Blackboard offers a suite of technologies to help professors and students conduct their academic business. In this lesson, you'll learn more about Blackboard's Chat tool. Some of you may decide it will be useful for your group project.
Have you heard about chat rooms? Every now and again, the media reports about outrageous things that happen in chat rooms. The chat tool in Blackboard is only open to students in this class. It's unlikely participating in a chat with a classmate will put you on the evening news, but you should always keep in mind that no online communication is completely private.
Chat tools allow you to meet in "real time" if you'd like. Two or more people enter the chat room and begin to type messages back and forth. Obviously, one advantage of using the chat feature is the availability of instant responses from the other people attending the chat. There's no need to wait for someone to respond to your email or discussion posting. From time to time, you and your classmates - especially others in one of your groups - may decide to meet in a chat room at a specific time to discuss your projects. Of course, the big challenge is finding a time that is convenient for everyone to meet and arranging to keep the interruptions at a minimum. This is especially difficult when you live in different time zones.
Those who attended the Elluminate Live session in the last lesson are probably remembering a chat feature that several of you used to communicate.
There is no requirement to participate in a chat session for this class. Keep this tool in mind as you and your classmates proceed with your group projects. The chat feature may prove useful in helping you accomplish your goals this semester.
| Many thanks to the Graphics Communications classes at City College of San Francisco for making the icons used on this page and for making them publicly available. |