Smartphone applications are opening up an entire new world for institutions to interact with their constituents. Stanford University has “released a free iPhone application called iStandard that allows students to register for classes, look up campus maps and be able to view the location of their friends on a map – instant messaging them if need be … Other schools have also introduced similar applications (Duke University, Georgia Tech, U Cal at San Diego, etc.) (Lavrusik, 2009).
Abilene Christian University (ACU) has taken the use of smart phones to the next level by issuing iPhones or iPod Touches to all of its full-time freshmen students in order to stay connected to their school, courses, professors, and fellow students. Freshmen can use their iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, check their meal and account balances, and watch podcasts of their professor’s lectures.
Access to the iPhones and their prevalence on campus enables students to work with their professors on developing applications for the iPhone, which has become a burgeoning market in the social media sphere. Dr. Scott Perkins (2009) discovered “that pre-class podcasts and autonomous student review of information can effectively replace laboratory-based lectures with absolutely no decrease in student performance. The majority of students in specific courses where mobile devices have been routinely used rate themselves as having improved their academic performance (grades and organization) and engagement (active learning, contact with professors and teaching assistants, involvement and attention).”
Cynthia Powell, instructor of chemistry and biochemistry at ACU, concurred with Dr. Perkins in stating that, “as scientists, our students need to be learning how to collect and gather data on their own, and this is an important way that we can help our students on this path toward independence.” What we want to do with this program,” Dr. William Rankin, Associate Professor of English and Director of Educational Innovation, said, “is tap into each student’s innate abilities. We want to transform the shape of the classroom from that factory model, where everybody sits in ranks, and observes an consumes, to a model of engagement, where each student becomes a resource in the class.”
The above post is an excerpt from a paper about social media use in schools I’m writing for my Professional Report Writing class; in case you couldn’t tell.
Steeves
Nick Myself 