CMC tools in the classroom

As we've been seeing for the past few weeks, CMC can be a very valuable tool in the classroom. There are several aspects of CMC that still need to be researched, and these uses of technology in the classroom are most useful when investigated with an eye towards SLA research, as well.

My favorite application, from what we've seen so far of CMC in the classroom, is the use of synchronous chats in the classroom to give students more time to experience interpersonal communication. I like the idea that online chats can be saved and used for future activities, as well, so that the original purpose of the chat ends up doing double duty -- first as language practice, second as something else -- cultural reflection, grammatical reflection, the springboard for a follow-up activity.

A close second place would be either blogging or e-mail. Both blogging and email provide students with a forum to practice more formal writing skills than chatting (by nature, faster, more conversational than the writing found in blogs and emails). Blogs are more public than email, which can be both a benefit and a drawback, depending on point of view. For some students, knowing that any person can access the blog might be a drawback, while for others, that very same reason would be a benefit. Email communication can be more personal in nature than blog posts because it does tend to be less public than a blog. Both of these tools can also be used as the springboard for follow-up activities similar to those mentioned above.

So far, it seems that most research about these tools concludes that their usefulness is all in the way that they are put to use....So it's really still about good teaching, good context, putting things into a logical sequence....