Using ICQ to enhance teacher-student relationships

Abstract

This research investigated the use of computer mediated communication (CMC) tools to enhance teacher-student relationships in two secondary schools in Hong Kong. This study showed that ICQ (a most popular CMC tool) could be used to enhance teacher-student relationships in these cases. An ethnographic approach was used where the interviews were conducted with key informants, face to face (n=11) and then through ICQ (n=4). Teachers who used ICQ to communicate with students were also interviewed (n=4). It was found in this study that the school and the parents over-stressed academic achievement, with both teachers and students being required to spend most of their time on academic related matters, and as such the results were that teacher-student communication was found to be rare in the two school environments. The study was able to summarise why students prefer using ICQ to communicate with teachers, how the Confucian heritage culture affects teacher-student communication in Hong Kong schools, and how ICQ can be used to enhance teacher-student communication.