Tex t message
seems overall over the last 5 years Ive seen communication on all levels including question and answer decrease. Could this be a part of computer text message culture.
Hi Stephanie- Thanks for your post! When I have this occur I will introduce the question texted to me in class. "I had an excellent question texted to me last nite - How is the gross national product calculated? Does any one know the answer?" The student who texted will be pleased that his question was recognized as significant and may even answer the question in class! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
I too get questions through text messages in classes that I give out my cell phone number too. It is frustrating because I am always wondering why they won't just ask that question in class. They all tend to be great questions and others probably have the same question. I reply to the question through text but then I encourage the student to ask these questions in class because other students probably have the same questions.
I agree William. We (as instructors) need to fill the generation gap of the learning styles and behaviors of the technical savvy group to the traditional styles of teaching. It is just like everything else in this rapidly changing world, if you don't adapt, you might be left out. I too feel we are obligated to engage the students. Why not adapt?
Hi William - I have been amazed how students I have been unable to contact via phone, email or post actually respond to my texts!! ( I just HAVE to get better at texting!) Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Though text message communication may seem like a classroom disruption, we as instructors have an obligation to consider all methods of communication. After all, we have seen alot of evolution over the years, and where would we be if no one was ever open to the idea of changes? This idea would need a strict set of policies and procedures to maintain control so that cell phone use in the class would not be abused.
I might have to give that a try. Maybe I will pose a question before class and give extra points to the first 5 or so students that respond with the correct answer
I think texting belongs only on social networking groups...sure you can get a certain personal interaction via the web, but how can you really tell if they are participating in the diiscussion or just playing a video game? I have seen instructors in classrooms lose focus because they are searching the web for irrelevant information, or their phone vibrated with a text message and they stopped in the middle of class to see who texted them. Maybe some disciplines will benefit from it...but..I think there are a lot better ways to encourage participation
Hi Shirley- Welcome to ED 103! What a cool idea! It would give the freedom that students feel in the online environment but allow it to happen in real time in a live face-2-face classroom. Anyone know of a software that can do that? Thanks for your post! Susan
There was a statistic that students these days send about 1700 text meessages a month. That is a ton of text messaging! So it seems that students are very comfortable with this mode of communication and can text message answers to questions posed by teachers pretty fast within the classroom environment. If there is a software that can be used to view all the responses on screen in real time than I think it would be fun for students to see the discussion board thread.
Shirley Chuo
While the on-to-one nature of text messaging per se may, indeed, isolate rather than include, it occurs to me that more mass-texting platforms (such as Twitter) could be used to actually facilitate discussion.
Of course, this would require me to change my "no cell phone use during class time" policy. Hmmm...
thanks for the viewpoint and I will try this as an experiment and see what the difference is in responces.Have a good day.
Hi Rachel - the question you pose is intriguing! I can barely text at all so I can't try a test Text question. If you take a stab at it with your students please let me know how it went. Some one somewhere has GOT to be working on a related dissertation topic! Bet wishes- Susan
It does seem like text messaging can create a culture of isolation rather than participation in a live classroom group. I've certainly been frustrated occassionally with a group here or there unwilling to participate. Maybe it has to do with less group interaction in general?
I've received lots of homework responses emailed to me via blackberries and cellphones, so I wonder if some sort of text-related question and answer would elicit a greater quantity of responses.
U r rite! Reaching out to students via text seems like the direction that we are headed in to. They would probably respond to a question that was text to them immediately and with better response because there is less fear of feeling dumb in front of the class.
Hi David - Welcome to ED 103! That's an interesting question. I would be inclined to say that there is a connection. Must we start teaching via text messages? ;-) Best wishes - Susan
