Ideas for Using a Free and Simple Chatting Tool (TinyChat) for Instructional Purposes?

While following my edublogger colleagues at the NECC conference in Twitter using the search term edc09 I discovered a great tool they were using http://TinyChat.com. This tool allows you to easily (I’m talking 5 seconds) set up your chatroom with a unique url where others can instantly visit you and join the conversation. You can also instantly notify your Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace followers. Once in the room you can lead a conversation about a selected topic. You can also easily share your screen, speak via a microphone, and share video. No one needs to subscribe or download. It’s instant. Additionally, you can record and save all chats.

My mind was swirling with ideas of how this easy tool could be used for instruction. Ideas from those in my chatroom include: 1) using it for virtual office hours 2) using it for a weekly virtual discussion on topics of interest 3) using it as a homework study group for students in your class 4) set up a channel for accountable chat by students when watching instructional video with focusing questions.

I am wondering how others may see this tool can be used to enhance teaching, learning, or professional development. I look forward to seeing your ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Pass on July 6, 2009 at 9:54am

What a great idea. Imagine students who want to stay after school for a study session but for some reason cannot do so. Perhaps you could run a combination virtual and face to face session to help all students. Or as a teacher you can't run a study session right after school but could do so later in the day. You could set up a completely virtual session.

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Permalink Reply by Karen on July 8, 2009 at 1:13pm

I really like todaysmeet.com for a clean, simple place to chat with limited characters (like Twitter). You can set when it expires, it prints out nicely if you need that, and it is nearly impossible for an outsider to stumble upon it. When we had a couple glitches (which were probably filter/firewall/bandwidth issues), the creator was quick to help.