Journal #1

Pamela Livingston, "Chatting it Up Online"

This article describes how Ms. Livingston organized an online chat for her students with one of their favorite authors. She found out about the chat from a listserv and worked with other staff members at the school to register and set up the chat. They sent in the questions their students wanted to ask, and the author responded in real time. Even though the nature of the chat room meant that the answers could not always directly follow the questions, the boys were able to follow a lot of the conversation because the author began the answer to each question with the name of the student who asked it. They were also provided with notes and a transcript after the chat was over. The author left the students with some inspiring closing comments, encouraging them to write their own books.

This kind of thing is a wonderful idea for bringing technology into the classroom. I never would have thought about using a chat session for an educational purpose. There is probably a lot of technology that we take for granted without thinking about how it could be used to enhance learning. This article shows that even things like chat rooms, which can be used for questionable means, can be a great tool when used correctly.

Q1.) Is this something that I could use in my own classroom, and what would be its potential benefits?

This is such a cool lesson because it seems relatively easy to set up and can have a huge impact on readers. Yes, I could definitely use this in my middle school classroom. It would even work well for high school. It has many potential benefits. It can provide a lot of inspiration to students and make them realize that the authors of their favorite books are real people. It can make writing books seem more attainable to them. It also exposes them to the educational uses of technology. Perhaps they could learn how to register for chats with other people who inspire them, like celebrities, leaders, and scholars. It encourages them to think critically about the kinds of questions they will ask. I will definitely remember this idea for when I enter the classroom.

Q2.) What kind of steps would I need to take to prepare for a lesson like this?

One thing about this article that really opened my eyes was how much preparation it takes to set up a chat like this for your students. There are many considerations I would have to take into account. First, I would have to register for the chat. As the article recommends, I would have to wait to tell the class about the chat until I received confirmation that we would be able to participate so that they wouldn't be disappointed if it fell through. I would have to reserve computers in the school's computer lab and notify the school's technical assistants to be on call. I would have to make sure that the technology was working correctly and that security settings and firewalls were properly taken care of. I would have to lead the students in preparing their questions and making sure that they weren't questions that could be easily found by another source. I would have to review online netiquette with my students. These are all fairly straightforward steps to take. The difficult part would be simply remembering them all so that the lesson flows smoothly without any complications!