Teaching with Twitter (Part Four): Uphill Road, Optimistic Outlook

21 Apr Teaching with Twitter (Part Four): Uphill Road, Optimistic Outlook

(This is the fourth installment of the Teaching with Twitter Series. Here are the links to the previous installments: Part One, Part Two, Part Three)

We here at the CETL, especially me, love to add fuel to the “social media should be utilized more in higher education” fire. I am a big proponent of social media in general because I have found it to be a rewarding tool for learning, personal growth, and professional development. Social media has also provided an avenue for me to share my own work, thoughts, and opinions.

However, the acceptance of social media in higher education, particularly in the classroom, has a long way to go. According to a study by the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson, only 2 percent of professors surveyed use Twitter in class and only 2 percent use it for professional purposes.  In fact, 53 percent of professors surveyed think that Twitter has no redeemable pedagogical value and can actually harm classroom learning.

Regardless of the study, I am not discouraged. Those who have taken the “Twitter leap” in class have found favorable results including increased participation from students who would normally not participate in face-to-face classroom discussions.  Below is a video of Dr. Monica Rankin of the University of Texas at Dallas is using Twitter in her history classes (via Mashable).

When discussing her initial thoughts about using Twitter in the classroom, Dr. Rankin states, “…[I] remember saying it’s going to be messy, and I’m just going to have to come to come to grips with the fact that it’s going to be messy, but messy doesn’t mean that it’s going to be bad.”

Communications Instructor Linda Menck of Marquette University utilizes Twitter for a number of instructional uses including communicating with students about course and industry related topics and gauging students’ interest or issues by following their Twitter conversations.

Menck, along with her colleague, Professor Gee Ekachai, see teaching social media as vital to the development of their communication students, given that their industry has embraced social media as an emerging communication tool.

There are countless other uses for Twitter in the Classroom. I am encouraged because I know that social media can be a viable educational and social tool. I am proof, for example, that being shy in face-to-face settings can be overcome by working on social skills online. I am also very encouraged when I read that in a recent study published in an issue of Learning, Media, and Technology, professors who used Twitter for both social and scholarly Tweets were perceived as more credible by their students than those who only posted scholarly tweets. The “social” in social media is proving to add value to the educational experience of students.

I will leave you with some additional resources and examples.

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom

Twitter Replaces Three Classroom Technologies

Vblog: Christine Morris discusses Twitter in the Classroom

Professor Encourages Students to Pass Notes During Class (Chronicle) – via Twitter

6 Examples of Using Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter in the Classroom

Have a great week!

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Image from FlickrCC user dichohecho