Discussion+Tools

Discussion Tools in the Web 2.0 classroom:

As graduate students, we’ve devoted much of our time to learning whether inside or outside of the classroom. We’ve been a part of many class discussions, some good and some not so much. It’s likely that many discussions could more accurately be described as a select few participants (consistently) discussing and the majority of the group just watching or maybe listening. It’s also likely that many of these ‘discussions’ were rather exercises in noticing the hum of the air conditioner for a portion of a group. How many of us have personal stories of how we are embarrassed to raise our hands in class and answer or ask a question? To this end, this chapter will elaborate on the rise of certain web 2.0 tools relative to discussions. The initial part will regard synchronous or ‘live’ discussions and asynchronous tools. The next will be devoted to the use of F2F video and desktop sharing applications. The end will close with the use of audience response technology, which can be used to stimulate discussion.

Synchronous

-TodaysMeet: []

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-TanglerLive media type="youtube" key="KVs1q7BieAk?version=3" height="390" width="640"

Asynchronous

-Blogs According to a yearly study of the entire blogging community of 2010 by Technorati, blogs are firmly entrenched in mainstream use in the U.S. They also report these other interesting statistics: “WordPress is the most popular blog hosting service, used by 40% of all respondents, and almost half of Part-Timer and Self-Employed bloggers (49% and 50% respectively). Blogger and Blogspot are also popular, although significantly more popular with Hobbyists than with other bloggers.” []

Audience Response -Turning Technologies media type="youtube" key="tpAEx2abKBQ" height="349" width="425"