The Introduce Yourself Chatting Game and Others

This is the second class of the semester. The activities for the class are:

1. Asking students to take pictures for each other (with pre-designed Digital Camera Job Aid)
2. Apply for Network IDs
3. Self-introduction Chatting Game (purpose of this is not only to have introduction, but also give students a chance to have an experience of how computer-based communication can be used in class, so that they can comment on this activity)

My plan was to do No. 1 first. But it turned out the camera I brought use up battery fast. So I charge the battery and at the same time ask students to work on No. 2. However, due the heavy use of university network, it is extremely slow and students are stuck.

Then while students are facing the "world wide waiting" situation, I take the camera off the charging and make students begin to take photos again. Battery went off several times. So next time, make sure the battery is full! Also, my brain turns too slow, only at the end of the class, I realized I can just make students to come to the position where the battery is being charged and they can take pictures where the battery is on charge! Also, when I look through the pictures students took, I found although I talked about exposure and brightness of the pictures, some pictures are still too dark. The lesson is I should find a postion where light is enough and make students take picture at that particular position. Originally, i was thinking that it might be good that they use different background.

The third activity is generally ok. I expected that since all students log on the same time, it is dificult for them to find a particular person to talk to. So some students chat more and some less. However, the students seem to enjoy "chatting in the same room". I need to find out a way so that students do chat with a student who they do not know before. The briefing after the chat is ok, but a little out of my control--students do not speak the same clearly and I as an international instructor, do not totally understand what they mean sometimes, especially when they mention some particular place. The referring system got out of track after several round and I some how lost track of who has talked and who has been talked about. The activity should have more time alloted to it. Next time when I do this, I think I should allot 3-5 minutes for free chatting and after that students should be formed into pairs based on the order they log in and then chat with their peers for 3 minutes. In that way the referring system will work. And in the final briefing, those who have free chat with a particular person can add up to the information.