let's mxit (mobile learning in higher ed)
Post on 18-Jul-2015
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The University of the Western Cape
“joins the evolution”
Education in the 21st Century
Technology has revolutionized business -now it will revolutionize learning
Anywhere - Anytime - Anyone
Just-in-time access to information and knowledge
Higher retention of content through personalised learning
Improved collaboration and interactivity between students
GOALS• To understand the use of technology in
Higher Education
• To look at instant messaging as a tool for
providing additional learning space
• To identify benefits and challenges of using instant messaging as a T & L tool
THE
SOUTH AFRICAN
CONTEXT
Rationale for the study
• In a 2005 report about teens and their use of technology, teenagers were found to prefer new technology for communicating (Lenhart 2005)
• Connecting after hours
• Logistical limitation on individual support
• Lack of internet access
• Academic support
Tools currently used
Ways to synchronously communicate online with your students:
– Blackboard’s Virtual Classroom
– E-learning (VULA)
– Wiki’s, podcasts
– And so on.
• Focus here is on instant messaging.
What is Instant Messaging?
• “Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed over a network such as the internet”
Wikipedia
IM Usage in Education
• Virtual office hours
• Collaborative workgroups
• Class discussions
• Mentoring/ ‘buddies’
The Perils of IM in Direct Instruction
“The online re-creation of the face-to-face classroom can be a dismal failure for both faculty and students.”
(Carnavale, 2000b) Students find nothing more boring than reading screen after screen of text when an instructor is attempting to re-create a lecture online.
Potential Challenges
IM adds more time to the lecturers’ workload:
• Time spent online
• Impact on other activities
• Increase current workload
Benefits of using IM
• Easily accepted by students
• Provides increase collaborative opportunities
• Connect from anywhere
• Heightened “social presence”
My reasons:
• Connecting after hours
• Logistical limitation on individual support
• Student lack of internet access
• Academic support
IMAdvantages Disadvantages
Easy to use Network problems
Instant response Contacts maybe offline
Saves money Can be distracting
Rapid feedback Viewed as a time waster
Interaction in groups
Various services
Mxit: “join the evolution”
• Activate a contact
• Register online
• Notify the students “anonymity”
• Schedule availability and parameters
• Gain input from…
IM Culture
• Use frequent, shorter messages
• Don’t worry about typos or misspelling
• Capitalisation and punctuation are optional
• Learn some of the abbreviations:
- Lol (laugh out loud)Lol (laugh out loud)
- Brb (be right back)- Brb (be right back)
- Btw (by the way)- Btw (by the way)
Conclusion
““If the culture has moved to adoptIf the culture has moved to adopt
technology in commerce, in industry, intechnology in commerce, in industry, in
recreation, and in daily life, higher recreation, and in daily life, higher education education
may be legitimately slow to react, but react may be legitimately slow to react, but react it must.” it must.”
- Philip D. Long
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