Communication outside of the schools official online tools
I am curious how others feel about the use of methods of communication outside the official school online tools. I have found the official tools are often lacking well behind the tools being used by most students such as gmail, chat clients, and skype.
What a great topic, Ron. Ten years ago, I would have said it was an ethical question: "Can we demand students to own technologies?" This is no longer the question. Most students own more technologies than they will every learn how to completely use.
Now, though, I think it is more a question of boundaries. The first is that most schools, especially online ones, want some trail of information, and keeping everything within the provided tools allows for this. It is part of the legal and accrediation thing. My school encourages us to use innovative communication, providing us with voice chat and encouraging us to use recorded messages in our announcements emails, as well as just written words. But, they want it from that controlled environment of the tools they provide. I've come to agree with them. It only takes one student who swears that the instructor said something awful to create the need for several volumes of "he said/she said" documentation.
Also, I've tried using the Yahoo Web Chat client the varying success. My worst experience is with students who can't believe I'm not sitting there looking at it 24/7 in case someone posts something -- no matter what I tell them about when I'll be available. I don't see anything wrong with using technology, but I do want to control when I use it. In all honesty, there are lots of times that I just want to live my own life. If students know that I'm reading their mail on my phone, they come to expect instant responses. Not that they don't anyway. :) I'm not always willing to "go back to work" in the middle of whatever I'm doing with my family.
So I guess my real answer is that we should all encourage our schools to adopt new technologies. They create a level of interaction that we all want and that would benefit the students. I know that the more I can do to convince my students I'm a real person, the better and more honest our interactions become.
I see nothing wrong with requiring all communication to be through the official online tools provided by the school. Although they are traditionally slower and not as advanced, it allows for tracking, monitoring and consistency. Furthermore, as an instructor/program director/attorney, I find that once students/clients become aware you receive communication "instantly" (whether it be via a chat feature or email on your phone), they learn to expect immediate responses which is unrealistic and unfair to the instructor. However, I do not have a problem if an instructor chooses to use her personal email rather than an email provided by the school as long as it is included on the syllabus. I also have no problem with instructors providing their cell phone numbers for emergency/urgent matters. But, I would not recommend they use them as their primary means of communication.
I agree with Courtney that the instant replies can set an unrealistic expectation for response time that cannot always be met, but I do believe these can be useful tools if a set office hour is reached and students can reach you at a designated time. I also appreciate the point Donna makes in the statement "can we force the students to be computer savvy or purchase equipment" for all of those out there that know it well, there is the student that can do the basics but the advanced computer skills it requires to effectively use these programs are lacking.
Technology has advanced to a great extent that many of the free tools have extraordinary capabilities. On the contrary some of the online tools available through academic environments might be lacking in terms of speed, performance, and the level of interaction. Having said that, I feel little bit reluctant to use outside tools. Sometimes it is difficult to keep a record of things that were discussed or happened. With the raise of social engineering, it is possible that someone impersonate the identity of one student. I would say that organizations providing online education should invest more in the field which will ultimately will have a positive impact on the educational process as well as the income of these institutions.
