Conferencing
Communicating via the Internet can be an exciting and
relatively easy way to extend the walls of your classroom. This page will
discuss the various options available to educators and provide information on
current project undertaken by our members.
Chat rooms are currently being used in education for a variety
of purposes.
- Communication with experts: authors, scientists, business
community, government etc
- PD for teachers and administration
- Project collaboration venues
- Brainstorming between colleagues,
students and peers
Running a successful chat room that develops learning outcomes
needs careful planning.
Ground rules should be set and everyone allowed a
"play" time at the beginning or prior to the event. Some
strategies suggested by Janine Bowles include:
ICE BREAKER
Simply give the instruction
"For 30 seconds everyone type as many
words as you can think of that evoke
images of Australia. Go!"
I found the "Go!" really
effective for actually getting people started.
Obviously you could vary this icebreaker to
suit the age group and interests of
students.
3 POINTS READ BACK STYLE OF CHAT
(as described
by Margaret Aspin Northe Melbourne
Institute of TAFE)
This chat is good for tutorial type situations. It works best if there is
someone in the moderator role (taking care of crowd
control) and someone as the
leader of the discussion (could be a guest speaker).
A teacher could play both
roles but it can get very hectic.
The topic is introduced by the speaker (teacher or
guest). All conversation
then flows around this point for 15-20 minutes.
After that time, the moderator
calls a halt and everyone stops typing (cf "pens
down"). Time is then allowed
for people to scroll and read what has been posted,
the some more comments and
questions can be added. The speaker then introduces
the second point and the
process begins again.
Brainstorming chat
Newbies free flowing chat (anything goes!)
Meeting simulation chat eg of a meeting
with a chairperson and an agenda
emailed
beforehand or placed on an electronic whiteboard
De Bono thinking hats simulation
"Goldfish" bowl chat (idea by
Lindy McKeown)
A number
of designated
"panel members" discuss a topic with an audience listening in
(watching). People can ask the moderator if they
can join in via the "empty
chair" by electronically putting their hands
up somehow. Maybe it could be
arranged in advance that if a user sends just a
simple one-liner like -
Request participation, then the chair says they
can join in. When they leave
after a few minutes, then another person can ask
to join in. This works in
face to face settings, wonder how it might go in
chat?
Character Chat
Primary students chat with the characters of a book they are studying.
Pre-service teachers, senior students or adults who are familiar with the novel
could step into the role of the characters and make an interesting chat with
students.
Expert Chats
On several occasions I have made great use of the IRC server that Roy
Kennedy hosts.
We
have held some author chats including a "writer's workshop" with Andy
Griffiths, a children's author of the
books Just Tricking and Just Stupid. Andy
helped kids experience the process he goes through as he writes his
outrageous stories. You can see the
log at http://www.schools.ash.org.au/jstubbs/festreport/irc.htm
Andy just started the kids sharing
their experiences and ideas and led them to
create a funny story in the same style that he uses. The
author Jill Morris did a book discussion with students and was most
surprised by their detailed knowledge
of her works and their clear opinions and
reasons for their likes and dislikes. These
were ideal ways to use synchronous technologies with primary students.
Just as successful with secondary
students in Book Raps that have had author chats
too. http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/projects/book-rap/index.html
Lindy
Video
Conferencing
