Assignment 5: Drop.io

For Assignment 5, we had to create a Drop.io site, insert a file, and then leave a voicemail. Our recording needed to be related to any topic about the course and about 2-5 minutes long. We also were required to listen to two classmates' Drop.io voicemails and leave them audio messages.

My Drop.io site can be found by clicking HERE.

I was anxious about this assignment because a) I had never heard of Drop.io and b) it looked difficult. However, I was completely wrong on the difficulty level. My biggest problem was sounding professional while sitting on my bed making a recording I wanted to sound intellectual. I can talk for a while, and Drop.io allowed me to do so, but I was careful of making sure I didn't go over the five minute limit. I enjoyed browsing some sites with information about Second Life, too, which is what my Drop.io voicemail was about.
I had never heard of Drop.io before and really never considered this technology, but...it's so cool. Just downright cool. We use blackboard for teaching (and learning), and I got to thinking how much more interactive it would be if, instead of blackboard, we used Drop.io. It's not much different from blackboard other than it's more interactive. The voicemails left by other students are like the written threads students leave now. The only negative I see right now in using this for my journalism classes is that I enjoy having the students write. They need to write to be able to communicate better. HOWEVER, I do feel that some students need to learn how to communicate orally, too -- and I'm one of them. I have a lot of "ums" and stutters in my speech, but Drop.io helped me be aware to slow down my speech and consider what I was going to say next. It also helped that I had time beforehand to think about what to say and was highly interested in the subject. At any rate, I'm very excited to use Drop.io in future classes that I teach. I'm thinking this could be beneficial for online classes as well as traditional classes for extra involvement.