Pull and Push technologies

Ross Woods, 2019, rev. '20

In internet communications, a “pull” system is one that requires the user to initiate an interaction, which typically is to log in to a website. In contrast, a “push” technology is one that initiates the interaction. A hard-to-ignore billboard is such an approach; anybody driving past the billboard gets the message.

All websites and all current known Learning Management Systems (LMS) are “pull” systems. They depend on students to log in, and if they don't, they become inactive and can easily drop out.

WhatsApp is different in that it has several features that convert a normally “pull” medium into a “push” medium. First, its native device is a cellphone, which most people carry at all times and leave switched on. This gives it an advantage over other devices, which normally need to be opened and switched on. (Although many LMSs now work on cellphones, their screens are too crowded to be native to cellphones.) Second, it requires users to install an application so that the user is always connected as long as the cellphone is switched on; they no longer need to log in. Third, the application causes the cellphone to ring or to vibrate whenever any communication comes in. That is, the caller initiates the interaction, even though the user can choose to ignore it or to switch off the ring tone and vibrator. Put another way, in an educational context, the students are in class whenever they have their phones switched on and with them.

WhatsApp has some of the powers of an LMS. It also allows course developers to provide information through links to web pages or to video; it is not purely chat and they don't have to type everything into a cellphone. Students can then extract information directly from those sources by clicking on links. It also allows the group moderator, to eject members from the group for unacceptable behavior.

A push technology, however, brings some challenges for tutors of online groups. First, for widespread use, it needs software to automate enrollment in classes.

Second, the “push” technology offers the oppposite weakness to “pull” systems. Instead of restricting interaction, they let it out of control. Students can always chat because they are always connected to each other and to the tutor. This puts pressure on tutors to feel that they are always on call, and makes it is more difficult for them to control chat chat does not follow the rules of netiquette.