Article 7

Instant Messaging: Is there validity for curriculum integration?

Lindsay, Julie (2006, Aug 30). Instant Messaging: Is there validity for curriculum integration?. Retrieved on 14th Mar, 2009 from
http://123elearning.blogspot.com/2006/08/instant-messaging-is-there-validity.html.

SUMMARY

The article was a post by the Head of Information Technology and E-Learning at Qatar Academy, Doha, State of Qatar to share ideas about E-Learning, ICT integration and digital literacy in education. The author discussed about the possibility of integrating IM into educational classes. Educators want their students to communicate and understand multiculturalism in its many forms and she believed that IM could provide the collaboration that encourage active learning, be it students-to-students or students-to-teachers since it is widely used; although there is potential security risk of individual privacy. However, it is still believed to be useful in Modern Language classes. She argued that video conferencing is expensive for foreign language lessons - distance learning. Thus with IM, ad hoc meeting could be conducted easily with foreign classmates involved and it could be saved for later discussion. There were comments posted by another educator who believed IM is useful with the advantages like just-in-time and on-demand feature of IM, possibility of multiconversations, multiparticipants, asynchronous or synchronous, stay in touch with teachers with better sense of connection and others.

QUESTION

IM is widely used but not in terms of education but leisure communication. Wouldn't it be harder for users or more precisely students to switch their purpose of using IM from leisure to communication?