Lesson created by Susan Finn Miller
Lancaster Lebanon IU13 -- International English Training
238 N. George St. Millersville, PA 17551
Phone: 717-871-0911, e-mail: finnmiller@aol.com

Orientation to Online Chatting

Learning Level

This activity is intended as an orientation to online chats for adult education practitioners.

Time Needed

One and one half to two hours

Materials Needed

Computers with Internet access or an e-mail service provider with "chat room" capability. Proficient keyboarding skills will make for less frustrating chatting. A small group of no more than 6 participants per chat room is ideal; however, it is possible to manage groups of up to 12.

Learning Objectives

Adult educators will learn to access a chat room and will participate in an online chat with colleagues. They will consider the benefits of online chatting as a venue for collegial sharing and as a way to sustain a professional network.

Description of Activity

"Chat rooms" on various topics are available through several Internet and e-mail providers; however, for the purpose of this lesson, the instructor should make arrangements for a personal "chat room." Personal chat rooms can be set up through America online, Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), or TalkCity (http://www.talkcity.com/irc/apply.html). Having a personal "chat room" will help to keep your chat private, making it less likely that outsiders will interrupt the lesson. Each participant will need to choose a screen name or nickname to use during the chat. Some services require e-mail accounts for participants. The following activities take participants through two structured activities to orient them to chatting before inviting them to chat in an open discussion.

Chatting online is usually a disorienting experience initially. In order to help the participants to become oriented to an online chat, pair each participant with a partner and then engage the pairs in a game of Twenty Questions about famous people. Either assign one person in the pair the name of a famous person or allow participants to choose a name. Remind everyone how to play the game by explaining that the guesser needs to ask questions which can be answered 'yes' or 'no,' for example, "Are you female?" Are you a fictional character?" etc. One member of the pair will type questions and the other member will respond. In order to avoid confusion, each message should begin with the name of the person posting the message. This will enable participants to focus on the messages addressed to them and to ignore messages that are not addressed to them. After guessing correctly, if participants would like more practice, the pairs can change roles and play the game again.

After everyone feels somewhat oriented to chatting, invite them to participate in an exercise known as "The Doubting and Believing Game." Choose a statement that is relevant to adult education practitioners. The statement should easily elicit statements of belief and doubt, for instance

· The development of literacy skills has the power to change learners' lives,

· The development of computer literacy has the power to change people's lives,

· Math skills are best taught and learned in a particular sequence,

· Learners should have literacy in their first language before learning to read in a second language

· A learner-centered approach to practice is always the most effective, or

· An open enrollment policy is necessary in order to meet the needs of potential students, etc.

Allow the participants ten minutes to write statements of belief and statements of doubt. They can write these statements on paper, drawing a line down the center with beliefs on one side and doubts on the other. They can also type their statement lists using a word processor. After everyone has completed their two lists, have each person take a turn typing one statement of belief in the chat message box. It will be helpful to decide beforehand who will post first, second, etc. For each message posted the individual's screen name or nickname will appear. Since it's likely that not everyone will be familiar with everyone else's nickname or screen name, it will be helpful to type the real name of the poster at the beginning of each message.

Tell the participants that they can type their statement in the chat message box in preparation for their turn. However, they will need to wait their turn to post their message. In other words, once their message is typed in the chat message box, all they need to do is SEND the message by either clicking on the SEND button or by hitting their return key when it is their turn to post. As each person types a statement, everyone else is reading the posts. After each person has posted one statement, start another round of posting. Continue until everyone has posted all of their beliefs one at a time. Those using a word processor can easily copy and paste each one of their statements, in turn, in the chat message box.

After typing in all of the belief statements, begin posting the doubt statements in a similar manner, i.e. one at a time in a round. After everyone has posted all of their doubts, the instructor can facilitate a free-for-all chat about the beliefs and doubts. The instructor should discourage verbal discussion and instead encourage participants to type their responses to the group involved in the chat.

After this discussion, the instructor can invite participants to debrief. How did they feel about the chat? What are the advantages? What are the challenges? How might they use this technology in their work? The instructor can facilitate a chat on these questions followed up by a verbal discussion among participants. The instructor might also invite participants to write up an evaluation of their experience.

Evaluation

By being an active observer and participant, the instructor can easily determine whether everyone has understood how to chat online. To determine the value of the experience to the participants, instructors can invite participants to dialogue and or write about the advantages and challenges of online chatting. Instructors can also invite participants to suggest ways they might utilize online chatting in their own work.