Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Global Communication

has been seriously enhanced with the new Google + hangout option.  This feature is as close to face to face, up close and personal, as one can get without actually being in the same geographic location.  I have participated and initiate several hangout sessions over the past few weeks and will try to make them a Sunday afternoon feature through early December.  A number of folks have stopped by from CMC11 ... both credit seeking folks and some from the larger group of participants.  I have also met up with folks from other areas of the internet world ... Jeff Lebow uses the hangout as the venue for his weekly COOLCasts broadcast out of South Korea.  Several of us have been guests over the past months and Jeff has interviewed on topics of interest which he records with ScreenCastOMatic and then uploads to YouTube so anyone can listen and see them.

The possibilities for all manner of global communication are there and we can explore, play and discover best how to use the opportunities. Participation is limited to ten in a hangout at a time.  Last I heard, there should be an upcoming hangout led by our resident oenophile, John Griffin, in the very near future ... details will follow soon.

I am including 2 images taken over the past few days.  The first one was a hangout that included Canada, New Zealand and US participants.   The second, is a hangout of only two locations ... Canada and the US ... the major element in the second one was that participants communicated only in French ... and the purpose is to learn and practice conversational French. As educational researchers, Rita and Stephen travel Canada extensively.  While English is widely spoken, it is a good practice to also be able to converse with the large French speaking populations of Canada in their native tongue.  So, even if you know no French, or only a few words , or are fluently conversant in French ... the invite was open to all.   Global communication in action?  What do you think?
 Stephen Downes, Moncton, Canada; Mark McGuire, Dunedin, NZ; Carol Yeager, Catskill, NY, US

 
Stephen Downes, l' homme mystere & Rita Kop, Moncton, Canada avec Carol Yeager, Catskill, NY.
                                      S'il vous plaît, que le français parlé ici aujourd'hui. Merci.







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