A few weeks ago, I featured the Stinto website that offered a free chat room. Well, since then, Stinto has discontinued their service.

This week’s tip is a new website that offers a replacement for Stinto. The website is called “tinychat” and is extremely easy to use -- and it doesn’t require any registration or logins!

tinychat

www.tinychat.com

Why use a chat room in the classroom?
(Thanks to my Plurk friends for brainstorming these great ideas!)

1. •The class can participate in a quiet “discussion” while watching a movie or video.
   
   

2. •The teacher and students can post questions and answers during a lecture or presentation.
   
   

3. •Students could “Google” for additional information and post their findings ASAP during a lecture or presentation.
   
   

4. •Students can enter their thoughts and opinions on a given topic. Note - a chat room levels the playing field so that ALL students have an equal voice.
   
   

5. •The teacher can monitor as students can practice acceptable online behavior.
   
   

6. •The class can collaborate with students from a different school, state, or even a different country!
   
   

7. •Students can share collaborative resources.
   
   

8. •Use a chat room to communicate with students while watching a televised event in the evening.
   
   

9. •The class can communicate with a home-bound student.
   
   

10. •Please add your own ideas by adding a comment below!
    
    
    

How to use tinychat

The teacher will:

1. 1.Go to: www.tinychat.com
   
   

2. 2.Click the “Click to Create your Chatroom” button.
   
   

   

   
   
   

3. 3.Share the provided URL.
   (Note - you will also be able to see / share the URL after you enter the chat room.)
   
   

4. 4.Click the “Enter Chat Room” link.
   
   

5. 5.Enter your name; click “go.”
   
   
   

The students will:

1. 1.Go to the provided URL.
   
   

2. 2.Enter their name; click “go.”
   
   

To Chat:

1. 1.Enter your message in the box at the bottom of the screen.
   
   

2. 2.Click the “Send” button or press the enter key on your keyboard.
   
   

   

   
   

Saving the Chat (Optional):

If you want to archive the chat:

1. 1.Click the floppy disk icon in the lower-left corner.
   
   

   

   
   
   
   
   

2. 2.Save the file. (It will save as a RTF file and will open with any word processor.)
   
   Note - I had some trouble saving the chat, but I was able to easily copy the text from the chat and paste it into a word processor.