Organisations as well as educational instituitions all the world have been banning the use of IM, for some reasons which includes security, waste of time, a form of distraction etc.
This post by James F in his blog has reminded us of the global community we are in as well as the world in which our students are growing up.
Quoting findings from a paper “Instant Messaging � Collaborative Tool or Educator�s nightmare!” by Robert Farmer, it is no surprise to me that under “students’ normal usage outside of class activities”, the frequency in use of forums is less than half that of IMs. It’s now 2005 and I believe the trend is there to stay, if not increase.
While IM is relatively new to the educational environment, it is raising many questions and concerns. Clearly students have embraced this technology, while faculty have not.
As a user very much hooked on to IM myself, perhaps it is timely that we (re)look in-depth on the benefits of IM *hmm*