Chat Room in the Classroom?

I am likely not unique among those in the contemporary workforce who struggle with productivity, both personal and professional.  Frustrations frequently drive me to Lifehacker where I found the video below this AM; it's with Jason Fried from 37Signals and he has some great comments about common workplace distractions.  What really piqued my interest though was when he discussed using chat clients for non-emergency, aka routine, conversations with coworkers.



I myself am both the frequent perpetrator and victim of the "drive-by distractions" and interruptions Fried describes.  And he's right: it IS arrogant to bump my immediate (but usually non-emergency) concerns to the front of the line and corner a coworker or boss.  In my defense, discreet units have always been hard for me; I'm an artist by training and temperament and so a lot of things for me happen simultaneously, or at least have the appearance of urgent simultaneity to me (see Daniel Pink on Symphonic thinking).

So while the workplace deployment of this –Fried calls it "shifting to passive collaboration"– represents a workflow that intrigues me and seems super appropriate to deploy for the Digital Art & Design office, I wonder if there's a role for chat rooms and chat clients in the classroom?  I can see a few reasons to use a chat room in the classroom:

1. To ask instructor/s for help
• But why wouldn't students just raise their hands?  No need for $50 solution to a 5¢ problem.
• And isn't keeping up with the chat room just one more distraction?  Fried is pretty clear about organizing a workplace that seeks to minimize interruptions, not amplify them.
2. To facilitate peer-to-peer help
• Students DO hesitate to ask for help from peers, often to the point of idling/Farmtownin' It until I'm available.  Encouraging them to look beyond "the sage on the stage" is critical to their development.
• But do students use chat clients?  This is a technology I rarely use, though perhaps should.
3. To get a feel for the class
• The chat transcript left after the class ends may hold some useful information like which students are good at p2p help, are there unintentional bullies in the class, what was asked quietly in the chat room background rather than given voice to in the classroom, and what questions were asked by lots of students –indicating that instructors need to cover the material better/differently.
4. To represent a modern workflow in the design community
• I teach digital art & design.  If this is a successful and professional workflow for the industry, I want to expose (and hopefully infect) students to/with it.
5. Increase student learning
• If a chat room improves user satisfaction/student outcomes, then I'm all for it.  Chat may really help some and be a viable, meaningful convenience for students.
• Keeping it relevant and on-task sounds like a challenge, and the cost:benefit ratio may not pan out.

There are likely more but that's some food for thought.  Are other educators using chat clients in the classroom?  Have you experimented with one?  Can you recommend a "persistent chat room" client that's also free?  Please share your ideas and comments.

~mrc

PS - Fried's book, Rework, is available from Amazon.com in print and for Kindle.