Hello everyone
By mistake, I reoplied to Linda's message to her instead of, as I had
intended, to the list. So here is my message to her and her reply to me.
Towards the end, I reply to some questions Lind raises. I really would
like to hear of others' esdperiences as I am very new to this!, Hope
this is of general interest!
>From:
brennan_ll@Mercer.EDU
>To: Alastair Gunn <
qualia99@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Use of Synchronous Chat in Teaching
>Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 17:05:37 -0500 (EST)
>
>On Sat, 6 Mar 1999, Alastair Gunn wrote:
>
>>
>> Linda wrote,
>>
>>
>> >Organization: Mercer University
>> >Subject: Use of Synchronous Chat in Teaching
>> >To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
>> >
>> >Have any of you used on-line synchronous communications (i.e.,
"chat")
>> >for course delivery? If so, I am very interested in your
experiences:
>> >
>> >What was the purpose of the chat(s)?
>> >Is this something that you do regularly, or tried and didn't like?
>> >Are there some class settings for which chat works better than
others?
>> >(How) did you evaluate the pedagogical value of the chat(s)?
>> >
>> >Thanks for your comments!
>> >
>> >LLB
>> >
>> Along with colleagues, I used e-mail chat in several undergraduate
and
>> graduate ethics course in 1998 (our academic year here in NZ runs
from
>> March through October). The reason was that we had established a
Diploma
>> in Applied Ethics and wanted to make it available to students
elsewhere
>> in NZ via distance education - tomorrow, the world!. The graduate
>> courses had small numbers - fifteen or less, about half on campus and
>> half distance - and as well as sending out reading material via
>> snailmail and reading and commenting on drafts of essays by e-mail we
>> also had e-discussion lists for each course to which the on campus
and
>> distance students could all contribute - this was not synchronous. We
>> also set up a couple of optional on campus weekends for the distance
>> students - easy, as NZ is a small country, about the size of New
Mexico.
>> In addition, for several undergraduate ethics courses, we also set up
>> open chat lines, again using e-mail. All this worked well on the
whole
>> provided that we (the course teachers) kept feeding in new ideas
>> initially; in most cases it then took on its own momentum. There was
a
>> problem in one course with personal animosities and childish macho
>> posturing, he said primly.
>>
>> In one grad course we also set up weekly synchronous sessions just
for
>> the distance students. Topics, readings, and case studies were
assigned
>> a week in advance. There were two faculty members (most weeks) and
three
>> students. It was initially incredibly demanding because everyone
wanted
>> to reply and make new points *right now* but after a few weeks it
>> settled down and our communications became very much like real face
to
>> face discussions. Of course, the five of us also found ourselves
>> thinking of new ideas once the two hour period was over and we would
>> continue the conversationn in a more leisurely fashion over the next
few
>> days. Everyone involved certainly found it worthwhile. A great
>> advantage is that everyone had a record of all the discussions and
could
>> refer back to them.
>>
>> The biggest problem was that because the students were all using
>> different providers there were occasions when their server was busy
and
>> they were unable to receive or send messages for a few minutes. This
>> wouldn't happen if everyone was on campus and using the local
service.
>> Also, NZ has the highest Internet usage in the world and one student
was
>> living in a town where on one occasion *all* the phone lines were
tied
>> up with internet users and no-one could make phone calls in or out.
You
>> can imagine how boring life in this town must be! I'm glad to say
that
>> the phone companies seem to have sorted this out.
>>
>> I would encourage everyone to use synchronous discussion *if* you can
>> see a need for it and are clear what you hope to gain from it. You
need
>> to set clear rules and especially to have a topic and some
preparation
>> required of the participants. It does help to have two faculty so
they
>> can take turns to take a five minute break! And I wouldn't recommend
it
>> for a group of more than say 5 or 6 students. If it's working well,
>> there will be *so* many messages that it will be hard to keep a
coherent
>> thread and ensure that everyone's messages are read and replied to.
>>
>> Hope this is of some help. and I'd love to hear of other people's
>> experiences.BTW we are planning to experiment with some new software
>> (new to us, anyway) called Top Class which apparently makes it all
much
>> easier. Again, if anyone has used this software, please share your
>> experiences.
>>
>> Kind regards
>>
>> Alastair
>>
>>
>>
>> "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
>> Leroy "Satchel" Paige
>>
>> Dr Alastair S. Gunn
>> Department of Philosophy
>> University of Waikato
>> Private Bag
>> Hamilton, New Zealand
>> Ph 64 7 8562889 X8441
>> Fax 64 7 8384047
>> Email
alastair@waikato.ac.nz
>>
>> Qualia Consultants, Applied Ethics
>> PO Box 13085
>> Hamilton, New Zealand
>> Ph/Fax 64 7 8563073
>> Email
qualia99@hotmail.com
>>
>>
>Very impressive! Thanks for sharing your experiences. We may not tie
>up all of the phone lines in Atlanta accessing the Internet, but many
>nights it feels that way!
>
>At the risk of being greedy, I'd like to ask you some follow-up
>questions:
>
>1. For your distance courses, do the students know each other, aside
>from electronic communications?
Not initially, but if they are able to attend on campus days they meet
each other. Two women in one smallish city who did a course last year
and had never met have since become good friends.
>2. (How) did you overcome the tendency of people to communicate in
>"sound bites" -- or did that problem go away with time?
It just seemed to sort itself out.
>3. Did you use any particular protocol or convention to get the
>conversation to "settle down", as you say?
I sent out "Netiquette" instructions (no flaming, no shouting, no
obscenities etc) after we had a couple of problems. This year I'll do it
at the start! I have lots of time to plan as I have no classes this
semester because I am recovering froma major operation (I'll be fine by
semester B!). I'm working on some guuidelines for effective discussion
but, maybe because us Kiwis are such inveterate email users, not much
will be needed.
>4. Have you tried creating comparably interaction (i.e., with the
>instructor, among the students) with asychronous technologies?
Yes, everyone is free to post their stuff any time just like this list.
Often these postings are more considered and less "sound bite" like.
>
>To answer some of your questions: the system I used was based on Top
>Class -- and I mostly liked it a lot. The big drawback was that there
>were so many places to look for "mail", i.e., new postings in the many
>folders for a course.
>
>My own experience was a limited one, primarily using chat for case
>discussions. I found that, although students tended to communicate in
>sound bites, good follow-up questions could encourage deeper thinking.
>And, as might be expected, I "heard" more from the quiet students.
>
>(This implementation of Top Class allowed for private
>(invitation-only) and public (for authorized class members) chats,
>which was helpful.
>
>
>Thanks again for the benefit of your experience.
>LLB
>
>Linda L. Brennan, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor of Management
>Stetson School of Business & Economics
>770/986-3065
Kind regards to all
Alastair
>
>
>
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Dr Alastair S. Gunn
Department of Philosophy
University of Waikato
Private Bag
Hamilton, New Zealand
Ph 64 7 8562889 X8441
Fax 64 7 8384047
Email
alastair@waikato.ac.nz
Qualia Consultants, Applied Ethics
PO Box 13085
Hamilton, New Zealand
Ph/Fax 64 7 8563073
Email
qualia99@hotmail.com
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