What is a iChat:

iChat (formerly iChat AV) is an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MobileMe, ICQ and XMPP client by Apple Inc. for their Mac OS X operating system. Using a Jabber-like protocol and Bonjour for user discovery, it also allows for LAN communication. iChat's AIM support is fully endorsed by AOL, and uses their official implementation of the AIM OSCAR protocol. Using a Jabber transport, iChat users may also integrate their MSN, Yahoo! and Google Talk contacts into the Jabber pane.

As of Mac OS 10.5, iChat bears the latest version of Apple's Aqua interface and uses speech bubbles and pictures that are meant to personify the online chatting experience. With iChat, green (available), yellow (idle), and red (away) dots can be seen next to the name of each connected user on the buddy list. To cater for color-blind users, this can be altered to show different shapes to illustrate status rather than color.

Instructional Strategies:

Lesson Examples:

Help Sheets:

Apple iChat Quick Start.pdf 

Online Resources:

Set up an AIM account

iChat for Dummies

Articles and Readings:

iChat in the Classroom: Apple Learning Interchange

People Resouces: