Ethnography of emerging translocated virtual student communities in Kenya

Abstract

Internet based technologies and electronic devices have changed the way we look at the world in the 21st Century and especially among the savvy youth. This position is ever changing speedily, and has greatly influenced the way we communicate, pre-occupy ourselves, and concentrate at work, in class and even during special moments reserved for other engagements of life. Young persons were surveyed from Moi and Kisii University about their spatial occupation of two worlds; the real world and the virtual space. University students are experiencing new forms of interaction and social relations, more with the cyber world, that transform the very meaning of life experiences including education and knowledge, as a result of duality dwelling in the real world and the virtual space. University students revealed how learning occurs in multiple contexts, and many a times beyond the classroom. This answers the question how students learn inside and outside the lecture room from their relationship with the cyber space world. Profoundly, the paper presents the experiences and felt outcomes of dwelling in binary worlds and recommends the benefits of translocating in binary spaces and need to research characteristics of the youth who pilgrimage and operate in these newer community spaces.