VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS

 

Jeannette McDonald argues that computer-mediated communication offers powerful constructivist tools because they support interaction and collaboration between dispersed groups of students. She asks if educators using these tools to emulate the classroom are "doing things differently or doing different things? (McDonald, 2002)"  

 

DOING DIFFERENT THINGS: MOBILE COLLABORATIVE

LANGUAGE LEARNING

 

Virtual classrooms must fully integrate mobile functionality to remain relevant in the mLearning technologies market.  In China, virtual classrooms that deliver collaboration-based learning represent the third most popular product of the digital English e-learning market (25%), which Ambient Insight says will be worth approximately $932 billion by 2018.  The same market in the Middle East will double to $215.7 million by 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ventures such as Englishtown, GlobalEnglish, TalktoCanada.com, etc. use web-conferencing solutions as a medium for learning from the comfort of home. However, mLearning and classroom emulation does something differently: the virtual classroom is with the learner at all times.

 

PAIN POINT

 

"Ineffective management of web-conferencing tools creates "dead air" (Ng, 2007).  Mobile virtual classrooms are particularly vulnerable to dead air because affordances are often designed for desktops, not mobile devices.  In particular, language learners should use synchronous tools to articulate their understanding of grammar points for more than 80% of a session and educators need the remaning time to explain key concepts and coach. Neither language learners nor educators afford the distraction and waste of time created by dead air on mobile devices.