Ok. We’re going to talk about chats. It might seem surprising that chats are becoming increasingly popular. I wonder why this is.

So let’s explore some of the ways that chats that might be advantageous. First of all, chats provide an element of control. When you’re in a chat room you have control over what you’re actually putting into the chat and as a facilitator of the chat you have a lot of control of how the chat might be set up, how it might function. You might decide that you’re going to make your chat fairly formal, that you’re going to have set pattern, an agenda for how the chat will work. Or you might decide that a chat will work best in an informal situation with people allowed to contribute as and when they feel fit. Chats fit into a specific timeframe. You can decide on the length of the chat and this means that all of the input is going to fit into that specific time. You can actually limit the amount of time that people are contributing or you may decide that you’re going to extend it but you do have an element of control at all times.

What I like about chats is that they’re visual. They provide you with a visual record during the chat so you can actually see the people who are contributing. Having it colour coded helps greatly because you get a picture of who’s contributing to the chat, what they’re saying and how effectively they’re taking part in the discussion. Not only that but you’ll get a record which can be printed out or saved and you’ll be able to go back and have a look at all the information which has been put into the chat at a later stage.

Chats provide instant feedback. All the participants can scroll back and reflect on what other people are saying and they get to see what people are putting in at all stages of the process. With an effective chat there’s an expectation of involvement. It’s easy to see who isn’t contributing and that expectation in a chat room helps greatly. It means that everybody understands exactly what they’re meant to contribute to the discussion. In many ways those chats are non-threatening. People can contribute there in a relaxed manner. They don’t have to dress up for the occasion. They can access it from their computer so in some ways it’s a very relaxing environment and people often feel comfortable in a chat room where they mightn’t feel comfortable in a broader discussion.

When working with students this is probably particularly important because the children can feel confident that they can contribute without other people passing comment or making a judgement about what they’re saying in an immediate atmosphere. As a facilitator you also have some control over the chat environment if somebody is being uncooperative or putting things up in the chat which are inappropriate to the discussion.

Another big advantage of the chat is you can prepare your material ahead of time and you can also ask participants to prepare ahead of time. So simply by cutting and pasting they can bring in arguments or discussion or information that they’ve actually put together earlier.

So in many ways chats have great advantages over what might be a traditional sort of discussion format and their importance in a wide range of educational circumstance is going to be increasingly cemented into our daily school lives.