Brief Description: Live online chats can be an exciting way for students to learn. This lesson gives suggestions for use of chats and guidelines for setting up chat sessions.

Grade Level & Subject: Grades 2-12

Materials & Equipment: Computer(s), printer, telecommunications, optional-projection of computer screen

Procedures:

Although online chats and conferencing can be used in almost any subject, fitting them into social studies, science, and language arts classes is perhaps easiest. They are, in addition, a valuable way to study modern foreign languages. The ideas presented here can easily be modified to work with a variety of grade levels and subject areas.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Effective chats take planning ahead. First, you have to decide why you want to include chats in your teaching techniques and what subjects or grade levels would benefit from chatting online. Are you going to do projects relating to writing skills, cultures, science data gathering, community action, learning skills, practicing languages, meeting experts, etc.? Will you want to have your class interact with another class in the same grade level, with an older or younger group, or with an adult who may serve as an host for a virtual field trip or an expert on a specific topic? What other technology and online tools will you use. For example, many curricular projects that make use of chats also involve extensive use of email.
   
   
2. If you aren't acquainted with other educators who would like to do online chats/conferences with your class, check through educational areas online such as Apple Global Education, KidLink, Global School Net, AOL's Electric Schoolhouse, etc. for online projects and activities that might fit well into your curriculum. Sign up in the Apple Projects & Partners database where you can select partners to contact. By checking such areas online, you may be able to find other educators who would like work on projects with your class(es). After you set up projects, you can plan for chatting or conferencing online.
   
   
3. Find places where live online chats can take place, such as AOL's People Connection's private rooms and Talk City on the Internet.
   
   
4. Take part in chats and/or conferences in your selected chat location to learn about procedures, rules for online conversations, whether private chats are possible, whether you and your class can take part in scheduled chats, etc. Check to see if there are scheduled conferences with authors, scientists, etc. who may be available to "talk" with your students.
   
   
5. To get your students ready for chatting, go over rules for etiquette (netiquette) and the protocol which will be used for chatting. For example, will participants use "GA" (go ahead) when they are finished with a statement? Will they use ". . ." when they are not finished typing and want to continue? Will there be a conference leader or host? If so, will the leader or host require that they type "?" if they want to ask a question or a "!" if they want to make a comment?
   
   
6. If you have time, let your students practice chat skills by having a class chat session or a chat session between classes in the school. Go online using different accounts or user names and practice "talking" with each other.
   
   
7. If you're using one computer for a chat, and will have your entire class involved, you'll need a projection device (large screen TV or LCD panel) connected to the computer. This way all the students will feel involved. Students with fast typing and acceptable spelling skills might be assigned to the typing duties. If you are using several computers and connecting using more than one account, you can have groups of students at each connected computer. Sometimes, you may want to have small groups chat while others in the class focus on another activity. If all students can be online at the chat at the same time, this would seem to be an idea situation, for all could participate. However, in this case, you should make sure students know proper protocol for asking and answering questions. Otherwise, there may be chaos.
   
   
8. Work with the other educator or educators to decide on how the conference will work. What are the goals? How will you involve the students? Who will start the "talking?" How will you handle who "talks" when?
   
   
9. It's generally best if more than 4 or 5 people (number of people connected) are involved in a chat, to have a leader who will call upon participants to ask their questions. If over 15 or so are connected, it's also wise to have the leader place people in a "waiting line" to comment.
   
   
10. You may want your students to have their questions ready before the conference.
    
    
11. When working with younger students who are slow typists, you might have them practice typing their questions ahead of time. (They could do this in a word processor.)
    
    
12. Prepare your students for what a chat/conference will look like. You might show them some unedited transcripts of educational conferences. This way they won't be so confused when sentences and questions become intertwined with other sentences and questions. Let them know that this is the beginning of use of such technologies, and that all the problems have not been solved yet. If they realize how content goes into chats, they will be better able to follow the text displayed, and they should be more cognizant of the reasoning behind use of protocol in chats.
    
    
13. Always remember to check times for conferences, especially when they involve different time zones.
    
    
14. If you are interacting with a group of another country and/or culture, discuss with the other educators or expert(s) acceptable questions and comments before the conference. Talk with your students about what is appropriate. If there are certain facts students should know about cultural differences and expectations, make sure they are aware of these.
    
    
15. If you are participating in an open, rather than a private (one you and some other educators set up) conference or chat, prepare your students for people who may enter the conference and make inappropriate comments. Instruct your students how to act in such a situation. If someone enters and asks for an age/sex check, ignoring such a comment is best. Someone may enter and want to know what the weather is in Disney World, while your group is discussing life in Switzerland with a school group in Geneva. This is why scheduling a private meeting is often the best way to handle chats and conferencing.
    
    
16. One of the most exciting ways to involve students in chatting is to schedule virtual field trips. You might take them to visit Antarctica, for example, or Kuala Lumpur, or London, or . . . . Students, especially those in Grades 2-7, love to role play the parts of going on a such a trip while having their host from another region of the world take them on tours. They can stop for snacks, swat the mosquitoes that attack on outdoor adventures, get tired from all the walking, etc., all while they are having a great time learning about the region. They'll go home an tell their parents what a great time they had on their field trip to Malaysia and how exhausted they are from all the hiking.

Enhancements: If video conferencing is available, video and audio will be even more intriguing for students. Seeing other students via the computer and listening to them talk really brings a conference or chat to life.

Suggestions for Parents: Parents should check conference areas on online services and on the Internet for scheduled meetings that are appropriate for their children. There may be a tour of a museum or a talk with political leader. A children's author may be available to talk children. Parents might also arrange chat sessions with other parents and with educators around the world. Many of the suggestions in this lesson can easily be adapted for home use of conferencing.

Warning: As in all activities, it's important not only to provide students with the skills and guidelines, and also to supervise students carefully.

Elementary Lessons