Internet Chat Groups

Going Further

Educational Chat Groups | Going Further

Chat groups can easily degenerate into a dubious educational tool. One only needs to tune in to a typical chat room to quickly appreciate the banality of the conversation. An important exception is that chat groups can serve as a "live" means of communication during war or large-scale natural disaster when regular news channels may be delayed in reporting information. You may wish to consider developing chat group capability for such events. (Of course, at such times chat groups may do more to contribute to the rapid spread of rumors than much else.)

A chat group can be a useful general educational tool provided it is controlled enough to keep it on topics of educational interest and on topics that are appropriate for K-12 students. You can implement this by employing chat channels set up by others specifically for K-12 education purposes.

Controlled chat sessions designed specifically for children may be found at CyberKids, KidsCom and Epals.com.

You can use search engines to look for potential partner schools for chat, email, or newsgroups. For example try this using the string:

Just copy the string directly into the AltaVista or Google search field.

Finally, remember common sense and Internet safety. In dealing with these means of Internet communication never disclose, or allow a child to disclose, the child's home address or telephone number in email, newsgroup, or chat communication.