Chat for Professional Development

Level: Teachers/Staff

Prior Knowledge: No experience with telnet or MOOs required.

Materials: Computers with Internet connectivity and telnet capability

(download Pueblo if necessary)

Objectives:

1. Become comfortable connecting via telnet to a MOO

2. Become comfortable with MOO commands and movement

3. Understand professional growth benefits of using

professional chat sites

4. Learn what resources are available at the Adult Education

Center of GrassRoots MOO.

Time: Two to three hours, depending on how much practice time

you want to allow seminar members to have

Presentation Plan

1. Benefits of using a chat site to connect with colleagues:

A. Nobody has to work in isolation any more.

B. Being able to connect with people from other places, including other

countries, and learning what their innovations are. (The Australians are

doing some very creative things in adult education).

C. Professionals can exchange ideas from the comfort of their homes or

offices without having to travel to communicate with colleagues

D. Conversation occurs in real time, unlike letters or postings on a newsgroup

E. Internet chat is much cheaper than phone calls, and several people can be

together at one time

F. Professionals can enjoy personal, informal conversation or set up formal

discussions in the same environment, or simply hang out there and meet

new colleagues.

2. Telnet is a protocol for entering a part of the Internet where real-time

conver-sation and game environments can be accessed. It enables the user to

enter any other computer as long as s/he knows the IP number (address). A MOO

is a multi-user dimension, object-oriented, and is based on a form of C++

program-ming. The user does not need any acquainance with C++ or any other

program-ming language to use a MOO effectively.

3. A user ("player") talks with others by prefacing each new (typed)

utterance with quotation marks (") and pages an individual in another part of

the MOO by preceding the message with an apostrophe and the person's name

('Mary <message>). A colon followed by a verb is used to show a player's

actions or "emotes". (:smiles. ----> <playername> smiles on other

participants' screes). A player moves about places using the "obvious exits"

at the end of the desxription of each place. Anything that ison the list of

"You see ... here" can be seen by typing: look <objectname>. A player can

also look <playername> to see other players.

Total time: 15 minutes

4. Activate the LCD panel and log onto GrassRoots or SchMOOze University.

Show the group how you move about and interact. Show descriptions of other

players.

Total time: 5-10 minutes

5. Have group members decide on names and descriptions of themselves to use

at the MOO, and write them in their notebooks.

6. Log onto SchMOOze University (telnet to schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu 8888);

follow screen prompts to name and describe self. Then have each person type

@gender f or @gender m as appropriate. Type classroom to be teleported to the

classroom and do the lessons starting at the beginning.

Total time: 15-30 minutes

(Take a break at this point)

7. Have each person write down a topic to discuss or a question to ask (such

as "How do you teach the sequence of tenses?" or "Have you introduced any

geometry in ABE classes?")

8. Log into GrassRoots MOO (telnet to rdz.stjohns.edu 8888). The trainer

should go the the Adult Education Center; all semionar members should folow

the screen prompts to log on as guests without selecting names or describing

themselves, then type @join <trainername>.

9. Demonstrate, using the LCD panel, how to enter the ABE and GED Rooms, sit

at the tables, write on the flip charts, and experience the sensory details.

Invite seminar members to select tables of interest in the ABE and GED rooms,

sit at them, and see who else is sitting there. Make sure that nobody is

sitting alone at a table. Have people at the same table share their comments

and questions and choose one of them to talk about. Chat at tables and put

main ideas on the corresponding flip chart.

Total time: 30-45 minutes

10. Walk around the lab making sure that everybody is participating in a

conversation.

11. Encourage group members to write any consensus or questions for further

thought on the flip charts. Invite them to visit GrassRoots on their own over

the course of the next week and see if anybody else has posted a response to

ideas generated during the chat.

12. Announce Open Forum Chats in the Center at 9:00 P.M. EST on Tuesday

evenings. Hand out current list of Neteach chats at SchMOOze and invite group

members to be there. (Neteach posts the current schedule in the Conference

Room at SchMOOze as well as on the Neteach-L and TESLCA-L lists.)

Total time: 30-40 minutes

Evaluation:

Has everybody contributed to the conversation at one of the tables? Have all

questions raised by the group been answered satisfactorily? Can seminar

members log onto the MOOs by themselves, go to the Adult Education Center at

GrassRoots, and join a conversation without help? Do any seminar members use

the Adult Education Center over the course of the next month?