Chatting it Up Online by Pamela Livingston

In Chatting it Up Online, Pamela Livingston talks about how online discussion boards and chat rooms can be used to enhance student learning. She used one to allow her students to talk to the author of the Magic Tree House series. She mentions what a great time the children had and how much they learned not only about the books and the author, but about the writing process as well. She also talked about how cumbersome the process can be. You have to make sure the school is wired to handle all of the students on the computers. You also have to decrease some firewall issues on the computers. She also talked about how crazy the chatroom can be with all the questions flying around and having to search for your answers. She also talked about the certain etiquette involved with chatting in one of the rooms. I think this is a great way for students to learn. It allows them a unique way to learn and have fun doing it. It also allows for children to get interested in learning and task they might not find interesting (like reading).

Q1 What are all the rules of etiquette involved in chatting online?

It would be pretty easy to find out all necessary etiquette rules for chatting online. If you google searched web etiquette, you could find something on it. Also, given how integrated the internet has become in everyday life, there is probably a book around somewhere on it.


Q2 What exactly would it take to set something like this up in a class?

Aside from having to find all the computers, you would have to talk to your schools information technology people to find out what they would need you to do. Most of it would be done by IT, but there would be some things, probably like finding a host site to chat on, that you would need to do as a teacher.