CHAPTERS 8 AND 9

Chapters 8 and 9 discuss communication through web based programs primarily. After reading chapter 8, I saw a lot of pros on sharing information online for classroom use but am still not sold completley. The whole concept of building learning communities is amazing in principle and with the right personalities involved, could become very entertaining and refreshing in the right context. This may be a very arbitrary example, but I loved twitter during the presidental debates because it allowed me to see how much my friends really knew about politics and made the debate much more entertaining and enjoyable than it otherwise would have been without the implemation of social networking. The email and instant messaging portion brought up a grave concern that I've always had, and that is that one day most people will only be able to communicate in textspeak instead of real words. Sometimes, I, myself get lazy and do this but I have never written a paper or formal email of any sort using textspeak.

The discussion of powerpoints in chapter 9 was intriguing. I have known how to use powerpoint ever since it was created when I was in elementary school since our school decided to have a computer class since I was in kindergarten. It did not hit me that sixteen years later it would still be relevant to my life. I think powerpoint and webquests could be very useful if implemented creatively and effectively.

QUESTIONS:
1. Despite its benefits, how do we combat textspeak inevitably being the potential standard for our society?

2.In what ways would you create interactive media for your classroom?

3.Discuss the pros and cons of social networking being used in the classroom.