Online chat information
This year’s author was Morris Gleitzman. Morris was online on Wednesday, 19 December at 11am. All participants had the chance to win a signed copy of Morris’ new book ‘Give Peas a Chance’ just by contributing to the chat.
You’ve not done an online chat before?
It’s easy and we conducted a trial chat prior to 19 December so you could find out what it is all about and how easy it is. Full instructions were given when you registerd.
Chat participants followed these steps:
1. Registered their interest by emailing Rebekah Hermann and received your log-in details and instructions. Individual children could take part from home if they wished. Participants from home also needed to contact Rebekah for log-in details.
2. Arranged a space within your library where a group of children could comfortably sit around a computer screen or organise a data-projector and project the screen onto a plain wall or white-board. Why? This allows you to have control over the chat environment (only one person typing at one time – you may need to be the typist if the children are young) and maximises your ability to have a larger number of children participating as more children can view the chat when projected onto a large screen. It also encourages group discussion during the chat as children share ideas and share questions they want to ask – often this substantive conversation is really powerful and as much fun as the chat itself. For a relaxed session, supply some comfy cushions for everyone to sit on.
3. When booking children in to attend the chat, encourage them to borrow and read Morris’ books and to think of questions they would like to ask the author; write them down and bring them in on the day of the chat.
4. On the day of the chat, log-in slightly before the start time to ensure the program is working correctly; Rebekah Hermann will be online to assist with any difficulties or questions you may have.
5. Have the children arrive 15 minutes before the chat, so that you can discuss the questions you might like to ask as a group. This is also a good time to check out information about the author by visiting their website.
6. It’s a good idea to remind your group that there are other children across Queensland taking part in the chat, and that they might have to wait for their turn to ask a question and have it answered.
7. Once the chat is complete, you had the option of printing out the dialogue – the children in your group may like to take a copy home to remind them of the fun they had chatting to a favourite author online!
8. A transcript of the chat was been uploaded to the website shortly after the completion of the chat.
