| Chapter 2: | Chatrooms and Small Group Learning |
|
|
After reviewing these features of the medium, I switch gears and focus on learning behaviors. As with any conversational media, there are a number of learning behaviors that text-based chat environments influence. Here, I show why two specific learning behaviors—conversational equity and the use of multiple perspectives with supporting evidence—are particularly interesting to study. After considering chat systems and learning behaviors relatively separately, I return to a discussion of what the literature says about using chatrooms to support educational discussions.
2.2 The Uniqueness of Text-Based Chat
From the earliest days of Internet-based communication, Unix systems have included a variant of the talk program. This program simply divides two users’ computer terminals in half. Each user types in one half of the screen, and immediately sees the other user’s keystrokes. Over time, the talk program evolved into ytalk, which allowed more than two users to communicate at one time. In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen (n.d.) built on this idea to create Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Although Oikarinen points out that earlier chat programs existed, this is largely recognized as the beginning of Internet chat. Since Oikarinen developed this first IRC program, chat has evolved in a number of ways (e.g., Churchill, Trevor, Bly, & Nelson, 2000; Farnham, Chesley, McGhee, Kawal, & Landau, 2000; Erickson, Halverson, Kellogg, Laff, & Wolf, 2002; M. Smith, Cadiz, & Burkhalter, 2002), but the fundamental features have not significantly changed.