Managing Social Activity and Participation in Large Classes with Mobile Phone Technology

Managing Social Activity and Participation in Large Classes with Mobile Phone Technology

large class teaching

mobile phone messaging

activity theory

m-learning

Within the context of a developing country, such as South Africa, access to technology is severely limited. However, most South Africans have relatively good access to mobile phone technology in relation to other portable and mobile technology. In this initiative, students were encouraged to use mobile phone text messaging to send questions to the lecturer during classes or between classes. A total of 86 text messages were sent to the lecturer during a 7-week, second year psychology course. At the end of the course 136 responses to questionnaire distributed in class was obtained. This data was analysed using activity theory as a framework for the discussion. The results indicated that students had strongly favorable perceptions of this initiative and respondents had spontaneously suggested other uses of mobile phone technology to enhance the learning experience. Activity theory provided a useful framework for evaluating the use of mobile phone text messages to enhance student participation and learning.

Thatcher, Andrew

Mooney, Gillian

International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM); Vol. 2 No. 3 (2008); pp. 41-51

1865-7923

International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), Vienna, Austria

2008-06-15

Copyright (c) 2017 Andrew Thatcher, Gillian Mooney

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion