Enhancing Classroom Education with Instant Messaging Tools

Instant Messaging (IM) tools have been popularly spread over the campus in recent years due to its good interactivity for geographically distributed users. Many lecturers have chosen one of the IM tools as complementary means to improve their classroom teaching effects. In this paper, a number of issues we experienced are presented, including privacy concerns, trade-off between efficiency and fairness, and inside or outside classroom. Then, a model previously published for peer to-peer time-free learning is discussed. Finally, a result of teaching practice using IM tools is presented, which approves promising use of IM tools based on this model.