Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Instant Messaging in Two Educational Contexts

Abstract

Using an activity theory framework, we investigate how preservice teachers and middle school students utilized instant messaging in educational contexts and the impact of instant messaging on the development of community among preservice teachers. Qualitative results from six focus groups and two personal interviews indicate that instant messaging enhanced the development of community among the preservice teachers and facilitated the breakdown of teacher-student social barriers while being predominantly exploited as a social rather than an academic medium. The instant messaging assignment consisted of three overlapping activity systems that complicated the assignment and created, some degree of tension for the teachers. Even though preservice teachers felt uncomfortable being at a peer-to-peer level with students, instant messaging enabled them to build an activity system that can be characterized as a multifaceted learning and knowledge-based community.

Keywords:

• teacher education
• social networking
• instant messaging
• activity theory
• technology integration

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aaron Doering

Aaron Doering is an assistant professor of learning technologies at the University of Minnesota. His research involving the design, development, and evaluation of online learning environments, technology integration in K–12 preservice and inservice settings, and the innovative use of technology to support teaching and learning.

Lewis Cynthia

Cynthia Lewis is Professor of English Education at the University of Minnesota. She is interested in classroom discourse, response to literature, and adolescents ’ uses of digital media both in and out of school. Her current research focuses on critical engagement and social identity in English classrooms in urban schools. She is author of Literary Practices as Social Acts: Power, Status, and Cultural Norms in the Classroom and co-editor of Refraining Sociocultural Research: Identity, Agency, and Power.

Veletsianos George

George Veletsianos is Lecturer of Digital Technologies, Communication & Education at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests revolve around the design, development, and evaluation of electronic learning environments. Specifically, he is interested in pedagogy, social media, and how learners interact, collaborate, and learn with virtual characters. As such, his research is cross- and multi- disciplinary, encompassing ideas from learning technologies, social psychology, human-computer interaction, communication sciences, and computer science.

Kristen Nichols-Besel

Kristen Nichols-Besel is a graduate student in literacy education at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include adolescent readers, motivation and engagement, and young adult literature. She also enjoys working with preservice teachers.