Chat & Instant Messaging (IM)
June 21, 2007 at 10:30 pm Laura Pasquini 2 comments
Let’s give them something to talk about…such as Chat & IM in an online course!
This component of a course is typically designed to chat, text, type, instant message, and communicate in “real time” with other course participants. Similar to a telephone dialouge, students are able to send instantaneous text messages online to each other in order to communicate.
While chats & IMs can support group work, collaboration, and idea sharing, it is also important to structure the “chat sessions.” The course facilitator is able to monitor the IMs by providing guidelines and clear learning outcomes/objectives (via a syllabus) for the chat rooms.
Top 10 Popular IM Tools:
- AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
- MSN
- Yahoo! Messanger
- ICQ
- Google Talk
- Skype
- Meebo
- Jabber
- E-buddy
- Sametime
**Note: Most chat tools on the internet are free, however they are not easily monitored and it may be difficult to allow more than one user into a multi-user chat room. Our group initially tried to chat with Google Talk to discuss this project, however we soon realised that it was not possible to talk in the same text window and group discussion was limited - so we switched to MSN Messenger.
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1.
bklaj | June 24, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I understand why chats are popular and can be useful, but until this project, I had no desire to use them and so never did. As mentioned, the limitations of Google Chat was frustrating.
That said, one of things I particularly like about chatting is that you can see when someone is typing, so you can hold off until–I suppose “shut up” until they are finished.
The downside is that as soon as you hit enter, perhaps to create a new paragraph, the message posts. Why I find this a downside is that you may begin typing a response, but the original “speaker” hadn’t really finished. As a result the thread of conversation can get a bit lost. For example, I sometimes wasn’t sure what point my fellow chatter was particular point she was addressing when this happened. Not a huge point, but still can be somewhat frustrating.
Also, I use Firefox, which I don’t think was the best browser to use for MSN chat. While I can’t say for sure (having never used MSN Messenger before), it seemed all of it’s toolbar components were not available because when my peers told me how they invited me to join their conversation, I could not find the toolbar they referred to.
As stated in other posts, my course is asynchronous, so chat is not required and I will not be using it.
2.
souvenirsofcanada | June 26, 2007 at 10:07 am
Through our own group experience in IM’ing, we have learned that it can get complicated to communicated effectively for projects and assignments. I would say that this method of communication is great for instant dialoguing, however it is quick and often simplistic. For a higher level of discussion and comments, I would recommend the online discussion feature or postings that are often hosted on WebCT or Blackboard. I