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.

Newsgroups

“One source of both information and communication is newsgroups. A newsgroup is a continuous public discussion about a particular topic. You can join a newsgroup at any time to become part of a huge conversation between hundreds or even thousands of people". Howstuffworks (1998-2008)

So thinking about the problems with setting aside a physical time to attend a community group, an online group gives you the flexibility to participate in a discussion at a time that suits you, without having to leave home. Information shared in this way has the capacity to expand a topic because your audience is not restricted to a particular area or number of people. Also you can decide whether you want to participate in a discussion or just read what people are posting to that topic at any time.

Sounds like a lot of benefits to sharing an interest in your own time but what could pose as a disadvantage with communication of this kind?

The participation within our internetstudies group was quite rewarding but then this group was specifically formed to aid the net11 students module 2 task.

On the other hand, my experience within the mylifeismine group was quite dull. I feel that this group is more of an advertising board rather than a place of personal communications in interest of the group topic. My message posted fine but my question has not been answered to this day. Not a personal group in my eyes.

I also joined a Google newsgroup, Smile-junkies, but I am unable to post a message within. I am informed that ‘This group is announcement only, I cannot post messages because I am not a manager’.

Reflecting my personal preference to what I have discovered so far, I feel more in touch with our Webct Discussion Board, the ease of searching topics and reply to individual people appears more user friendly.

Reference:

How Stuff Works (1998-2008) How Newsgroups Work, Retrieved 5 July from

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm