The Chosen Fishbowl 1-3 period 5
Please reflect on the use of Skype today in class by recalling the discussions as well as looking over the transcripts from group one and group two. React to what went well, what were some challenges or concerns, and what do we need to improve upon. Not only do we need to question what we did, but we need to be constructive with our criticism offering suggestions for improvement.
Also, make sure to compare the use of Skype to the use of Blogger. Keep in mind in your analysis what the objective was for the inner circle, the outer circle, and our entire objective of fishbowl.
posted by annes @ 1:49 PM
23 Comments:
I love Skype! It is so much quicker compared to Blogger! It keeps refreshing on its own, without you having to keep closing out all the time. That way, you are more up to date on what is being said. I liked how the class was split up into two groups; it made it easier to read everyone's comments because there weren't as many people commenting on the same topic. I also liked how you don't have to type in the word verification everytime you want to make a comment.
I did have one problem though. I found it hard to concentrate on what the inner circle was discussing at the same time as our outer circle discussion was going on.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Skype.
This was an excellent fishbowl with the use of Skype. I feel that we were able to accomplish a lot. We were able to keep discussions going while still being able to keep up to date on any new posts that had been posted in the time that we were typing our responses. Aside from the fact that my computer died mid-discussion, I thought it was a very productive use of Skype.
As from before, the inner-circle/outer-circle idea threw me for a loop. It was, as Laura said, hard to concentrate on everything that is going on. I still support the idea of bringing back the original "aquarium" version, but I definitely prefer Skype to blogger.
I think Skype is amazing, even though I was in the inner circle today and didn't use it as much. But after reading through the two conversations, I noticed that Skype was more of an overall discusion than Blogger was. In Skype, people used shorter comments (probably because it was going so fast), but that also made it a little easier. During an in-class blog, sometimes I would skip over longer comments because I felt like I didn't have time to read them, even though those were some of the best. Skype went faster and we were able to cover more topics.
But another thing I noticed was that Skype seemed to go almost TOO fast. In Blogger, we could refresh the page when we were ready for it, but in Skype, they just kept coming. However, I think with more practice using Skype, we can get better and it won't seem as fast.
Overall, I think Skype was a great idea!
Skype is quite possibly the most wonderful invention in the educational universe! It made conversation so much easier, because it was so much faster, and much easier to follow because there is no need for a refresh button. I feel that the smaller convesations helped the depth of discussion immensely. It was like doing a small book club discussion, instead of a large book conference type discussion. It allowed there to be quicker thoughts, and good thoughts, because Skype keeps you on your toes. It is so much more fast pace to participate in than Blogger because you have to be paying attention to what is going on the whole time.
I agree with everyone that Skype is better than Blogger. It moves quickly and it feels a lot more like a real conversation, because unlike Blogger, you don't have to refresh every 10 seconds. Although the Skype conversations move very fast, I feel it was important that we split up the conversations. I don't know about the other group, but the Group 2 discussion was moving at a very reasonable speed. I never felt rushed to type in my comments, and part of that had to do with the number of people in the discussion.
Another good thing about Skype was that people didn't seem to get off topic very often, and if they did, their comment would be gone in just a few minutes, while in Blogger the comment boxes were big and if someone typed a meaningless comment, it would take up half the page until someone else posted a comment or when you refreshed the page.
Blogger is good for overnight postings like this one, but Skype is way easier to use for in class discussions.
I was a discusser so I was not part of Skype. I would like to comment on the inner circle, I believed that we should allow the “outsiders” to come in, but that they should be allowed only seven minutes (no longer). My logic behind this theory is that if we limit that time, more people will come into the circle, “the outsiders” will not be dominating the inner circle (if they are loud), and that way some of the quieter ones on the inner circle will be able to speak more.
In addition, as I reviewed Skype I realized that we would quite often say “I agree with…” and that would be all; I think that we should state why we agree. That way we are stating more of an opinion otherwise I do not think those kind of comments were necessary.
I forgot to mention my thoughts on Skype,I agree with Ty when he said Skype is good for during school and blogger is good overnight. Also, it was tough having blogger because we would always have to refresh and could not keep up with the comments.
In a nutshell, I agree with Laura on all counts. The two things I liked the most were the automatic refreshing and the smaller groups were definetely nice. It was kind of cool though, because while I was deeply enthralled in our discussion, I would hear words from the inner circle every now and then, and it was cool how they could be incorporated into our discussion.
I agree with Ty and Shelby that there is a time and place for Blogger and a time and place for Skype. Blogger isn't realisitc for conversations where the comments are short; and Skype's instant messaging feature is better used at school.
I personally am not the biggest fan of how fast Skype moves, but I think that Skype can be really helpful in the fact that we can see all the comments as they are posted. Skype does seem to distract from the inner circle though. Sykpe seems somehow more addicting than Blogger, so we pay a lot more attention to it than to Blogerr. As a result less and less people are jumping in to the inner circle. (I am not pointing fingers, I am guilty of this too.)
