This paper describes an empirical study on postgraduate students in a local university to investigate whether instant messaging (IM) tools are used as enabler tools for learning in tertiary institutions. We first developed a theoretical model based on the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM). We then undertook a survey of 104 postgraduate students. The findings indicated that external factors such as technology utility, network externality, media influences, self-efficacy and affection have a significant effect on perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). In our study, PEOU has significant influence on the students' acceptance of IM tools as enabler for learning, contrary to past research result of PU influencing acceptance intention. Overall, the findings suggested students' perceptions of IM tools are easy to use and useful in the context of learning. The paper concludes with a discussion on implication to education.
This website has a large database of articles that reference multimedia authorship and technology in schools. Included is an article which references my subject. This article is titled "Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing?"
This article talks about the editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's goals for the coming year. It focuses on the balance between the print edition and the online newspaper. It emphasizes the growing trend towards multimedia authorship.
This website is basically the largest index of text/ chat abbreviations used on the web. It chronicles abbreviations from A-Z. "With the popularity and rise in real-time text-based communications, such as instant messaging, e-mail, Internet and online gaming services, chat rooms, discussion boards and mobile phone text messaging (SMS), came the emergence of a new language tailored to the immediacy and compactness of these new communication media. If you have ever received an instant message or text message that seemed to be written in a foreign language, this Webopedia Quick Reference will help you decipher the text chat lingo by providing the definitions to more than 1,200 chat abbreviations."