A Technology User's Bill of Rights: Lessons Learned in Chat Rooms.

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Author: Norton-Meier, Lori A.

Angelfire:                R U there?
BBStar:                   Yo.
Far2Gd:                   Sup?
Angelfire:                ? 4 ya
BBStar:                   Shoot.
Far2Gd:                   Pow!
Far2Gd:                   :-)
BBStar:                   ROGL
Angelfire:                do you have to sign that Internet user
                           thing at your school
BBStar:                   Yup.
Far2Gd:                   Uhhuh
Angelfire:                Whatzit mean?
BBStar:                   Some bs about how we should act
                           online
Far2Gd:                   Dunno. :-|
BBStar:                   Or we loose privileges
Angelfire:                Yikes. :-o
Far2Gd:                   Y don't we make the rules?
Angelfire:                Yay. ;-)

What would happen if we did let kids make the rules? In the fictional representation of this quoted chat session, four females consider the possibility. For the past five years, I have spent time talking with, interviewing, interacting with, and investigating language with adolescent females in chat rooms while we engage in synchronous talk. The discussion often centers on our interest in pop culture â€" music, movies, television, books, games, and anything else that is worthy of conversation.

During this time, I have learned many lessons from the young women who have joined in the conversation. Our discussions often lead us into talk about the rules related to technology use, and from these conversations we have created a list of nine rights, which we call the Female Technology User's Bill of Rights.

Within the world of online chat we experiment with language. We play with technology, learning how to use icons and images to communicate with one another. We also play with what it means to be female as we take on different personalities when online; we explore who we are as human beings and who we can be. Watson and Zlotolow (1999) listed the following aspects of play:

• Play is pleasurable.
• Play is a process, and there is no end product.
• Play is not limited to conventional routines or scripts.
• Play is active.
• The rules and structure of play usually evolve as play occurs.
• Play evokes a positive effect from children.
• Play is valued by the participants.
• Play is related to areas of children's development and provides the foundation for more complex development.

All these aspects of play are alive and well in chat room conversations as participants play with language (LOL = laugh out loud), technology (), and what it means to be female ("Y don't we make the rules?").

• Engagement is essential in the learning process and interesting to consider when examining chat room use. Cambourne (1989) stated that, without engagement, learning cannot take place. Also, engagement is not on a specific schedule. There is no one time of day that learning must occur; learners engage when they have the desire to talk, learn, and interact with technology and with those around them. When we consider the importance of this type of language use in our lives, we must also consider how it tends to break the boundaries of time. Whenever you are ready to talk, it is very easy to find someone else online who is looking for dialogue too.
• 3. I have the right to choose what I do with technology.

Choice is key to motivation, and within the realm of chat rooms, instant messengers, and discussion boards technology users have a variety of choices. These can be as simple as deciding which font to use or as complex as knowing when to leave a chat room or turn off the computer. Choice is also involved in how you portray yourself on screen â€" from the username you pick to the type of personality you take on. For example, in this new form of role-playing or dramatic play a 12-year-old girl who is shy and rarely speaks in school can be loud and sassy online. It becomes a safe place for her to make choices, step outside herself, and try a new way of seeing the world.

What do we mean by support? In chat room conversations, students often discuss what they learn at school about Internet use, what is good information and what is not, how to be safe on the Internet, and, yes, those "rules." They carry what they learn at school to the Internet but often feel that school knows little about the online activities they spend their time on outside of the school walls.

A safe environment is important to chat room participants, and they talk about it often. They learn to click out of a chat room when the dialogue becomes uncomfortable, and they openly share their experiences and knowledge with others about how to be safe on the Internet. Each day there seems to be another story about some young person who has been hurt or even killed by meeting someone online.

Chat room participants talk about language and learn powerful lessons about communicating. When the focus is on communication, bending the rules can become essential and a form of play â€" at times like a secret code that only insiders know and understand. For example, ROGL in the dialogue quoted earlier means rolling on the ground laughing. Participants break the rules but learn that, in certain circumstances, the message is lost when their audience cannot make sense of the words or symbols used. Lessons about audience are obvious when a chat participant must construct a message to "fit" the chat room conversation.

I have been amazed by the complex communicative acts that I witness in chat rooms. Participants often carry on three conversations at a time. The power of language is evident when someone can hide behind the screen, take on different personalities, and use only words and symbols to send messages.

Participants in chat rooms operate within an area between invented and conventional language. They play by creating icons, shortened sentences, and invented spellings, but they must be aware of the conventions of language use familiar to others or risk losing the message. Meaning making is at the center of communication.

Inquiry is at the heart of chat room conversation. It is fueled by questions and by wondering about things. At times this inquiry is about the perceived unfairness of the rules of home or school. At other times it is about a new CD and what the chat room group thinks of this style of music. Typical questions might focus on how to make the computer do something or why bad things have to happen to people on the Internet.

Not all chat room questions have easy answers, but the inquiry continues, the learning continues, and the opportunities continue to grow for participants in this new type of learning community. Teachers need to look closely at what this new cyberspace literacy environment is providing for students. It is a place to play, to explore, to engage with others, to choose, to be supported, to break the rules, and to examine power and trust relationships, all while attempting to have meaningful experiences in a safe environment. Of course, we continue to question, and so the rules continue to be written.

Lori Norton-Meier is the Media Literacy department editor and welcomes reader comments. E-mail nortonme@iastate.edu. Mail Lori Norton-Meier, Iowa State University, Curriculum and Instruction Department, N107 Lagomarcino, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.

© 2004 International Reading Association, Inc.

??? Cambourne, B. (1989). The whole story. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

??? Watson, M., & Zlotolow, S. (1999). More than playing around. Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications.