It May Be Offensive, But It Is Interesting...

Warning: This Post Might Be Offensive for Some! Please read on though!

So after perusing my usual sites, I ran across a CNN article about a new-ish website called Chat Roulette. For those of you who are not interested in reading the article, basically, Chat Roulette is a website where visitors can randomly chat via a webcam with anybody else in the world connected to the site. All the user needs is a webcam and then an account. They then are taken to a user, at random, to chat with. Some of the more interesting applications would be teaching students about other cultures by having students actually talk with people of other cultures. Some of the examples are musicians playing their songs to their randomly selected chat partners, people telling jokes, or just waiting for someone to talk with. Unfortunately, the internet is a two-headed beast. Frequently, the site will take you to individuals doing more inappropriate things such as stripping or things even more unfortunate to mention, ruining a potentially interesting technological application. The potential for amazing collaboration is evident from the second you hear about the site. Students could have digital pen pals, no longer requiring detailed and timely letters, instead relying on short chats where the student could learn about a unique and intersting culture. Imagine a Geography project about Morocco where a student has talked to an actual Moroccan! Unfortunately, these sites often lead to miscreants and appears to have the perverted community running rampant through it. Is it possible, as a teacher, to feel comfortable with something so potentially inappropriate? Is there an actual application that you would feel comfortable with? It certainly brings up some intersting syncronous telecommunication. If you are interested in seeing a cartoon, which started my search for information about the site, click the following link. Careful, you MAY find it slightly inappropriate.

Penny-Arcade Comic