I have never got into playing computer games. There's lots of reasons for this - but one of the main ones is that I can't be bothered learning how to play a game. The reward/effort ratio isn't high enough to motivate me. I find exactly the same thing with Second Life. Why bother? In fact, I find Second Life even worse. Why bother in particular as the effort I expended would get me spending more time in nirvana for narcissists.

My lack of interest in these sorts of things clouds my judgement about how useful they might be pedagogically. Students have no problem immersing themselves in games. So, if there are any SLers out there... what's the point?

We've had the odd video iChat with a guest lecturer here at Ravensbourne - it's high risk, as the video doesn't always work (good old firewall traversal). But when it does all work, it works well, and is good, exhilirating fun.

I'm almost arguing against my point...

I prefer plain old text chat for synchronous communication. I have accounts with various IM networks - one can't seem to go through life these days without picking these things up - but I find XMPP (Jabber) the best for textual collaboration. XMPP has a "group chat" or "conference" facility (often known under the TLA of "MUC" - multi-user chat). This can work across Jabber federations. For example, you can join a group chat with me on our institutional Jabber server with your Google Talk account - no need to have an institutional account (assuming I authorise you as a contact).

On a Mac, iChat comes with buillt-in Jabber support - or you can use the multiprotocol messaging client Adium. Adium built on the free software "libpurple" library that is the core of Pidgin IM (formerly Gaim). There's a version of Pidgin for Linux and Windows. Pidgin and Adium have straightforward support for Jabber group chat.

For a bit more than just chatting, try the Coccinella - a Jabber client with a shared whiteboard capability, and first class conference room management tools. (The Coccinella has Jingle support so, under the right circumstances, it's capable of voice chat, too).

It's interesting how instant messaging is becoming almost a command-line for the 21st century. I keep Adium running all the time, so I'm generally reachable for a chat. Clever developers have leveraged this by providing chat interfaces to other services. Twitterers know they can send their tweets via their IM client. There's also a service called IMified, which has a range of widgets for interacting with other services like blogs, calendars, and online todo-lists. I could access an awful lot of services armed with an IM-enabled mobile phone and an IMified account. IMified has an open API, so developers can create their own widgets.

Anyway - I wonder are edu-chat clients like Elluminate the way to go, or do clients like the Coccinella and Adium (free software, both), and chat-based service providers like IMified offer more interesting possibilities?