2004 Conference Proceedings
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USING INSTANT MESSAGING (IM) IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM TO FACILITATE DEAF STUDENT INTERACTION
Presenter
L.K. Quinsland, Ph.D.
National Technical Institute for the Deaf Rochester Institute of Technology
1250 Telephone Road Rush, New York 14543
Phone: 585-475-6237
Fax: 585-533-9128
lkq9999@rit.edu
The Context:
In an attempt to promote active learning in the classroom, teachers are presented with numerous challenges. For example, teaching faculty are well acquainted with the "shy" or more introverted student who has something to say but is reluctant to say it in front of other students. While most faculty will say that they value student "participation", they will freely admit that they constantly search for classroom strategies that encourage the sharing of ideas by ALL students.
Instructors in the mainstream environment struggle with including deaf and hard of hearing students as equal participants in classroom activities with hearing students. The numerous factors that contribute to this dilemma are well understood by experienced practitioners. Chief among these barriers to easy interaction between deaf and hearing is the "lag time" between vocalizations and signed communication facilitated by an interpreter. For example, the experienced teacher will pause between asking a question and selecting a student to respond, thereby allowing the deaf student time to receive the interpreted question and time to respond as an equal member of the class.
Teachers with all deaf and hard of hearing students, regardless of course content focus, strive to promote written language development through the use of motivating interactive strategies.
When utilizing student discussion groups in class, teachers find it to be extremely difficult to monitor all groups simultaneously. While one pays attention to the interactions of one group, the dialogue between members of another group are lost.
The use of instant messaging (IM) "classroom chat groups", has the potential to alleviate some of the above stated challenges to teachers. The teaching/learning strategy described here focuses on the process of engaging students, both in and out of the classroom, using IM/iChat as the vehicle. The techniques described here have been employed for establishing and monitoring in-class on-line IM discussion groups, out of class discussion/study groups, providing instant feedback to students as a classroom assessment tool, and others. Perceived benefits to deaf students, deaf and hearing students in an inclusive environment, as well as, benefits to teaching faculty are encouraging. Although the discipline of science was the content focus with deaf students at the college level, it is anticipated that this application of instructional technology transcends discipline boundries, student characteristics and educational contexts.
The Technology:
For deaf individuals, the emergence of IM, (iChat on the Mac) and digital pagers is perhaps the greatest liberating communication technological breakthrough since the advent of the tty. Instant messaging has evolved into a compelling "real time" communication mode for our students. In fact, in some cases, IM and digital pagers (as well as cell phones) have presented a distraction in the classroom, necessitating new guidelines for classroom behavior.
In this era of rapidly evolving new technologies, it is essential that teachers strive to pay attention to emerging technology and to experiment with classroom applications. While many new instructional technologies tend to make teacher-student and student-student interactions more difficult, instant messaging is proving to be beneficial in terms of fostering student interactions that have always been challenging to facilitate.
Technical Details:
Since most deaf (and hearing) students already have very active personal IM accounts, it was determined that new generic class-related accounts would be established. This allowed for more control over the process from several perspectives. Unique IM usernames allowed for accounts to be utilized by students in more than one class during the day. Students were assigned one IM username for the term and were asked to sign an agreement that these generic accounts would only be used for assigned course-related activities. Due to registration requirements, an email account had to be established for each of the new IM accounts. Since students had active school email accounts, the new IM related email accounts were not utilized for classroom activities, although in some situations this might prove to be beneficial. In this case, linked email accounts existed solely for the purpose of managing the IM accounts. An additional benefit to the creating of unique class-related accounts is realized at the end of a term when the account passwords can be changed and reused the following term with new students in new course contexts.
Depending on the computer system support on a given campus, a LAN (local area network) can be used without the need to connect to an outside server (e.g. AOL). For evening class "chat appointments", students could access the chat from different locations in the same way that they would normally utilize IM with friends.
IM classroom "chats" can occur on any platform that allows for internet connection. In this case, students could use either their own laptop with wireless capability or a specific Mac G-4 that was assigned for use during the class period. Laptops were secured on a rolling cart between sessions. While students using PCs utilized AIM, Mac users used iChat, an application in OSX.
Pedagogy:
Numerous applications of classroom IM are possible. From day to day, student "class chat groups" can be assigned by the instructor to meet instructional objectives and to stimulate desired student interactions. For example, an in-class IM example might involve dividing a class into several class chat groups and given a problem to solve or a question to ponder. The teacher can set up all groups on the teacher computer and monitor the in print discussion of all groups (and individuals) simultaneously. At any given moment, the teacher can jump into a group chat and provide additional information, clarification, or pose questions to the group or to individuals who seem to be holding back. At the conclusion of the session, the teacher can print a record of each group discussion, including the contributions of each participant.
Out-of-class chat group assignments can be made for a groups to convene on line at a specified time and conduct class business. This activity serves as a type of hyperspace study group. The instructor can select and vary group members when making assignments. Students are taught how to reconfigure their "class chat group" to fit the in-class or out-of-class assignment.
Outcomes:
The effects of incorporating IM into the classroom repertoire is being assessed from the perspectives of teacher and learner. Preliminary outcomes indicate direct perceived benefits for both. Additional studies are planned within diverse teaching/learning contexts and applications.
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