We had an online session on 7 March where we had to speak about what creating a social presence means when working online. The chat session only had three participants apart from the instructor. This was a little disappointing as it meant that not everyone had had a chance to read the sections they were supposed to read. I enjoyed speaking to the two other students who were in the chat room with me. I think if everyone is online and they've had a chance to read, everyone will be able to comment on what they have read. They will also be able to clarify things in the text that someone else may have had a problem with. The idea of a chat room (especially for studying purposes) is a good one, it helps people get together even though they are not in the same room, on the same campus or even same city.
The problem with chat rooms is that you have to make sure everyone follows the same train of thought at any specific moment. Too many people in the room, and people start to get confused about what is being spoken about. Face-to-face conversations tend to be less disjointed. You wait for a person to stop talking before expressing your view.
We had a rather wide field to cover and a lot to say about it, often the same and often a different view. What did get it muddled up is, often responses to comments only came through after some other comments about different topic was made. A lot of the time comments came in one after another while I was still busy with something from before. It however was interesting and challenging. Not bad for a first time.
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