Reflections Week XII

This week’s class was interesting with the use of two simultaneous conversations, one using AIM and the other natural. To be honest, however, I was not a huge fan of the distraction that came with the two types of conversation because, even though I was not part of the AIM chat, the entire time I was very curious as to what was being said electronically. I regret not joining the online chat because I think I might have shared my thoughts more spontaneously, as compared to the more directed discussion of the isolation group. Some of the comments made during class seemed, from my point of view, to stem from the online conversations and sometimes tied into the discussion, yet it was apparent that the two conversations were touching on different material. As a result, I thought the spectrum of ideas brought up out loud did not always follow the directed discussion, which could be positive, yet often the shared ideas seemed more scattered than they followed a focus. The online chat seems to be a great conversational tool, especially to brainstorm the ideas of many people effectively in a short period of time, yet I think the discussion might be most effective if the whole class was involved in only one method of interaction.