Effective use of Microsoft Communicator in School

Often teachers run short of proper practical examples in the class room. It is not due to lack of knowledge, but rather because of unavailability of resources in the class room. Microsoft Communicator (or any such chatting application) can improve and help this situation.

Microsoft Communicator is developed by Microsoft. The application can be easily installed in Windows operating system. Once the application is installed you can add any person of your school’s network to your contact list. Once you log in to Microsoft Communicator, you will come to know who all of your contact list are online. You can straight away ask information from any online person.

In order to use Microsoft Communicator, there must be a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) in the school.

All the users (teachers, librarians, lab instructors, office staff, etc.) must be given unique user Ids.

All the users should have a laptop or desktop, from which they will log in to both the network and Communicator.

Microsoft Communicator provides a platform for teachers to chat with one or more persons simultaneously, thus helping reduce communication gaps between teachers and other school staff members.

Teachers gain confidence when they are equipped with tools to get information instantly. This in turn improves the overall quality of education offered to the students.

Knowledge transfers between the teachers become easier.

A certain amount of cost is required to get all the software and hardware for the school.

Costs are mainly for the network and the software. Maintenance personnel need to be appointed by the school to keep the network and software up.

Teachers and all other users of Communicator should be responsible and mature enough to use it for the improvement of class room lectures and positive developments for the school, not for personal communication during class.

Microsoft Communicator and other chatting applications are widely used in industry for getting instant information. These same benefits wills improve the quality of lectures when Communicator is used in school. Cost implications need to be considered before making a decision about Communicator in school. Moreover, teachers should use it in a positive way, and not for personal communication in the classroom.

Microsoft Communicator is a trade mark of Microsoft Corporations.