[Technical] Using IRC for student development collaboration

[Stephen Digby DEET]

A resource is usually neutral.  It does not, of itself, deliver utility or benefit.  It has to be mined and refined carefully and
its use directed only to socially beneficial ends.  This does not happen without strong social rules and conventions.
many resources (e.g. (TV, videos, games, internet access, Online Chat etc etc) are cases in point.  They have no natural tendency to
enrich the minds of children (or the general public).  Indeed, with uncontrolled and irresponsible use (as I would argue is in
evidence over most of the planet), they have resulted in a "dumbing down" of the general population (although there are significant
sub-populations of both the public and students that have been very significantly enriched).
In a school, the availability of online chat (such as I have just shut down in "moodle") results in a classic cascade of loss of
purpose.  Start with a specific purpose and objective.  Students naturally explore.  They find the resource can serve alternate
interests which, although they will openly admit are non educational, are nevertheless immediately gratifying.  Even well focused
students eventually get sucked into the vortex with that mindless smile which educators often interpret as "engagement" these days.
They literally remind me of the irresistible return of the rat to the dispensing control in classic habituation experiments.

Thus, chat is not for me - or my students - until it can be shown to deliver higher learning objectives in a shorter period of time
without the immense collateral damage.
In schools where it has been opened for significant periods (and I have had reports from staff and students from a few), only the
technophiles refuse to admit the evidence of the log files - i.e. that the tool is an enormously damaging distraction within and
between classes.

And I haven't started on the problems of legal liability for abuse from conversations within an heaven forbid from outside school
communities !!


==================================
Stephen Digby, Learning Technology Manager
digby.stephen.p at edumail.vic.gov.au
Cheltenham Secondary College
www.cheltsec.vic.edu.au
Ph: 613 955 55 955  Fx: 9555 8617
==================================
 

How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! - Shakespeare: From Hamlet (III, iv, 23) Hamlet slays Polonius, whom he mistakes for the
King hiding behind the arras in Gertrude's room. Earlier, the King, realizing that Hamlet has deduced that it was he who ...

-----Original Message-----
From: tech-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:tech-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Con Zymaris
Sent: Monday, 22 August 2005 10:54 PM
To: tech at edulists.com.au
Subject: [Technical] Using IRC for student development collaboration


In the open source world, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is often used by dispirate (and often geographically distant) developers as a
form of collaborative programming, real-time/low-cost interaction and information sharing. It allows many developers to efficiently
ask questions and recieve fast answers to thorny problems which might other have them stymied and frustrated for hours.

What may be a complex problem for you ("How do I insert a row into an SQL database table?") might be a 30 second one-liner from one
of the other programmers on the IRC channel. All conversations are logged, and can be refined as  the basis of FAQs on technical
topics. 

It's fun; it allows programmers to share effort, ideas and code snippets, and makes the task of learning programming much much
easier.

My question to the teachers on this list is: Are you using IRC (or
similar) to boost your students' learning of the programming craft. If not, why not?

Cheers,

Con Zymaris

- CEO, Cybersource Pty. Ltd.
- Director, Open Source Industry Australia, Limited.
- Convenor, Open Source Victoria (A Government-funded industry cluster.)

--
___________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
Web: http://www.cyber.com.au/  Phone: 03 9621 2377   Fax: 03 9621 2477


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