Communication Channels are important for Learning Providers - 99 Chats is an easy to use chat service that lets practitioners create chat rooms that can be added to a website, VLE or blog etc.

99 Chats is highly customizable and can be a great way to expand the learning experience. An ideal way to offer extra help for learners when they need it or perhaps even to communicate with employers and/or other stakeholders. Easy and free with lots of possibilities to improve communication in t...

Yet another reason, perhaps, that YouTube and Facebook shouldn't be blocked!

The YouTube Social website lets practitioners and remote learners watch YouTube in a truly collective way.

On the YouTube Social website...

• practitioners can create "viewing parties" by merely adding the word "social" to any YouTube URL that they want to watch with their learners...
• Upon doing so, a new URL is generated, and...
• this URL can then be sent to invite learners to the "viewing party".

When invited le...

There are more ways than one for Learning Providers to keep visitors to their website/blog/wiki/VLE etc., engaged, and one that has always proven to do well is adding a chat.

Many practitioners feel that chat rooms have become obsolete now that IM applications are so widespread but, chat rooms can still pack quite a punch if implemented correctly, and that is what plugChat.in will enable users to do.

Just copy and paste three lines of code and a chat bar is added into the chosen 's...

Teenagers, and some older learners, use (and abuse) acronyms when they are chatting and understanding what they are actually saying can be tricky.

Teen Chat Decoder has come up with a service that aims to shed some light onto the subject. It is comparable to an online translation tool that will let you input any acronym and have it expanded into 'Plain English'.

The ones that will benefit the most from something like this, apart from parents (who are understandably baffled by the things ...

If managers, administrators, mentors, practitioners, assessors etc., ever need a quick way to chat with someone without registering or giving away any personal information, then NeatChat offers a solution.

Neat Chat is a free browser-based chat website that lets users create chat rooms quickly.

Neat Chat is the easiest and fastest way to have an online conversation with a group of friends or colleagues. No signups or software installs are required. You simply use a web browser to commun...

Synchtube is a new web-service for watching video clips and chatting about them at the same time.

Just...

• find the url of an appropriate YouTube video,
• copy that url into Synchtube, and
• begin chatting with your colleagues/learners/etc., while the video is playing.

Users can comment on the video and share thoughts inspired by the video while watching. At the moment Synchtube is in beta and currently only four people can chat at once; hopefully that limit will be increased in the future....

Scriblink is an online white board with an integrated IMS (instant messaging system).

Scriblink users can...

• draw,
• type, or
• edit images on a white board.

Users have the option of...

• sharing their white board with others and
• allowing other users to collaborate on the white board.

There is no need to set up an account or register in order to use the white board.

Users can take advantage of all kinds of useful features, such as...

• Privacy: the board is all yours, open only to the p...

ShopTalk is an application that aims to make professional collaboration an easier task.

ShopTalk lets different members of a team chat with each other in a setting which is both private and secure.

One of the best aspects of the whole service is that it enables users to employ tabbed chat rooms. i.e. a person who is in more than one department/curriculum area/faculty etc., within the same organisation will be able to take part in different chat rooms at the same time should that be neces...