Using Twitter to Teach (Part 3): Roadblock and Reflection

21 Mar Using Twitter to Teach (Part 3): Roadblock and Reflection

My goal when I started this series was to use Twitter as an instructional tool in my online courses this spring that I teach for a local community college. In part one and part two of this series, I introduced the tool and reviewed factors to consider before implementing it as a teaching tool.

Everything was going according to plan. I decided I would use Twitter weekly to share current events related to topics covered in class and ask students to do the same. My instructional approach has always been to tie concepts to my students’ personal experiences, current events, or real world situations. Twitter was definitely going to help me more easily convey difficult business-related concepts, those that my students find more difficult to understand. Many students could also benefit from participating in professional learning networks and the social aspects of Twitter that facilitate a greater sense of community for the class.

Excited about the possibility, I decided to discuss my plan with my department chair a few weeks before the semester. I was stopped almost immediately into my explanation. “You cannot use Twitter or Facebook in your class to communicate with students…it is against university policy.” I failed to consider that the institution had developed a policy regarding social media. I could literally write a whole blog post on my opinion of the policy, but I’ll save it for another day.

I was very disappointed and immediately began to consider my options. I could fight it, drop it, or find an alternative tool. My initial thought was to fight it. My department chair offered to talk to the administration on my behalf but I would have to provide rationale for my argument. I drafted a narrative but I thought it would be more powerful to include data about my current students’ use of Twitter. I added a few questions to inquire about the preferred methods of communication (both social and professional) to the introduction forum of the course. To my complete surprise, not one student used Twitter for either personal or professional communication or news.

I took a few days to think and reflect on the situation. Instructional tools are supposed to make teaching and learning easier. Under the ideal circumstances, I still believe Twitter can do that. But for my situation, it was going to make things more difficult for me and my students.

It took me a long time to sit down and write this post. Mostly, because I feel like I failed those who are able and interested in using Twitter to teach and who could have gained some insight from my experience. However, now that I’m writing my thoughts down, I feel like I made the right decision. Meeting with the administration, I would have had to argue for an instructional tool without any solid proof that my students use it or would find it useful. I still plan on using Twitter in my teaching at some point. I will just have to wait for the right time. For my next and last installment of this series, I will share some resources on Twitter and discuss how others are using the tool.

If you have had a similar experience implementing a teaching tool, please share your stories below.

– Image from FlickrCC user WebsiteRockstars