Instant Chat in the classroom

I wrote a post here about how my class responded to their first day on our Ning Network. Today I want to share a quick story about how my students used the instant chat function.

When first given access to the Ning and the instant chat, most students spammed the chat with emoticons and one-liners like "hi" and "haha".

In my school, we have 40 students that make up two grade six classes. Twenty of them are mine, and the other twenty are in a neighboring classroom that is joined by a doorway. My colleague, Richard, and I were having our students place photos of themselves as their profile pictures on the Ning. Many students were quick to proclaim that they were stuck and could not figure out how to upload their pictures.

I asked them what they could do to get unstuck. Their first answer was typically: "I could ask you for help." Which I promptly but politely declined. I said that I would help them but I couldn't be their first solution. Some turned to a neighbor or wandered around the room searching for someone who might help, while others sat there perplexed.

I sat down at my computer for a moment; I wanted to check the Ning to see if some profile pictures had found their way online when I noticed something new.

Jamie, a student in my class, had posted on the instant chat something no one else had done yet: "I'm stuck! I don't know how to upload a pic. Help!" Not a moment later, Derick, a student in Richard's class, replied: "I'll be right over."

I looked up to see Derick walk through the doorway, from his classroom to ours, and head straight for Jamie. He was there to help.

In the physical world, our two classes are housed in two different rooms - separated by a load bearing wall. In the virtual world, we are one community of learners where load bearing walls need not exist. The Ning is providing our students with an opportunity to use the virtual chat room to invite students through the physical door.

Digital Natives they are not

I made a class Ning for my grade six students and it has taken longer to register with e-mails and passwords than I would have thought necessary. Some kids have no e-mail accounts, and the year of their birth seems to be an issue. Not sure if they are too young for Ning's liking or what but they had to say to say they were born in 1980 to get it to work.

The Ning is private, so only invited or accepted members may be privy to everything we do. 

I chose to use the following Ning apps:

• instant chat
• videos
• blogs
• pictures
• my page
• forum

The moment my kids got on, they gravitated to the instant chat and spammed the hell-out-of everyone with emoticons, LOLs and other drivel such as "I like cheesecake."

While some spammed the instant chat, others were busy uploading America's Funniest Home Video clips. Yes, some were funny, but more and more were being uploaded. 

While the spam was frustrating, it was anything but a surprise - I anticipated such an event, so I wrote my first blog post on the Ning about Spam:

After World War II, Britain suffered greatly. Their country, including their farms and economy were in ruins from the war.

An exorbitant amount of canned luncheon meat was imported from Argentina to help with the lack of food, and so the meat soon became infamously known as Spam.

Soon, Spam came to be known as anything of low quality done over and over again. When people send low quality messages such as "LOL" or "I like cheesecake" over and over again as messages, this is called spam.

In order to have a productive online experience that focuses on real learning, how should we deal with spam? 

The next day, we talked briefly about spam. This kind of technology typically is outright banned or ignored by schools (either purposefully or because of a lack of money, equipment or know-how), and so it should be no surprise that the kids have developed little to no real skills in using instant chat kinds of technology; after all, they've had no guidance from anyone but their peers.

To get started, I uploaded and shared this video with my students, and then asked them to use the instant chat to discuss the video:

The moment the video was over... more spam. More emoticons. More drivel.

Did I get mad?

No.

Instead, I saw this as a teachable moment. It's not that these digital natives were given an inch so they took a mile - rather, it's more accurate that these kids are not digital natives. Frankly, I'm not sure there is such a thing but that's an another post.

To model some productive chat, I posted a question: "Does school sometimes turn kids off of school?"

And still I didn't get much more of a response than: "Yes"

So I posted a few more questions. 

Still nothing.

So I waited.... and then it happened. Chase typed something different - something no one had done yet: "this video reminds me of my cousin."

I stopped the class and we talked about how what Chase said was different from spam or one word responses. We talked about how his comment could actually inspire a response from others.

Then it happened again. This time Jayla asked a question: "why is there space in this video?"

We stopped and talked about how Jayla's question could inspire others to answer her question or even ask their own.

Finding and posting interesting content is less than half the challenge. The real challenge is in artfully guiding students to thinking and discussing the content in a productive manner. But you'll notice I didn't instruct them on how to do this. I didn't provide them with a list of rules to follow. Rather, I provided them with an opportunity to make mistakes and construct their own understanding with each other for how they should best use the Ning.

This all takes time, but it's worth it. I can already see kids reasoning with themselves and others how we can use this Ning to support our learning.

Teaching with Technology: Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, Nings and Discussion Forums

Technology is a medium for content, and so technology should be integrated into all of our other curriculums; it is not suppose to be an entity all too itself. So how do we incorporate technology into our classrooms? And with the prevalence of texting, social networking and on-line chat forums, how can we best prepare children to use this technology in a moral and responsible manner?

This session will show you how any subject can use the Internet to further your students learning:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ is a kind of micro-blogging. Rather than using Twitter to share 'what you are doing', it is better used to share 'what has your interest' or 'what do you know that I should know'. If used in this way, Twitter can be a very effective way to share information.

Blogs: A blog is short for the word weblog and is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, news, opinions, facts and much much more. This tool is best used to create one-way conversations between users.

Wikis: A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing multiple users to create and edit each other’s writing. This tool is best used to allow users to interact with each other’s writing and projects.

Ning: Take Facebook's social network power and make it private - a Ning allows a group of learners to network by utilizing the power of uploading photos, videos, blogs, discussion forums with ultimate privacy. A Ning could be described as an 'all-in-one' private social network.
Discussion Forums: An Internet Forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It acts like a bulletin board and allows people to post and reply their comments. This tool is best used to create two-way conversations between users.

This session can be tailored to focus on any combination of the technologies listed above. It can range from a broad overview to a specific tutorial on how to use one specific social networking tool.

For more on Joe's take on social networking, check out these blog posts:

Teaching Social Networking: Finger Dipping
Twitter is Sold Wrong 

Social Networking on Prezi

For more information about booking Joe Bower for a lecture or workshop, please contact by e-mail: joe.bower.teacher@gmail.com


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