Abstract
There is a new pedagogy in which college professors use computer information technology as a means to enhance effective collaboration. The World Wide Web, e-mail, discussion boards, chat rooms, and Instant Messaging are services offered on the Internet. As a new medium of communication, this emerging technology offers educators unprecedented opportunities to augment or fully devote courses to innovative formats. Chat provides a venue for communities of learners to communicate in real time. A chat room is a Web application that allows two or more people to type messages to each other at the same time. There are many types of chat rooms used by online learning communities via the Internet.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Adaptive Pedagogy: The development of adaptive pedagogically-driven e-learning where the pedagogy is central to the learning experience.
Real Time: Refers to sensing and responding to external events nearly simultaneously with their occurrence.
Online Chat: A tool that allows participants to create and enter online rooms within which to communicate in real time.
Communities of Learners: Participants together construct a culture that values the strengths of all participants.
Asynchronous Communication: Communication that is not synchronized, it includes computer-based technologies for which the participants need not be available or online at the same time. Examples include e-mail, blogs, threaded discussion, and text messaging.
Collaboration: Collaboration enables communities of learners to share information by working together cooperatively. It is both a process and end result.
Synchronous Chat: A communication that is computer-related and happens in real-time; involves having the learners’ communication conveyed to other participants for immediate response.