Concertina Real-time Chat

[Ken_Coles]

Let me add something I perhaps should have said first. I am amazed at the new ways to communicate and the young people who first master them (I am in my forties). My students use their cell phones for conversations; as long as they don't do it during class or otherwise violate simple etiquette it is fine by me. We used to meet in person to talk, now a conversation lasts an extended time no matter where you are. Maybe when I'm richer (or sell some concertinas!) I will try it myself.

 

Likewise, we may have a chatroom here someday, who knows. Life is full of surprises, and some of the features of C.net that you see people defending here met with a mixed reception when they first appeared. And of course a lot of them need revision or improvement - we're always aware of that. Maybe this is another case of change to come.

 

Ken

(who is the Web lackey, please, not the master!)

[Mark Evans]

Ken, the world is indeed changing. Cell phones...well, I recieved an education from my students at a recient presentation of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen From Verona. Those toward the back of the auditorium were all instant messaging one another during the performance! I was floored and frankly angry.

 

Next day in class I asked why people thought that was an appropriate thing to do at a play or concert.....answer: Multitasking. I can tell you the multitaskers didn't really "get" everything that went by them (as their papers reflected).

 

On a positive note: Most of my students have had a very limited encounter with anything other than MTV. As the opening moments of Two Gentlemen From Verona progressed, it was fun to watch the students "download" enough of the vocabulary to "get" the humor and then things heated up.

 

I've given up my cell phone finding that I don't always want to be "in touch." Let's hear it for "phone tag" for it gives you the space to form a response worth hearing.

Edited April 10, 2005 by Mark Evans

[Samantha]

i seriously doubt a chat room would affect the forum in any way...and each of u have said "i don't use one so there shouldn't be one" ...but people of my generation (25 and under) actually use them a lot...and find them very useful...anyways the webmaster has said no and given his reasons so there's no point in going on about it...it was just a thought and like i said would be useful ..no big deal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As someone else has already said here, there is nothing to stop you, Leon, creating a chat room elsewhere and promoting it through posts here. I can see how it could be an additional resource for the internet concertina community, but also how it is a move too far for the creators/lackeys (!) of this site. Let us know if you decide to go ahead.

Samantha