1. The name and URL of the Web 2.0 tool you are evaluating. Chatterous, http://www.chatterous.com/
2. What can the Web 2.0 tool can do ? It is a communications service that aims to allow groups of people to communicate with each other synchronously through email, IM accounts, web, or telephone. It could allow conversations among students inside or outside the classroom regarding class studies, especially for group projects or topics.
3. What do you think it could be used for in the classroom ? If could be used if students are broken into groups and have to discuss a particular topic or work on a group project. In classrooms, students learn at different levels, I would suggest your higher level learners to utilize this tool. The teacher could be giving instruction to your lower level learners and the others could be utilizing this tool.
4. What you like about the tool? It can be used inside or outside the classroom. It's instantaneous. Students can comment on their peers entries. It's free. No need to sign up if you want to comment. No need to download software. Just one lead person would sign up to form the chatroom group and others would follow. Chatrooms can be designed with colored backgrounds and themes. We entries are made in the chatroom, group members are notified via email, phone, im, and web. Group password is needed in order to enter chatroom.
5. What could be improved about the tool? I signed up and stumbled into a chatroom called imob. Each time an entry was made, I was notified via email to see what was written. Apparently it was a chatroom that anyone could enter and someone did and left inappropriate text. Needless to say I unsubscribed. Website noted that inappropriate language was not acceptable but there were no filters in place to stop such behavior.
6. Would you recommend it ? I would recommend it to be used at high school level which close supervisor by teacher. Teacher would have to become member of each chatroom to monitor what was being said.
7. How many stars would you give it out of 5 ? I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. It's a free program which allows instant conversation utilitizing emails, IM, and telephones. Good tool for group or individual projects.
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This program would definitely be for higher level students as you stated. Its interesting how you can communicate to each other using whatever instrument you like such as web, email, and phone. Thats convenient if you remember something while shopping, lets say, and you want to add it you can by text or if your surfing and find something you can instantly add the info. I like that feature. I think this would be good for projects when students are distanced and may not be able to communicate at the same time. Thanks Charlene for the info. This is Lisa Martinez signing out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input Lisa....
ReplyDeleteI think this an interesting tool to use for the classroom. I could post a question to the students and have them respond to it through text, email, or IM. We could continue a discussion from class or start a new one that continues over several days. This seems like a great way to keep your students connected to the classroom even when they're not in school.
ReplyDeleteI used this tool with one of my Social Studies high school teachers who showed movies every Friday (that's another issue) :-) But we got the laptops out the one Friday and surprised the students that they were going to have to ACTIVELY participate in the movie! The teacher would pose questions as the movie was being watched and all students had to participate! AND DID!
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