Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.9.0.Beta5/8.9.0.Beta5/980425bjb) with SMTP id WAA08565; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 22:44:02 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 22:44:02 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4ad464c.3647b6ce@aol.com> Errors-To: lmann@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Melydavis@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:433] learner chat rooms X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 193 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I'd like to say THANK YOU to Jackie Hamlett for the invitation to participate in the Adult Basic Ed Learner chats at their web site on Tuesday/Thursday eves (http://nsn.nslsilus.org/wkkhome/adult). Though we are open on those nights and our learners are eager to chat with you, our Learning Center in Brooklyn, New York closes at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time. Any other times we could virtually get together? Another reason I'm writing is because Jackie *totally* pointed me in the right direction! Beseen.com is *exactly* the kind of application I have been looking for now that our computer room is more substantially internet equipped (complete internet access on 5 computers!) We, too, have had some difficulty sustaining Key Pals between learners at our five Brooklyn library centers without a lot of staff support. As this is a part-time program, learners do not attend every day. Some may attend only once a week and that's a long time to wait between messages, even for sophisticated computer users! "Sneaker-Net" (staff members printing, holding on to copies of e-mail and hand-delivering them to learners when they return) is protocol. We have also had only moderate success with learner Chats in America Online private chat rooms, pre-arranged between learning groups at different centers (Most successful were book discussions of Tana Reiff selections!) What has typically happened is that learning groups and their volunteer tutors start out with the best intentions: using these real-time writing opportunities between groups of adult learners to encourage invented spelling and reading for meaning. But since we only had access on one computer at each center, learning groups were crowded around one terminal and not everyone had hands-on time. Only the fastest typists (and the most advanced readers) were willing to endure the pressure of keying in all the comments from excited fellow group members swirling around over and behind their heads! Typically a tutor would take over the typing duties and read aloud whatever was coming up on the screen from the outside. Also there was the lag time while waiting to "hear" from chatters at the other centers. Groups in one computer room would get restless waiting as learners at the other center (presumably) discussed and prepared their responses. (We might not know if the other center was still connected!) This discouraged people from becoming hands-on chat participants. These old opportunities were nonetheless very rich. My feeling is there's nothing wrong with exposing people to Chat Room technology and letting them be involved without actually typing! Also, printing the Chat Log (text that was generated) and handing it out to all participants stimulated some of the most interesting student self-generated reading activities I've ever seen. But these events don't compare to the success at my center today setting up our own Chat Room at Beseen.com and typing and sending messages to one another in our own room. Everyone is involved now, beginners to advanced…..we can see each other and communicate orally, face-to-face, and online. Students can help one another more readily, and there's just far less down time. Today I saw the kinds of smiles all the way around the room that say "Wow, I learned that fast and I learned it myself!" And, "Boy, what I've been working so hard to learn has really paid off!" I found it simple to set up our own Chat Room and there was no downloading of additional software necessary (sometimes a concern when you don't have complete autonomy over what's installed on your computer network, as at the library where we have tech support from another department). We will certainly use the shared Chat experience we're gaining to broaden our community outside our learning center very soon. (I know some students are already planning to share it with their families and at work tonight) But I appreciate this opportunity to all start "on the same page"…. Thanks again Ms Hamlett - I had a good day Melyssa Davis, Literacy Advisor Eastern Parkway Learning Center Brooklyn Public Library \
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