and sweet way to communicate. I think introductions are better with video chat, voice chat is good for carrying a conversation or discussion, and typing chat is good for a quick talk. I wouldn't mind teaching online with how many options there are with chatting. I think you could build relationships with your students based on the chats used.