It is easiest to use applications that are already available at your institution, including course management systems (CMS) such as Blackboard™ or FirstClass™, which often include chat and discussion board features. The advantages of using an available CMS are that experts will be available to train you and support its effective operation, and that a CMS has other features with which you can enhance your course. If the CMS is web-based like Blackboard™, it will be accessible to students outside of the institutional network, but if it is proprietary software and the activity is asynchronous, students may want to download the software onto the machine they want to use, which your institution may not allow for security reasons. For chat and IM activities, it is also relatively simple to use other applications that may be on lab computers like AOL Instant Messenger™ or ICQ chat—many students are familiar with these applications and probably own copies themselves. A growing number of institutions are hosting wikis and offering student blogs—check with your instructional technology services to see what’s available.

There are also free external technologies accessible through the Web; for example, Nicenet offers free course website hosting with several CMC tools, and Yahoo! or MSN groups offer discussion boards and file hosting. Free blog hosting is available from services like blogger.com or livejournal.com, and free wiki hosting is available from wikihost.org. The advantage of using an external Web-based service is that it can be accessed any time from any browser. The disadvantage is that you are relying on external servers and will probably not have institutional training or support. CALPER hosts chat, discussion boards, wikis, and blogs for qualifying language educators and classes.

With the approval, financing, and assistance of your institution, you could have a high-quality commercial application like FirstClass™ (CMS), WebBoard™ (discussion board), Wimba™ (sound file discussion board), or Moveable Type™ (blog) installed on your institution’s server (and lab computers if client software is necessary). This would require commitment and reliable support from your institution’s instructional technology experts. If you have an especially dedicated expert, s/he could build a blog or wiki engine on your institution’s server from free source code like that available at MediaWiki (see also: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki).

While CM activities can be stand-alone, they are most effective and successful when integrated in the course curriculum like any classroom activity. A CM activity can be a regular event in a course, perhaps once every week, every other week, or every month; more than once is advisable, since most of the very first implementation will involve you and the students becoming familiar with the technology and shifting classroom dynamics. A CM activity can be a main activity, and may also be a preview, warm-up, review, or follow-up to a regular classroom activity or assignment. CM activities can fit into a communicative syllabus as conversation, reading, writing, and form-focused activities.

Like any other classroom activity, a CM activity requires preparation by the instructor—preparing materials, visualizing the implementation, and devising contingency plans. Most obviously, a CM activity requires the instructor to be familiar with how to use the technology and perhaps to reserve a computer lab. Because technology sometimes does not cooperate and host servers crash, it is always advisable to check the technology and websites right before the actual implementation. You may want to ask instructional support to be available or even provide training to the students for the first implementation. Students may need usernames and passwords to access and participate.

In a computer-mediated classroom the action is in cyberspace, but this does not mean the classroom is necessarily quiet. A warm-up or follow-up activity may involve working in pairs or groups, and students may be using each other, external materials, and you the instructor as learning resources. While the activity itself may involve pair or group work, with some synchronous activities, it may be a good idea to have students take turns typing if there are not enough computers. As the instructor, you may choose to participate in the activity, or you may circulate to offer help and facilitate learning. It is also advisable to approach every CM activity with a sense that the implementation may not go as planned—have a contingency plan ready, but remember that technology is based on logic, and every technical difficulty can eventually be troubleshot.

As with any activity, truly getting the most out of a CM activity may require multiple implementations—the more experience you the instructor have, the more smooth and effective the activity will be. This also involves formative and summative evaluation of the activity itself and assessment of student learning. Formative evaluation occurs as you implement the activity, while summative evaluation occurs after the implementation—both inform subsequent, more effective implementations.

During and after the implementation, ask yourself (and perhaps students) to what extent:

• Are the students comfortable with the technology?
• Are the students producing the desired forms and functions?
• Are the students participating equally?
• Is the activity level-appropriate and if so, what competencies are being over-challenged or not challenged enough?
• Do the students have access to resources to participate in the activity?
• Is the activity appropriate for the technology?
• Does the activity and/or technology promote equal and/or fair student participation?
• Is the technology hindering or enhancing learning?
• Could the activity be enhanced, improved or altered to promote more learning?