Jamie Preston
Mayor's Commission on Literacy
Expert Trainer Assignment 7
January 16, 1998

Using AOL Chats to Communicate About Work Issues

Objectives

1) Teach practitioners how to conduct an online chat. (Assume that participants have learned how to get onto the World Wide Web. Any inexperienced participant would need to work with a colleague who could help the practitioner go on line.)

2) Provide a forum for practitioners to share information and ideas about work readiness curriculum, support services for job seekers and employees, options for employment, workplace problems, and career advancement opportunities.

3) Reinforce networking among practitioners.

Equipment

1) Access to the World Wide Web for all participants and at least one station with access to AOL.

2) E-mail or fax access to each participant.

Procedures

1) A facilitator should arrange for up to 15 practitioners with online access and an interest in student work issues to enter a specific private AOL chat room at a designated time. The facilitator will need to establish a time and a chat-room name well in advance. An additional chat session will need to be scheduled if more than 15 practitioners register.

2) In organizing the chat, the facilitator should get a sense of what the key issues are and e-mail or fax an agenda to each participant at least two days in advance.

3) To enter a chat room on AOL:

· Go to the Welcome menu

· Click People Connection

· Click Start Your Own Chat

· Click Private Chat

· Enter the designated chat room's name

· Hit Go Chat

· Instruct practitioners to type messages into the dialogue window and hit Send

· Type a "bye" line when leaving the chat

· Click the top left box on the window to exit the chat room

4) If not everyone is on AOL, find Keyword in AOL's Go To menu and search for the following terms: AOL Instant Messenger and Buddy List Setup. Follow those instructions to get non-AOL participants into a private chat room.

5) Start the chat. If it goes slowly at first, the facilitator may use a question or comment that arose during the organizing process to prompt discussion.

6) Just before the chat ends, ask practitioners to use e-mail or conventional mail to send questions for future sessions or raise any technical issues about chats.

Evaluation

1) Was each practitioner able to get into the chat room and enter at least one comment or question? If not, find out what the barriers were and how to work through them.

2) Did the practitioners feel the chat topics were useful? If not, what would they like to change before the next chat?