Online tools

For Activity 3 in UNB2603 I have been asked to list the online tools that I have used in Ultraversity in my learning journal and briefly describe them.

I have used Skype which is a means of communicating with other researchers. This communication is either "speaking" or using words to instant chat. There is also a facility for video but I have not used this yet. I like the audio side to this as you are having a chat with a "real person" and can hear their voice. I t is also possible to have a conference call. For me the downside is that not all the researchers are using this or have the ability to use it.

First Class seems to be working better for me and the other researchers. It would seem more researchers are using the Ultraversity Community and the Cohort 4 message boards as their main method of communicating with each other. I think this is because it is very responsive both from the Learning Facilitators and other researchers. There are other community message boards within the First Class overall community. I have "dabbled" in the Parents community but that seems to have been abandoned by most at the moment. I did make a posting asking where everyone had gone and got several replies back. Most "parents" had joined other groups are there did not seem to be many in the "Parent" group. One drawback I find is that some researchers carry out a one to one conversation with other researchers which are really private chat and should probably be conducted from their private mail box`s. This often makes a thread too long. The mail box within First Class is good as this allows for private messages which you may not want the community to read. For example messages to LF`s. Instant messages is another way of communicating using First Class. This allows chats between two or more people. The Technical Support within FC is excellent and the response time can be almost instantaneous. I have used this and found the friendly support encouraging.
Another downside I find to First Class is that when working on course work, I tend to keep my FC permanently on. This allows me to read any new messages. However I find it hard to ignore invitations to an instant message chat. This sometimes leads me to spend far more time instant chatting when I should be getting on with course work.

Plone was the original method of communicating which researchers were introduced too. Plone is an ideal place to have a Home Page and for storing our course work. It is also a place to view other researchers shared folders. The message boards in Plone - of which I feel there are far too many- don`t seem to be getting used as much as FC. This might be because most researchers are using FC for messaging as their first choice. Plone is not as responsive as first Class. The "blue" group is where I look for messages form my LF and other researchers within the "blue group". The "members" gives me a list of all members of the Ultraversity community. For most this includes their resume and a home page which gives background information on each member. Plone also gives details of Course work and deadlines for modules. There are tabs to information about Ultraversity, Student information, Hotseats and a classified section. The classified is used by researchers to "advertise". This is mostly asking for help with research or invitations to join online groups.

Frapper is a map of the world. On this map you locate where you live and "add yourself". This allows everybody to see where others within our Ultraversity community are located. I was able to see that, according to Frapper, there are only two researchers in Scotland. I was surprised and wondered why? Frapper is just for fun but quite interesting. Unfortunately everytime I switch on Frapper my computer crashes. I don`t know why but I tend not to look at frapper very often.

Webnote Brainstorm seems to be a message board but just in another form. It takes the for of "post it`s" attached to a notice board. I am not sure why we need another message board but have joined in anyway. The colours are a bit bright for me.

E Mail is still my biggest form of communicating with others within www. I can check my emails when it is convenient for me and don`t need to interupt what I am doing to instant answer them the way I would have to a telephone call. Drawbacks to this are that I don`t have the "voice" contact with others which I like. E mails are also not good for Urgent conversations ( for me) as I sometimes don`t get the chance to check them as often as I would like.

My blog is very new to me. I am still not sure of the advantages of making my learning journey available for anyone to read and comment on. I can see the advantage of actually writing about my journey but not the "open to all" bit.