Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of synchronous computer mediated communication (SCMC) platforms and identifies their hardware requirements. SurveyMonkey, an online survey tool, is featured as an example of how access to international communities of language teachers can be tapped to appraise the merits of chat tools for teaching and learning. Their review finds that Messengers are most widely used and popular because of their usefulness and friendly interface. Since most students are now using chat rooms, teachers must develop a better understanding of how to best utilize these systems in language teaching. Pedagogical methods are uncovered in order to ensure that best practices in the use of SCMC for language acquisition prevail. Trends in using online chat for teaching and learning are highlighted as advances in intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) contributes to what is becoming ICMC (intelligent computer mediated communication).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG): MMORPG is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPG) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world, such as Second Life, Active Worlds, The Palace, and IMUV.
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC): Computer Mediated Communication can be defined broadly as those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) between two or more individuals synchronously or asynchronously.
E-Conferencing: E-conferencing systems are designed especially for online presentations with audio or even video, and other tools such as: Synchronized Web browsing, PowerPoint presentation, Whiteboard, other document sharing and user controls.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG): MMORPG is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPG) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world, such as Second Life, Active Worlds, The Palace, and IMUV.
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC): Computer Mediated Communication can be defined broadly as those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) between two or more individuals synchronously or asynchronously.
Chat Room: A chat room is an online site in which people can chat online. It is a synchronous CMC chat environment including text, audio or video conferencing.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat is a form of instant communication over the Internet by pure text. It is mainly designed for group (Many-to-many) communication in chat rooms called channels. It was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988, and is still popular around certain people until now.
Messengers: Messengers or instant messaging requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service to provide real time conversations between users. Popular messengers include: AOL, Google Talk, MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype.
Chat Room: A chat room is an online site in which people can chat online. It is a synchronous CMC chat environment including text, audio or video conferencing.
E-Conferencing: E-conferencing systems are designed especially for online presentations with audio or even video, and other tools such as: Synchronized Web browsing, PowerPoint presentation, Whiteboard, other document sharing and user controls.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat is a form of instant communication over the Internet by pure text. It is mainly designed for group (Many-to-many) communication in chat rooms called channels. It was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988, and is still popular around certain people until now.
MOO: MOO (MUD, Object Oriented) is a Multiple User Dimension which allows users to construct and manipulate objects, and move from room to room, and chat or interact with other users and objects.
Messengers: Messengers or instant messaging requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service to provide real time conversations between users. Popular messengers include: AOL, Google Talk, MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype.
MOO: MOO (MUD, Object Oriented) is a Multiple User Dimension which allows users to construct and manipulate objects, and move from room to room, and chat or interact with other users and objects.