My siblings and I use IM on a sporadic basis to make joint decisions regarding our mom. Since we live in 2 different time zones and since each of us has a job that requires either total attention or being away from our desks for long stretches, we set an appointment time for the conversations. I suppose that defeats much of the purpose of the IM. I have only used it in other situations as a way to contact tech departments for hardware or software and follow their directions while they are standing by. Truly, I prefer the phone.
I can see how it would be a lot of fun between friends as a casual way to communicate, but to use it in an educational setting? I don't know. In our work in the Advisement and Transfer Center, we would probably be IMing the same information to different students over and over. This information is already available online and in hard copy at the Center, so that would be a waste of our time. Conversations with parents and students truly should be in person or over the telephone where attention to body language and/or voice inflection is imperative.
On the other hand, conversations between students and advisors could be greatly enhanced. Advisors might be more likely to IM than to extend their office hours. While face-to-face meetings are essential, any contact between advisor and advisees is encouraged.
The paper on texting in the classroom during lecture indicated that on-topic communication improved greatly over the three week period. I guess I just need to have more experience with IM before I can really find an educational application!
2 comments:
You bring up an important point about text messaging...a good deal of meaning or inference can be gathered by a person's body language and tone of voice. Oftentimes misunderstandings can occur through IM, especially if one is not schooled in proper text etiquette...or would that be Textiquette?
Surely there's something in that dictionary of IM words to describe textiquette! What an eye-opener that site was!
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