Presentation by Kin Choon Yow (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) at the 1st World Summit of the Open Knowledge Society, Athens, 24-26 September 2008. Track: Knowledge, Learning, Education, Learning Technologies, and eLearning for the Knowledge Society.
Current learning scenarios are not interactive. But in particular Asian students are very shy and do not dare to ask questions in the classroom. But they are more likely to engage in technologies and post their question online. So can we make use of mobile classroom scenarios? The presented system is build on two core technologies: Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Live Audio Streaming. Students can follow the lecture anywhere on campus. The system is also used in classroom and particularly helpful for lecture with high numbers of participants. Students can send their questions via MMS to the lecturer, MMS questions are displayed underneath the slides, and lecturers can immediately react (real-time lecture feedback).
Evaluation Results: Students like it (some find it cool). Shy students can build up confidence to ask questions. Allow students asking questions even in large classes. Lecturers can understand better how students think and if/how they follow the course. Lecturer can adjust teaching pace immediately.
Questions: How to deal with high numbers of questions during the class? Currently, lecturer answer questions at the end of each sub-section. Some question are similar and are skipped. Do students loose much (attention) time when typing the messages? But the young generation is pretty fast. What are challenges of distance-teaching? Teacher seems to have problems to talk to a screen for several hours. Teacher loose the control and immediate feedback when teaching online, they have bigger influence in the classroom. The social experience of regularly going to university might actually be an important aspect of the learning experience.