Title:	TEXT FORUM: INCREASING SOCIAL PRESENCE THROUGH REDUCING RESPONSE LAG
Author(s):	Bryan Butler , Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez
ISBN:	972-8924-15-1
Editors:	Pedro Isaías, Piet Kommers and Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez
Year:	2006
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Collaborative Learning; Mobile telephones; Short Messaging Service (SMS); Text Forums; Asynchronous communication; Discussion Forums.
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	270
Last Page:	273
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Collaboration promotes a deep approach to learning (Lipman 2003) and it’s thought to contribute towards the acquisition of higher cognitive skills. Garrison, et al. (2000) argue for three core elements for successful online collaborative learning: Cognitive presence, Social presence and Teaching presence. Asynchronous communication tools such as discussion forums are commonly utilised in collaborative learning experiences and are characterised by long response lags. These lags, the delay between message sent and reply received, allow time for reflection and cognitive thinking to take place. However, long response lags may disturb the social dynamic of the group, which is essential to maintaining Cognitive presence. Studies have shown that students receive and reply messages 17 times faster through Short Messaging Services (SMS) on their mobile phones than they do through web-based applications (Stone, et al., 2002). This paper presents a Text Forum system, an online and ‘on-mobile’ discussion tool that allows participants to send and receive messages via SMS, developed by the authors. Our Text Forum aims to reduce the overall response lag to provide greater support for Social presence while maintaining an asynchronous means of communication that affords time for reflection through the reply lag.
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