Social media, messaging apps are the new study tools
GOING
DIGITAL
Students are creating online groups to share notes, clear doubt
MUMBAI: With smart phones in every other
student’s hands, the popularity of messaging applications such as WhatsApp and
Facebook have reached a new high –the online mediums have become a platform for
studying and sharing notes.
WhatsApp’s popularity is mainly
owing to its feature of allowing the forming of groups with 50 members, on
which messages, pictures, videos etc. can be easily shared.
“We have a WhatsApp group with the
entire class on it, where we routinely share notes and study tips. During exams,
the group is very helpful for instant doubt clearing because almost all
students are on it at the same time,” said Shaunak Thakkar, a third year
engineering student from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering, Kurla.
Documents and pictures available on
social networking sites have done away with the need for riffling through
several books to find relevant material.
“Almost all the study material we
have received from teachers or other sources has been put up on our Facebook
group. It is much better than sending e-mails or sifting through physical
notes,” said Tejal Joshi, a second year mass media student from a city college.
Some students also upload academic
reference material on publicly accessible blogs while online forums such as
Bmmbox. com have notes sourced from students across mass media colleges,
accessible to registered members of the forum.
“We encourage students to be in
touch with each other and with us through e-mail groups as it they are an easy
way of communication and can be monitored by us. However, Facebook groups are
not encouraged since they often lead to unwarranted material,” said Kavita
Shetty, who runs online French and German lectures in Thane.
Academicians believe that such means
of studying are not harmful, but students should not misuse them or become
addicted to them.
“Use of such platfor ms becomes a
habit, interfering with the academics. Also, they can be used to cheat during
exams, because no matter how much we try, some students manage to sneak in
phones into the exam hall and cheat using t hese g roups,” said Dinesh
Panjwani, principal, RD National College, Bandra.
HT 140310
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