Shaheda mobile technology case study presentation

THE USE OF MOBILE AND ONLINE TECHNOLOGY AS AN

EDUCATIONAL TOOL FOR DENTISTRY STUDENTS

A PILOT STUDYS SIMONS

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN CAPE FACULTY OF DENTISTRY

BACKGROUND The goal of the Faculty of Dentistry is to teach and train students theoretical and clinical skills that will enable them to provide a dental and oral health service to the community to the best of their ability.

These students come from diverse backgrounds, with some of them having; little or no access to internet resources; financial burdens and language barriers.

Students numbers per class range from 24-90 students.

Their learning environment consists of lecture venues, computer labs , labs, and clinicsThe students which I have targeted in this case study is the 2nd Oral Hygiene students as this is essentially an experimental study and they are the smallest group ( 24 students).

The course that I teach to them is essentially theoretical and it is designed to prepare these students to identify periodontal diseases in order to treat patients appropriately or refer these patients for appropriate treatment

INTENDED OUTCOMES OF THIS CASE STUDY

Additional or improved ways to reach these students that will result in a continuous interactive process for the students.

This would include: Active student / teacher participation Instant student / teacher feedback Instant peer feedback

CHALLENGES

Students have had limited clinical training so they find it extremely difficult to link the theoretical components with the clinical teachings.

I spend 1.5 -2 hrs per week with them only providing theoretical input.

The rest of the week is spent emailing , sms ing or WhatsApping them with regard to queries.

Communication with my students is done via Ikamva and Google drive to provide additional input.

What is challenging about this current practice is the fact that it does not really encourage interactive discussions or stimulating feedback by teacher/student.

I have over the years tried to implement ways to bridge this gap so that teaching this course would capture their interest and thus encourage better learning

ESTABLISHED PRACTICE Previously I communicated with my students

via the E -teaching site of the University . Ikamva in conjunction with Google docs is

currently being used by the students as educational tools .

Their lecture materials, study guides, test results, tutorials, tasks and announcements are uploaded regularly on these sites

LITERATURE REVIEW The development of ‘education on the go’ by using mobile phones and

similar devices has produced a new way for ‘providing learning’. (Rajasingham 2011)

Wireless educational environments offer many informative possibilities that are not easily attained in other learning environments. (Lui 2007)

Recent developments in mobile technology have allowed a range of mobile technology that is of use to learning (Gupta & Koo 2010)

Using resources such as the internet will enhance learning as students would be able to apply knowledge they have been taught to actual life situations and as a result will also bring teachers and students together by using interactive resources (Tiffin & Rajasingham 2003)

In a study done on “Comparison of WhatsApp with traditional SMS” it was discovered that using both services was influenced by the following aspects: "cost, intent, community, privacy, reliability and expectation” (Church and De Oliviera 2013)

Facebook was originally designed as a social website, but was discovered to have enormous potential in education . Facebook also allows speedy access to internet and it is free of charge. (Wang 2009)

It was revealed in a study that even though the use of mobile technology in Dental Hygiene was still in its early years teachers and students felt that the use of mobile technology could improve dental hygiene practice. (Tucci 2014)

The challenge of using technology in dental schools is that these schools have to keep up and

balance a multifaceted combination of activities. This includes clinical care, teaching, researching and of course management. (Schleyer (2012)

Facebook's site designed specifically for mobile browsing. (Strickland 2007)

INTERVENTION

Before I attempted this case study I needed to determine exactly if the students’ cellular phones had the application that I wanted to use it for and the ease of accessing internet resources

The results of the survey I did resulted in my choice of tools to be investigated

SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS

Question that were asked included the following: What are their learning preferences - 95.8 % Is internet easily accessible – 100% What type of phone do they have - 79% ( Smartphone) 21% ( Android phone) Do their phones allow them access to sites such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook You tube,

Ikamva and Google Drive – 100% Are they able to blog using their cell phone – 91 % (Yes) 9 % ( unanswered) Which of the following sites is easier for them to access - 100% ( WhatsApp, Facebook,

Ikamva and Google drive) Are internet sites accessible anywhere ( campus/home) - 91.6 ( Yes) Do they encounter offline problems and how frequently - 83% ( hardly ever)

KEY POINTS FOR EFFECTIVE PRACTICE - WHATSAPP One of the benefits of Whatsapp that its free of charge and try for the first year. After that

you can extend your subscription at a cost of 0.99 USD per annum. WhatsApp allows Students and teachers to interact in a more informal way resulting in

better communication between student /teacher WhatsApp requires mobile phone internet connectivity to send and receive messages ,

pictures, audio and voice messages with ease and this is all free as long as you don’t exceed your data limit

One of the major problems that WhatsApp users experience though is that it can intrude on a teachers family/work time. For that reason limits should be set as to availability of teachers’ to interact with students.

