The process of selecting communication tools has followed a relatively logical path that originated with my own inclinations and was supported by the relevant literature. I found the “benefits and drawbacks” charts within unit 2 of module 3 to be particularly insightful in confirming my choices. One of the constant issues swimming around in my head is the line (blurry line!) between using technology for the purpose of distance education and technology for the purpose of classroom integration. As MET is a meeting of students from the K-12, higher learning and business capacities, I think we often embark upon courses with our own perspective so ingrained that it is difficult to work outside this context. When I think about technological integration, LMS, communication tools etc. I think from my middle school context whereby distance education is not involved and my sole focus is to implement technology in a meaningful way where a face-to-face teacher will ultimately support my students. In building my LMS, I envision it to be used by students in the classroom in a more self-directed manner but also used at home in order to complete assignments, study etc. With a few tweaks my LMS could be used for an entirely distance capacity but in the context of my own teaching, this isn’t the purpose. That all being said, I wanted to use communication tools that were logical given that students would be seeing myself and each other in the classroom. A discussion forum made sense because it affords the opportunity for students to put thought into their responses and build off of the responses of others, ultimately creating a richer discussion than what would be had in class. Chat is also used so that students can get used to communicating synchronously outside of the classroom. Setting these tools up in Moodle was very straightforward, so straightforward that I can’t even think of anything to elaborate on! I did experiment with the different types of discussion forums and couldn’t really see that one would serve my purpose any more than the others. I stuck with “a single simple discussion” throughout because I like the way that the responses layer. Overall, this assignment was not very taxing in terms of using the technology and it was aided by the fact that I have finished writing all of the content for my site, so the discussions and chats fit into logical places.
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