AUT lecturer - Texting boosts student study |
Texting boosts student study A mobile texting platform designed by an AUT University lecturer is delivering course content and study tips into the hands of tertiary students around New Zealand. Sport and Recreation lecturer Peter Mellow originally created the “StudyTXT” system to help his students memorise muscle groups after they rejected the idea of traditional flashcards. “They didn’t want to pull out flashcards at the bus stop or in the quad but they were happy to sit there and read the messages on their mobile phones. It worked because it used the medium students were conversant with.” Now the system, which is available nationally through both mobile phone networks, is being trialled at AUT, Waiariki Institute of Technology, Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC), Otago Polytechnic and Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). At AUT alone, the messages are being accessed by more than 600 students across 11 papers. The Waiariki Institute of Technology is using the platform for its nursing students to deliver five key messages from two-hour lectures, and it has made the information available to nursing students at MIT and WINTEC. “There is huge potential for education providers to collaborate around course content,” says Peter Mellow. A secondary school trial is also being carried out in a range of NCEA subjects with the goal of offering the service to all secondary schools in New Zealand by July 2006. As well as text messages, StudyTXT hosts MPG4 and WMV movie clips which can be downloaded for free to play on the iPod video, PSP and video capable cellphones. MP3 audio files (podcasting) of lectures are also provided for free so students can listen to their course content on their MP3 player or MP3 capable cellphone. “The accessibility and immediacy of mobile phones make them ideal tools for delivering information. Industry Training Organisations are another potential audience for the service.” Peter Mellow recently presented at a conference in Australia and gathered enough interest there to explore a potential export market. “The good news is that the messages can be housed in New Zealand on their Touchpoint server and delivered through to the Australian mobile network.” www.studyTXT.com |
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Texting boosts student study
A mobile texting platform designed by an AUT lecturer is delivering course content into the hands of tertiary students
A mobile texting platform designed by an AUT University lecturer is delivering course content and study tips into the hands of tertiary students around New Zealand.
Sport and Recreation lecturer Peter Mellow originally created the “StudyTXT” system to help his students memorise muscle groups after they rejected the idea of traditional flashcards.
“They didn’t want to pull out flashcards at the bus stop or in the quad but they were happy to sit there and read the messages on their mobile phones. It worked because it used the medium students were conversant with.”
Now the system, which is available nationally through both mobile phone networks, is being trialled at AUT, Waiariki Institute of Technology, Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC), Otago Polytechnic and Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). At AUT alone, the messages are being accessed by more than 600 students across 11 papers.
The Waiariki Institute of Technology is using the platform for its nursing students to deliver five key messages from two-hour lectures, and it has made the information available to nursing students at MIT and WINTEC.
“There is huge potential for education providers to collaborate around course content,” says Peter Mellow.
A secondary school trial is also being carried out in a range of NCEA subjects with the goal of offering the service to all secondary schools in New Zealand by July 2006.
As well as text messages, StudyTXT hosts MPG4 and WMV movie clips which can be downloaded for free to play on the iPod video, PSP and video capable cellphones. MP3 audio files (podcasting) of lectures are also provided for free so students can listen to their course content on their MP3 player or MP3 capable cellphone.
“The accessibility and immediacy of mobile phones make them ideal tools for delivering information. Industry Training Organisations are another potential audience for the service.”
Peter Mellow recently presented at a conference in Australia and gathered enough interest there to explore a potential export market.
“The good news is that the messages can be housed in New Zealand on their Touchpoint server and delivered through to the Australian mobile network.”
www.studyTXT.com
www.aut.ac.nz/staff/insideaut/2006_may/education_in_palm_of_hand.htm