[Yr7-10it] Twittering

[forster at ozonline.com.au]

Paul

> > They don't even think to look up help (F1 is unheard of!).
> 
> I'm actually not sure that this is saying: are they particularly
> rudimentary computer users, or are they un-motivated learners ... or is
> there something else happening?

I think its something else. F1 help does not present the information in a way that is appropriate for their learning needs. You could put instructions about how to make rain on F1 and it would go unnoticed for years, but show one student in a class how to make rain and in 10 minutes, half of the class will have rain, by sneakernet and email.

> IRC would
> require installation of one relatively simple, free, piece of software;
> again, no cost/waste issue.

IRC doesn't even need software, there are web based clients like Mibbit. But its not worth worrying too much about IRC, kids have demonstrated that they use SMS, forums, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, MSN instant messenger etc when it suits their needs.

I suspect its more about creating a community than the technology itself. Kids prefer to learn socially rather than by their own independant research. If kids were already engaged with a virtual community, you would see the "sneakernet" type learning happen spontaneously.

I suspect that there would be a high overhead in building a strong virtual community in terms of the childish and inappropriate chat you would have to allow in order to build a community. Bullying issues too.

Its worth looking at how successful applications like World of Warcraft, Myspace and Facebook have facilitated the building of virtual communities. It seems they use social standing and social connectedness as their basic currency.

Tony