Building the Virtual Department

Building the Virtual Department: Ongoing Challenges

Parachat

I have included an actual live chat in this dissertation as an example of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and as an example of synchronous chat technology in general; the example technology I have chosen is from Paralogic Corporation. Though this particular chat session is not fully functional in terms of the usual IRC commands and capabilities, this free Java applet is automatically loaded when one loads the page. Thus, once students are given the URL, they have all the information they need to locate themselves in the chat and join the equivalent of classroom discussion or online office hours. The free client does not not allow such standard IRC functions such as "Kick" and "Ban," which can be used to moderate the room and prevent it from being taken over by IRC rowdies and ruffians, though teachers could choose to pay an annual fee and have these capabilities.

Kick means that the person is removed from the electronic space created by the IRC server, often with an explanation of the bad behavior that caused the Kick. Ban notes the offender's nickname and doesn't allow that nickname back in the room. Of course, invaders can change one's name with a single IRC command and so come back in to the room from which they have just been banned.

Microsoft's client is more sophisticated than the free Parachat client and offers hosts (the first person in the room is a "host" and has moderator functions that others do not) a Ban by IP number; this would force the perpertator to change IP numbers, though this is often merely a matter of reconnecting for modem users.

Paralogic Corporationt has made Parachat extremely easy to use. The applet that drives the chat room is available free to any web user with Java; to set up a new room, the user is simply asked to register its name and location on the WWW with Paralogic Corporation (http://www.parachat.com) using an online form. Fields that need to be filled out include the user's name, e-mail address, chat room name, and description of the room. Within minutes of submitting that form, Paralogic Corporation e-mails HTML code back to the use that can be cut and pasted into any web page, such as the section of a syllaweb that discusses -- and would be a site for -- online office hours.

The specialized HTML code directly from Paralogic Corporation already includes the name of the room and the server within the code itself and can be embedded in any page (though Paralogic Corporation recommends hosts/webspinners register, and thus create, one room per address; cutting and pasting the same code to different pages will send students and teachers -- even from different classes -- to the same virtual place). Here is an example of the code which is only a few lines long:

<applet codebase="http://parachat.webpage.com/classes/"
code="ParaChat.class" archive="pchat.zip" width="600" height="350">
<param name="ServerName" value="parachat.webpage.com">
<param name="ServerPort" value="7779">
<param name="Channel" value="#ExperienceChatRoom">
Sorry, your browser is not Java enabled, you will not be able to chat.
</applet>

All a teacher needs to do is insert the personalized code from Paralogic Corporation in their own page, and the room -- limited though it is -- is instantly available for use, without any need for additional software.

Further, neither students nor teachers need to worry about server or channel names -- anyone (including outsiders) who loads the page that includes this code will find themselves in the correct room automatically. If a teacher was worried about access and about the very real possibility that strangers might enter the room, the chat room can be password protected, as can the web page itself.

Note: Teachers interested in using chat should test a number of clients as their functions vary from software manufacturer to software manufacturer.

Enter an actual chat (takes a few minutes to load; please be patient).

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