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November 1999 - Chat
as a Teaching Tool
By: ION
Keywords: chat, chat
room, oral quizzes, "debriefing" exercises, transcripts
as a study tool, brainstorming, small group work, guest speakers,
virtual office hours, chat etiquette
How can you use synchronous chat effectively in an online course?
Chat as a teaching tool calls for pedagogical uses of chat, chat room management
techniques, as well as coping strategies for instructors and students. Well-managed
and focused chats can be useful online learning experiences, and add a dynamic
dimensions to an online course.
Chat is real-time communication between two
or more people using computers. Anything that works with synchronous
communication online is chat, even if it is not called chat. Most networks,
online services, and conferencing programs offer a chat feature.
A chat room is a virtual room where a chat session
takes place. Technically, a chat room is really a channel, but the
term room promotes the chat metaphor.
Pedagogic Uses of Chat:
Oral quizzes are a good use of chat. Meet with
student individually online and quiz them on course content. Using chat you
can explore depth as well of breadth of your students' knowledge and understanding
of the concepts. Students sign up for the date and time of their own quizzes,
thus you give them some control and responsibility for their learning experience.
Using oral quizzes also mandates that during the course, an instructor and
a student will have one-to-one engagement.
"Debriefing" exercises serves as a
check to make sure a student has not plagiarized a paper. Unfortunately some
students use the web can be used as a cut, paste, and virtually lift papers
at the touch of a computer key. You can use chat to debrief individual students
after they turn in their assignments to determine if the work is really their
own.
Language study can use chat transcripts for grammar
practice in language courses. For example, the dialog can be rewritten from
direct to reported speech, or sentences can be analyzed for grammar, spelling,
or vocabulary practice. This provides you students language practice on authentic
text since the conversations are real and the students themselves are participants.
Transcripts as a study tool offer a wonderful
reference for students. After each chat session, post the transcript to a
Web page so your students can reread the conversation that took place during
the chat. Transcripts offers students an opportunity to review the discussion
that transpired and gives those who were not present a chance to gain access
to what happened in the chat session.
Brainstorming sessions offer a wonderful opportunity
for an instructor to gain insight into the thinking of their students. Brainstorming
may also function as a prewriting phase for rough drafts of papers, and allow
students and instructors to share resources.
Small group work is a classic teaching tool that
can work online. Break up your class into small groups of 3-5 students and
have them schedule a chat session to work together on a project or just discuss
a question. Meeting online the small group can discuss what they need to
do to meet your directions, whether is is doing a project, or posting a summary
of their discussion for the rest of the class to read.
Guest speakers invited to your course's chat
session offers a chance for students to learn from another instructor, or
an outside expert, etc. Having a guest speaker in chat lets you and your
students interact with the guest as a group in real time, instead of private
communication and having to ask questions after the fact. This activity provides
your students with information about real world experiences concerning the
course subject.
Virtual office hours are times when you are available
online so your students can contact you about the class. If you expect more
than 5 students wanting to attend your virtual office hours, schedule times
slots they can sign up for so that the chat sessions do not become crowded.
If need be, private chats can also be arranged if needed.
Chat Management Techniques (Coping Strategies):
To use chat effectively as a pedagogical tool, chat must be
well-managed and focused. Coping strategies include: be prepared, limit
the number of participants, have definite starting and ending times, limit
the topic of conversation, help late comers, and teach/observe chat etiquette.
For more in-depth explanations of coping strategies:
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/model/copingchat.html
For chat etiquette, you can develop your own guidelines along
with existing chat etiquette culled from sites such as:
Chat etiquette and protocol: http://dragon.minopher.net.au/WebEd/protocol.htm
Internet guidelines and culture: http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/culture.html
Chat etiquette:http://rlds.org/chat/chat-et.htm
Common chat rules: http://www1.csolve.net/newbie/chat/etiquette.html
RESOURCES:
Chat product guide: http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgibin/texis/swlib/hotfiles
Strategies for using chat as a communication
tool: http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/model/chat.html
[Editor's note - links removed fall 2004 to update link
rot]
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