Live Written Interaction Platforms

Depending on the readiness of your students, there are different platforms you can use to have live written chats. Check out 3 different risk level activities to try with your students!

1. Low-Risk - Seesaw: The Learning Journal

This is a great place to begin when having live chat written interactions. Whether you are using the BLOG feature of Seesaw or you have joined two classes into the same Seesaw class, this space can be moderated.  Before extending invitations to classrooms outside of your school, you can also place students in small groups from one class in order for students to practice writing interactively. This is a great time to introduce the @ symbol in written conversation in order to respond to a question or ask a question to a specific person.

Be sure to enable 'new items require approval' in your classroom settings.  This will allow teachers to approve all comments before becoming visible to other students, avoiding inappropriate posts.


2. Medium-Risk: Today's Meet

If you haven't heard of it, check out Today's Meet! This is a great platform to use with students since chat rooms are accessible by a specific URL. When you create your free account, you will be able to create multiple rooms and assign a chat room to specific students.  With an account, you will also be able to print out a transcript.

Share the URL with another class and have a live chat at a designated time! Posts are not moderated, however as the administrator of the chat room, you will be able to delete posts after the fact.

I really like this platform, since it gives the sense of a real chat, however, students are posting in a protected forum.


3. High-Risk: Twitter

Since Twitter is live on the web, it is the highest risk platform, however it can be one of the most rewarding.  Create a specific hashtag and tweet out questions around a specific topic ahead of time, and you can have a live chat! The possibilities are endless as to who will join your conversation.

Ideas for Live Written Interaction Chats:

1. General introductions and follow up questions.
2. Share a music video/song with accompanying discussion questions.
3. Post a question to find out about different cultures around the world.

Can you think of anymore ideas on what to live chat about? Post your ideas in the comments below!