Understanding and analyzing chat in CSCL as reading's work

Synchronous communication using text chat--often combined with a shared whiteboard--is increasingly used in CSCL. This form of interaction and learning in small online groups of students presents novel challenges, both for the participating students and for researchers studying their work. Chats differ from talk-in-interaction since the composition, posting and visual inspection of text and graphical objects by any given actor is not observable by the other participants. These structural constraints on the organization of interaction require that actors deploy alternative procedures for achieving what turn taking achieves in talk-in-interaction. This paper describes how communication is organized in text chat, where postings have to provide instructions on how they are to be read. This organization is contrasted with turn taking in face-to-face communication. The notion of "reading's work" provides a guiding thread, which is explicated.