Last week as I was browsing my Twitter stream, a tweet from @InnovativeEdu caught my eye.

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I have been using Adobe Connect for the past 3 years for web conferencing, sharing desktops, documents and whiteboarding. When it comes to managing virtual teams or conducting eLearning, a product like Adobe Connect, Elluminate, WebEx or DimDim is essential for fostering synchronous communication and collaboration. I have to admit I’m a big fan of the Connect, so of course I had to chime in with my two cents. Before I could get my @reply typed out, another tweet came across on TweetDeck.

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For the last couple of months, members of my PLN have been tweeting intermittently about Tinychat.com. Tinychat is a free service that provides text chat rooms and video chat rooms. One of the benefits of Tinychat is that nobody involved needs special software to join in. From the Tinychat website:

Tinychat delivers dead simple video conferences without the extraneous add-ons and inconvenience, making video conferencing an accessible, uncomplicated experience. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux; with Firefox, IE, Safari, and Chrome; and there is a version available for iPhones. You can have up to twelve people in a room with HQ video, protected by passwords and moderators, share your desktop with them, and your conferences can be recorded and embedded on your website.

On one or two occasions, I’ve tried to join the demo chats that other edubloggers have set-up, but never with much success. On this particular day, I decided to give the program another try. I was able to log in to @InnovativeEdu’s Tinychat by merely entering a username of my choice. Once there, I was pleasantly surprised at the application interface. Aside from one or two banner ads, the user interface was clean and intuitive. I very easily began chatting away with Lisa Nielson, a Technology Innovation Manager for the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE), about my likes and dislikes with Adobe Connect.

Over the course of our chat, @InnovativeEdu traded thoughts and ideas on a number of subjects aside from Adobe Connect. There were only ever 2-3 other people in the Tinychat room the entire time I participated and the flow of the conversation was easy to follow. My previous experiences with Tinychat involved 10+ people in the room and I really found myself having a difficult time getting anything beneficial from the conversation(s). Read the Tinychat transcript.

Educational potential of Tinychat

I walked away from this particular Tinychat experience feeling much more positive about the potential for educational use than I had in previous Tinychats. Synchronous collaboration tools like Tinychat offer teachers an opportunity to bring more collaborative and interactive elements to their students in an online learning environment. Tinychat can certainly help educators foster the creation of online learning communities and build social networks while enhancing the online learning experience for students. While it is no Adobe Connect or Elluminate, Tinychat could become a valuable piece of open educational software for K-12 and Higher Ed. My pros and cons list:

Tinychat PROS:

  • Free
  • Supports video conferencing and IM style chat
  • Open chat rooms with no user/pass required
  • Only software required is Flash Player
  • Has a decent admin interface that allows room owners to effectively moderate and control chat attendees

Tinychat CONS:

  • Ad-Supported
  • VoIP audio not the greatest – audio cuts in and out
  • Too many video attendees makes participation difficult
  • Potential for students to view objectionable content if they access an open room from Tinychat homepage

Tips for using Tinychat in the classroom

  1. Develop a sound pedagogical rationale for integrating Tinychat into your instruction explain it to your building administrator to get them onboard.
  2. Work with your principal or technology coordinator to ensure your district AUP adequately addresses VoIP and web conferencing.
  3. Make sure all students and parents have a copy of the AUP to review before you use Tinychat.
  4. Confirm you have a signed copy of the AUP from each student and a signed parental consent form prior to using Tinychat.
  5. If a student does not parental consent to participate in web conferencing event, provide a differentiated form of instruction.
  6. Collaborate with your building or district IT personnel to test Tinychat on school computers before using it with students.
  7. Provide a how-to sheet for students to refer to for assistance if they will be participating outside of school.
  8. Develop a Tinychat protocol for students to follow once they are engaged in the Tinychat. A sound management plan will lead to a more productive Tinychat experience.
  9. Model appropriate usage of Tinychat for students before setting them loose to try it on their own.

More Tinychat resources

Ideas for Using a Free and Simple Chatting Tool (TinyChat) for Instructional Purposes? – Classroom 2.0

Why use a chat room in the classroom? – Tammy Worcester

Tinychat Relaunches as Easy to Use Video Chat and Recording Platform – ReadWriteWeb

Using a Chat Room in the Classroom – Silvia Tolisano

Oovoo versus Tinychat for use in educational applications – Jim McDermott