Week 12: Field Experience

In this reflection, I will talk about online video chats.
How will the communication tools/social networking tools learned so far help me communicate with my students? My students would all have my video chat name, and I would have all of theirs. I could do a small technology unit and have an assignment be for them to create a video chat account through something like Skype, and they would have a week to invite me to chat or something like that. That would get them more involved in technology, and more comfortable using that technology tool. Once my students were comfortable using video chatting, they could Skype me whenever they had a question. Video chatting allows for a quicker response than email, and is more personal than a phone call. I don't think I would feel comfortable giving out my phone number to students (only their parents), but I would feel better about giving out my Skype ID for them to contact me with.
How will the communication tools/social networking tools learned so far help me communicate with my students' parents? The parents of the students would all have my video chat ID as well as the students, and they would be able to contact me whenever they wanted to as well. This is good to use with the parents because it is a very personal way to communicate. Really, it's the next best thing to meeting in person. As I've mentioned before, I think that it is extremely important for teachers to keep a close relationship with the students' parents. This is so the parents will feel comfortable sending their children off to school to spend the day with their teacher, and they will also feel confident that their children are with a good role model. By forming a personable relationship with the parents, they will be more likely to feel this way.
How will the communication tools/social networking tools learned so far help me communicate with my colleagues? If the principal needs to hold a meeting on a weekend or over a vacation period, all of the coworkers and the principal can engage in a group video chat, where all of them are chatting together and can see the other members of the video chat. This would be the same thing as meeting in person, except the coworkers wouldn't have to travel to the school or a mutual meeting place. All they'd have to do is log on and get in a quiet place. I think this would be very convenient for my colleagues, and the principal, because it can be last minute (as long as everyone has computer access).
Why are these tools so popular with my students? Technology is becoming so popular with children these days, and I think that any kind of opportunity you give them to experiment with it, they would enjoy. I think that most students wouldn't have had much experience with video chatting; I'd assume they would be more familiar with email or instant messaging. By introducing them to something new like this, they would instantly be interested in it and therefore would use it more often once they experimented with it and found out how easy it was to use.
In which ways might I employ the communication tools/social networking tools learned so far to achieve classroom objectives? This can help achieve classroom objectives (this is a stretch...) by helping students completely understand their assignments. How can students understand a unit if they don't even understand their homework/projects? Through video chats, the students have access to their teacher via the internet. If they have any questions about the unit or their assignment from home, they can video chat with their teacher to get more clarification so they can complete the assignment. I can remember plenty of times where I've gone home and had no idea what I was supposed to do for my project or homework, and we didn't have the internet back when I was in elementary school! Now, the students can take advantage of being able to have internet access and can ask their teacher questions to better their understanding.
What are the pros and cons of the communication tools/social networking tools learned so far? A pro of video chatting would be that the students can have a personal conversation with their teacher while they are both at home. Another pro would be that video chats can be used by the students' parents and coworkers for several uses. A con would be that it has be done on the internet, and not every student has access to the internet. Also, another con would be that, again, it is through the internet and the internet can be a dangerous place. Parents should supervise their children while video chatting with their teacher, or they should childproof their internet so nobody has to worry about anything popping up that the students shouldn't see.