WhatsApp has the following affordances which will assist me in teaching my course: Instant text messaging to my students for e.g. announcements, Sending images, video

messaging, audio messages to my students pertaining to their course at no extra cost Adding my 24 students to a group and engaging them in group chats (e.g. tutorials or

case study discussions)

KEY POINTS FOR EFFECTIVE PRACTICE -FACEBOOK Facebook's video application is similar in many ways to YouTube. Members can upload

videos in almost every format, but Facebook requests that all files remain below 100 megabytes and that videos be shorter than two minutes. Facebook converts videos into the flash (.flv) format.

With the groups application, you can join other members' interest groups or you can create one of your own.

The posted items application can be used to post videos to your profile. All you have to do is enter the Web page's URL into the post field on Facebook. The application generates a thumbnail of the target page that acts as a hyperlink.

Facebook's site designed specifically for mobile browsing.

Facebook has the following affordances which will  assist me in teaching my course: Adding students to a closed group and presenting multimedia learning materials to

them. Engaging students in interactive peer to peer discussions in small groups or whole

class sessions.

SURVEY AFTER TRIAL RUN

QUESTIONS ASKED: Was it easy accessing information( e.g. videos, audio messages etc ) on WhatsApp - 100% Was it easy accessing information( e.g. videos, audio messages etc ) on Facebook - 100% Do you think WhatsApp or Facebook as an educational tool will enhance learning for you -95.8 Did you encounter offline problems while using these resources -79.1% Which of these tools do you think will encourage better learning and would you prefer to be

used:

WhatsApp Facebook Both - 100% None

Students really excited about using these tools for educational purposes Some commented that’ Using these tools have resulted in more interactive peer/peer /teacher

discussions’ and ‘ WhatsApp was very convenient and easily accessible’

CONCLUSIONIn conclusion I would like to say that this case study has opened up lots of avenues for me to improve teaching and enhance learning.

The positive feedback from my surveys with my group of students has encouraged me to investigate even more improved ways of using technology to encourage better learning

WhatsApp worked well together with Facebook and Ikamva

Quite a number of my students are not from the Western Cape so It is an excellent communication tool; easily accessible and more convenient to use

WHATSAPP GROUP

FACEBOOK GROUP PER 210

QUESTION POSTED TO GROUP ON FACEBOOK

IKAMVA BLOG POSTING

BIBLIOGRAPHY Church, K & De Oliviera, R. (2013). What’s up with WhatsApp?

Comparing Mobile Instant Messaging Behaviors with Traditional SMS. MobileHCI’, August 27-30,  Munich,  Germany.

Gupta, B & Koo, Y. (2010). Applications of Mobile Learning in Higher Education: An Empirical Study. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 6(3): 75-87.

Lui, T.C. (2007). Teaching in a wireless environment: A case study. Educational Technology and Society, 10(1)107 -123.

Rajasingham, L. (2011). Will Mobile Learning Bring a Paradigm Shift in Higher Education?” Education Research International, vol.2011, Article ID 528495, 10 pages, 2011. Doi: 10.1155/2011/528495

Schleyer et al. (2012) Journal of Dental Education. January 1, volume 76, no 1, 142-153

Strickland, Jonathan. "How Facebook Works" 10 December 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/facebook.htm> 12 May 2014.

Tiffin, J.,& Rajasingham(2003), The global Virtual University, Routledge, New York, NY,USA

Tucci, L. (2014) Mobile Technology in Dental Hygiene and Practice. Digital Thesis Room.http:hdl.handle.net/10791/36

Wang,Q. 2009. Affordances of Facebook for learning.International Journal of Continiung Engineering Education and Life Long Learning.Vol 19.Nos 2 / 3. 247-255

http://www.whatsapp.com/    

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