a tech idea

first of all i've been switching to the small font size (which i still think is a little large) instead of the normal and i wanted to know if that was bothering you at all. if you could just let me know that would awesome. Also i just had an idea that maybe if I were to be doing class room discussions it would be a good idea if i could leave sometype of IM program up and students who had a question of a point that they wanted to make could send me a message. I thought this would be a great way to help students who are nervous to participate in classroom discusions and also a way to make technology a little more integrated into my class. I was wondering if maybe you had any experience with someone who had tried this and whether or not it was a success for them. i think using a blog like this would be great too since honestly i might not have gotten to you about this even in a journal format since I, even as an english major, find the pen and paper somewhat of a pain. anyway any feed back on this would really be appreciated
-justin