Chat Room

The NAU chat rooms are "real time." They are like a phone. You have to be in the chat room when someone comes to the room. All members who want to chat together have to agree to a time, and then arrive. Once there, each person types in ideas. The typing shows up and others can see what you typed and respond to what you say.

It takes a little while for ideas to get from the key board to the NAU computer, called a server, and then back to the machines of the people chatting. In that way it is not like a phone. It is more like a shared fax machine.

By the time your idea gets written and posted and then others see it, the conversation may go several different directions. It also takes a little while for the transmission. It is usually best to agree on a theme, stick with the theme, everyone share ideas and then change to a new topic.

2. Practice getting into the chat room and learning how to give the correct passwords.

3. Learn to move back and forth from typing a message to reading the transcript of current or past conversations.

4. Get into the chat room by the agreed upon time so that people know you are there and you don't miss each other.

5. Get a phone number so you can let others know if you cannot chat at the appointed time.

What did you like best about school -- lunch, recess? If so, learning on the web will be quite an adjustment for you because you will not get as much interaction as you could in a regular setting.

Part of education is the sharing that occurs. If someone asks you how you learn best, you may say, in front of the TV, when it is quiet, snacking. These are study habits. Each of us learns to study in a personal way.

But how do we learn? We learn by watching others, modeling, by doing what another does or choosing not to do what others do. We learn from teachers. Some of the learning is pretty subtle. We "psych out" the teacher in our first meeting. Nonverbal cues let us know what is acceptable, how we can be successful, what the teacher wants to hear, what bothers the teacher, how to get a teacher to meet our needs.

Often, our foremost need when we begin a course is to be safe and not feel foolish, or to be recognized and valued. Many of us want that interaction and feeling from peers even more than from teachers. How can we stimulate peer intereaction and experiences on the web? Need interaction with peers to get the most out of class? Were you one of the people who loved recess, wanted the other students to notice you, learned best by sharing ideas?

WEbCT. This is a lot like a bulletin board. You go in, post your ideas, or respond to a part of the assignment set up by the teacher. In all, there will probably be six or seven separate bulletin boards themes in the course. You exchange ideas, discuss your own insights about an assignment - or get off the subject altogether and "wax eloquent" on a subject that matters to you.

Chat Room. The NAU chat rooms are "real time." They are like a phone. You have to be in the room when someone comes to the room, you both or all have to agree to a time, and then arrive. Once there, you type in ideas. The typing shows up and others can see what you typed and respond to what you say. It can be exciting. The way to reach the chat room in our ESE 380 class is to click on chat room. You might love the AOL Instant Messanger. It happens in real time, like the chat room, but the time lag seems to be shorter. Also, when you put the AOL buddy on your machine, you can set it up to tell you when people you know are on line. Then you can have a conversation with them.

The AOL Buddy is really like a phone call. You can choose not to answer, you can decide if others are allowed to be alerted to you being on the line - and you can have "free" long distance chats with others. To learn more about the AOL Instant Messenger, go to http://www.aol.com/aim. Presently, the download is free.

Another company provides a similar product and is considered by some to be the protoype of net communicating. It is ICQ (I seek you). http://www.icq.com This download is free also. It is a good idea to experiment with each of these ways of communicating. You get points in the class for each one you try. Keep track by giving yourself 25 points for trying it, and 25 points for every hour involved in downloading. There is a maximum of 200 points on chatting.

Remember ---downloading over the net takes some time, so set up a couple of hours - late evening often works fastest for long downloads. Sometimes you will lose the connection - and no, I do not know why! I just want to throw a fit - but that never restarts the computer.

Be patient. Dont't blame yourself or make up a lot of hypotheses about what went together to create the problem or crash. It's the ghost in the machine Ha Ha Ha