I was in the inner circle for the discussion so I have not really experienced the whole skype deal for a discussion, but I do have a few thoughts on it after the setting it up last Tuesday and having a small discussion...I like that on skype the page does not have to be refreshed every 5 seconds to see everyone's knew comments, however, sometimes the discussion moves so quickly that some good questions do not ever get addressed because people move on so fast.
I think skype is a productive tool, and benefited our discussion over The Chosen. I liked having to multitask, because there are several converstions going at once and their are more opprtunities to expand on the text. Having so many different conversations allows our class to discuss multiple topics efficiently in the amount of time we have. I did however, find it challenging to participate in the inner circle and comment on skype. I was a presenter, so I was focused on the discussion around me. When I turned my attention to skype, it was difficult to comment on the current conversation. I prefer skype to blogger, because, like laurab said, you don't have to keep refreshing the conversation and type in the word verification. Overall, using skype in the fishbowl was more productive and easier.
I skimmed through both conversations, and they are both very good and cover many topics. But I also noticed that a lot of the comments were just agreeing with other people. While this is good and lets people know that other's are reading their comments, it seemed to me like some of the conversation was JUST agreeing with other people. There were many very good comments, I just think that we should cut down on the agreeing, and try to make more connections and good, thought-through comments.
I like Skype a lot better than Blogger, for the same reasons as everyone else pretty much, so I wont repeat them. I think Blogger is a more out-of-class thing.
I pretty much agree with what has been said. I think that tycs point about skype at school and blogger at home was spot on. I liked the way it was divided. Sure, being assigned kind of stinks, but it is nice to have focus. And for us in period five at least things went just the right speed in our groups. It was well divided, and really a resounding success. I think we have reached a milestone.
Oops. My comment got cut off. The gist of what is said is that in terms of the actual conversation, we did a very good job. It was coherent and thoughtful, and as good as anything we had ever done on blogger, if not better because it had a logical flow. The instant gratification of skype gave us that.
I agree with what Emilyl said about there being times when Skype is better, and when Blogger is better. I agree also that it mainly depends on the size of the comments, however, I would like to add to that. I think that the size of the comments also shows a bit more of how in depeth we are thinking. BEFORE YOU ALL BOMBARD ME WITH PROTESTS, I KNOW THAT THAT IS NOT NECESAIRLY TRUE. You can say something moving and powerful and not have it be really long.
There are also certin things that I miss on Skype that I like being able to use on Blogger, such as the "Enter" button. I personally like using paragraphs to organize my thoughts. That also shows that in general, I write longer posts, maybe they are longer than they need to be, but still. On Blogger you can also see the comment that you are responding to infront of you WHILE you are writing your response, and not have it moving up and out of the picture because there are more comments being added.
This is just my personal opinion. Others are free to agree or to dissagree.
I just finished looking at the transcripts of the Skype thing. I KNOW I AM NOT THE BEST SPELLER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, but we should at least spell simple words correct and capitalize when we should. We know how to spell "don't" or at least we should. We also know to capitalize "I." As we stated in class, we should use proper grammar. I also did a spell check (copy and paste into Word) and discovered spelling mistakes of my own, so I AM NOT BLAMING ANYONE!!! UNDERSTAND!!! I AM JUST AS BAD!!!
I really liked this format but I think that the only problem was that the conversation paused and died a bit a points. It always got back going though.
I read through the skype conversations and what struck me was that many of the comments just resated what other people had said. I think that, while agreeing is food and shows that people are reading others' comments, but i think we shouldn't agree so much.
As to which is better, Skype or Blogger, I agree with everyone else.
I love it!!!! Skype is amazing it works like IM. It's easier to mutitask. I think that its easier to do because the page refreshes itself. The comments come so quickly that you have many points to talk and discuss
GREAT IDEA SMITH!
I definitely think the best part of using skype is the new speed. I didn't like in blogger how when you refreshed, five new comments would pop up. When you finished reading those, five more would pop up. I also like the smaller groups because they make it so that the conversation can get more in-depth because there aren't as many people bringing in new questions that distract people. I prefer Skype over blogger.
I am with Tom and Anna, I enjoy aquaruim style fishbowl more. To me, the open chairs just add confusion. Also less people participate out loud becuase they have to get up and say their thought in the inner circle. We can still have presentators and dicussors, but we wouldn't have open chairs.
Thought I was not in class yesterday, I did read over some of the comments from the discussions. I think that Skype is easier to use and I overal like it better. I think that we should continue to stick to the topic given and but our best effort in to what we say. Keep a steady pace so that everyone can stay on the same page and get out complete thoughts instead of little comments here and there.
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