Chat & IM Resources
Tools & Tutorials (Tutorials coming soon)
- AIM - free, AOL's Messenger, Windows and Mac, (you don't have to be an AOL user)
- MSN Messenger - free, use your MSN or Hotmail account, Windows and Mac, connects to your Yahoo! w/ voice contacts
- Yahoo! - free, Windows and Mac, connects with your MSN Messenger friends, file transfer, and more
- Skype - free, Windows and Mac, Internet phone, call regular phones, file transfer, connects to your Outlook
- Trillion - free, Windows only, support for AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC
- Miranda - free, Windows only, support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, and more
- Didn't find what you want here, check out this site that is focused on Macs with at least 50 different programs for IM, MUDs, and IRC.
Sites
e-Learning Centre - a list of many different Chat and IM tools
e-Learning Centre - a list of articles about Chat and IM
Librarian's blog: Category of IM - very cool blogging about the use of IM
Books & Journal Articles
Intenet Audio Products - a comparison of iVocalize and Skype
Chat and IM Systems - a comparison of 7 different software products
EDUCAUSE 7 Things You Should Know about Instant Messaging
Instructional Uses of Instant Messaging During Classroom Lectures - a reseach article on undergrad use of IM in classroom and how to take advantage of the affordances of this tool (.pdf download)
Instant Messaging: IM Online! RU? - an EDUCAUSE article exploring history, challenges, and opportunities of IM in education.
Using Instant Messaging to Provide an Intelligent Learning Environment - a research article that discusses the benefits of chat/IM for ESL programs (.pdf download)
Socialization in the “Virtual Hallway”: Instant Messaging in the Asynchronous Web-based Distance Education Classroom - reports the findings from a survey that examined the differences in communication between students who used Instant Messenger (IM) services and those who did not in the same asynchronous distance education Web-based course.
Instructional Uses of Instant Messaging (IM) During Classroom Lectures - a research article that explores the use of instructionally-related instant messaging (IM) discussions during undergraduate university lectures (.pdf download)
In-Room Chat as a Social Tool - article by Clay Shirkey about the advantages and disadvantages of using a two-channel experience -- a live conversation in the room, and an overlapping real-time text conversation.