Chat

Signing up with Skype was an easy process. I followed a link from the Discussion Board and endeavoured to add all of my fellow students Skype addresses into my account.

From then I continued on with module 2 and was quite surprised when I was prompted into my first chat ever with Chris.

Somehow when I created my Skype account I had attached a music clip to my profile. Chris was interested in how I had done this, and to my disappointment, at my first opportunity, I couldn't remember for the life of me how I had created this.

Feeling nervous about the first chat and embarrassed because I couldn’t recall something that I had done, we continued our conversation. Chris in this time had worked out himself how to add a clip and then I in turn asked him how he had done it (Yes, a blonde moment).

On a second occasion, once again while I was working on module 2, Skype flashed at me again, this time a call from Fiona. Second time around I entered the chat with a bit more confidence and thoroughly enjoyed meeting Fiona. We reflected on the net11 unit so far and how we were coping with studies and family.

Our group chat was scheduled for Thursday night, July 3.

At 8pm I turned on my laptop and sat eagerly waiting to see Skype flash yet again. 8:05 it all happened. A third of my contacts were online and all were testing the water, hi’s here and there.

The conversation took of rather quickly and I found myself sitting in awe watching all the flicking pens and comments rolling one after another.

I attempted to jump in occasionally but found the subjects, gaming and flaming, were not areas that I felt could input. I was happy to observe and quickly noticed the difference in conversations compared to one on one.

There were approximately 15 people participating in the group chat.

The conversation tended to jump around. Obviously by the time a reply came in there were others in between. So the conversation was quite broken. Some people managed this with obvious experience and a few, like me, tried to keep up enjoying the moment all the same.

The following day I was fortunate enough to be available when Stefan and Kylie came online. I thoroughly enjoyed this particular chat experience. Our conversation was more controlled and I gained valuable confidence regarding chatting and our net11 studies from my two friends.

Thank you Stefan and Kylie:)

In reflection to module 2, it felt slow to start, considerable signing up to prepare for the tasks. I don’t think I would use newsgroups again but gained a lot of understanding in regards to chat. I understand that the need to be quick is an area to work on, but to be able to freely interact with a person/s with so much ease is definitely worth exploring more. I would be apprehensive though if I didn’t know the person on the other end. This task felt safe, even though we don’t know each other, we are a connected group.