The Inherent Tensions of “Instant Education”: A Critical Review of Mobile Instant Messaging

Authors

  • Christoph Pimmer University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW Institute for Information Systems
  • Patient Rambe University of the Free State

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i5.3765

Keywords:

instant messaging, mobile instant messaging, educational technology, mobile learning, social media, dialectical theory

Abstract

This paper critically reviews literature on the role of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) applications, such as WhatsApp, in supporting learning and teaching practice. Using formal qualitative synthesis as its methodology, and dialectical theory as an analytical framework, our main objective was to identify tensions, affordances, constraints, and resolution strategies in educational uses of MIM. In contrast to prior work, the analysis offers a nuanced and complex picture of the use of MIM in learning and teaching settings. Instead of facilitating the creation of educational outcomes in a straightforward manner, the realities of MIM use are socially constructed and the subject of conflictual negotiations. The educational use of MIM requires users to navigate the interdependent dialectical tensions of immediacy versus delays (temporal dimension), intimacy versus detachment (relationship dimension) and task versus ludic orientation (intellectual dimension). The findings also reveal a number of behavioural and technical resolution strategies that users deploy to manage these tensions.

Downloads

Published

2018-11-27

How to Cite

Pimmer, C., & Rambe, P. (2018). The Inherent Tensions of “Instant Education”: A Critical Review of Mobile Instant Messaging. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i5.3765

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 5 (2018)

Section

Research Articles

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors.

This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive.

You are free to

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms below:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.