Activity 7: Preparing a class discussion using Chat

Aim: Help students prepare vocabulary and points of view for a face-to-face discussion

Moodle modules: Chat

Extra programs: None

Ease of setup: *

One way of preparing students for a chat in class is to write your chat in the Moodle Chat module first. This gives students more time to think of the vocabulary they need and allows you to feed in new vocabulary or expressions. Since it's hard to have a Moodle chat with more than about six participants, try breaking the class into two or more groups and inviting them to separate chat sessions. Each one could last about ten minutes. This separation allows you to prepare different aspects of the same topic. So if, for example, you're going to have a discussion about the pros and cons of watching videos on cell phones, you could chat with one group about the pros and with another group about the cons.

You could just nominate groups in your f2f (face-to-face) class to attend Moodle chat sessions at certain...