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"Your examples showed how we can maximize student participation in every class activity, and thus have them take ownership of their own learning." Margartia Curtis |
You Are Here: Home > Using Chatting and Instant Messaging in the Classroom Using Chatting and Instant Messaging in the Classroom
"Whoever is doing most of the talking or most of the typing is doing most of the learning (and the more people listening the better)." Class discussions provide excellent opportunities for people to listen, think and speak. They have a few problems though. First, only one person can speak at once. Second, some people are too shy to speak. Chatting solves these two problems. Chatting is as natural to our students as picking up the phone is to us (for many, chatting is actually more natural). While chatting, students can all talk and listen at once. Many students who are nervous about speaking, have no trouble typing their thoughts. I often use chatting exercises when I need to be absent for a day. I email the students instructions, have a substitute sit in to supervise and open up our laptop cart, then let the kids work all period. Sample Assignment for a first In -Class Chat: The leader from each group should invite the other members into a chat. From this point forward NO TALKING, ONLY TYPING. Each person will then in turn ask one of their discussion questions. You will be given 15 minutes to discuss. The goal is to discuss questions as deeply and thoroughly as possible. I'd rather read an in-depth examination of two questions than brief discussions of six. GO DEEP! You will get a 5 point grade for this exercise. While I will raise the standards later, for now the grade will be mostly based on the following:
In the future, I will also expect you to actively challenge one another and to incorporate evidence from the source material. When you are finished, the leader should copy and paste the chat into an email and send it to turninreich. -JR A sample chatting exercise on the Bhagavad-Gita:
Basic Guidelines for Chat Groups:
Starting a Chat Room with Chatzy: Go to www.chatzy.com. Click on the link for Virtual Chat room.
Next, you'll need to click on "Invite People." In the "To:" Box, email all of the people who you would like to invite into this chat room.
They will receive an email with a link to your chat room. After logging in with the password you selected, your students can begin chatting.
These rooms are persistent, so anytime you want to use them, students can go back to the same web address. If you made permanent teams in your classrooms, you could easily get this activity up and running after the initial investment of time. |
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