Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Of the communications tools covered in “thing” 7, I use email the most. I currently have two email accounts – my school email and my personal email (oh wait, I had to set up a new yahoo email account to use Flickr, so I guess you could say that I technically have three accounts, but actively use two). Email can be a big time sucker. It can take up to 45 minutes to type out the perfect message that could have been said in under one. I do use email a lot, both personally and professionally. I definitely think it has its time and place. There are things I like about it, like automatic documentation, especially when communicating with parents. But, it is not the be-all and end-all of communication, and sometimes I resent that I am included on emails that have absolutely nothing to do with me or any action I need to take, as I feel like it is a waste of my time.

I utilized IM and Web Conferencing when I was working in the corporate world. The IMing I did, though, was personal in nature. It is impractical in the world of education as we do not sit at our desks all day, making IM no better than email. Web Conferencing also has its pros and cons. I was in Training & Development, and conducted and attended training sessions via Live Meeting. The big pro: bringing people in multiple locations together without travel. The big cons: you have no direct contact with the other participants. As a facilitator, it is difficult to be engaging when there is nobody in the room with you As a participant, it is too easy to continue other work while “attending’ the webinar.

Text messaging is supposedly irrelevant to my work with students since school policy requires cell phones be turned off during school hours. So, my only real interaction with students and text messaging is when they are breaking school rules, not paying attention in class, or texting each other the answers to a test. My personal use of text messaging is pretty limited, too. It seriously takes me about 10 minutes to type out and send a message. I’d rather just call whomever I need to communicate with.