Real-time communication is available with tools like Instant Messaging (IM) through Yahoo and Google. Text is the primary convention for communicating through IM, and it is done on the computer or a mobile device. The IM web tool has advanced to the point that people can attach videos, photos and other files as well as text. There are so many Web 2.0 tools available; it is hard to comment on just one. Skype is an additional real-time communication tools that I am familiar with. It allows Internet telephony, where voices are carried over the Internet in real-time. It is a service that is readily available for free or at very little cost. More than one hundred million people around the world are using Skype to converse in real-time. Skype is set up to provide video conferencing as well. (Schrum, p69)
As I investigated real-time web 2.0 tools for communications that carry voices using Internet Protocol, there were others. These included Talkety, tringme, flashphone, and jaduka, and they can be further investigated at (http://www.go2web20.net/#telephony). Some of these lesser known tools need head phones or other equipment to work, which may be why Skype has become more commonly known.
As the use of these tools becomes more common, students who need to work on projects out of class could use real-time communication tools to do assignments with classmates while at home. Our online course at Full Sail is conducive to this kind of communication, since classmates are spread across the country and need to collaborate and talk regularly. In some cases I have used Skype and ichat to conference conversations among three or four classmates simultaneously.
So long as students can afford a computer at home, and they have the proper connections to the Internet, Skype and other real-time communication tools could be something teachers turn to as a tool to accompany long-term group assignments. However the chance that computers will be found in every student’s home does not yet seem to be anywhere close to a reality. A census report in 2007 showed that home access to computers was inequitable across student population. “Fewer than 40% of American-Indian, Hispanic, and African American children had both computers and Internet access at home” (Schrum, p166). Until the vast majority of students have the tools at home to go with assignments, Skype and other real-time tools will have to find their way into the educational systems in bits and pieces. In Michael Wesch's video, Wesch referred to Ray Kurzweil's comments that we are living in exponetial times. The landscape of technology is changing exponentially in terms of the rapid speed at which Technology, Internet, Bandwidth, information processing and applications are moving and growing. With that I hold onto hope that we will find ways to equip homes of all economic backgrounds sooner than we can imagine.
References:
Real-time Web tools information retrieved from
http://www.go2web20.net/#telephony
Schrum, L. & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington D.C. ISTE.
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