How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom
Teachers are always trying to combat student apathy and University of Texas at Dallas History Professor, Monica Rankin, has found an interesting way to do it using Twitter in the classroom.
Rankin uses a weekly hashtag to organize comments, questions and feedback posted by students to Twitter during class. Some of the students have downloaded Tweetdeck to their computers, others post by SMS or by writing questions on a piece of paper. Rankin then projects a giant image of live Tweets in the front of the class for discussion and suggests that students refer back to the messages later when studying. The Professor's results so far have been mixed but it is clear that more students are participating in classroom discussions than they used to. A video about Rankin's classroom experiment follows.
It's funny to hear this history professor admit that "there are some topics we discuss that need more information" than Twitter's 140 character limit allows. Some! Said like a true Twitter convert. It's also nice to hear a teacher talk about technology and say, "it's going to be messy but that doesn't mean bad." Welcome to the social web, where that's a great attitude.
Rankin wrote a few pages of thoughts about "The Twitter Experiment" on her school web page as well. "Most educators would agree that large classes set in the auditorium-style classrooms limit teaching options to lecture, lecture, and more lecture," she wrote. "And most educators would also agree that this is not the most effective way to teach. I wanted to find a way to incorporate more student-centered learning techniques and involve the students more fully into the material."
Rankin's experiment is similar to another effort at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, written up this Spring in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Another related example is available from Marquette University. Education consultant Jane Heart maintains a directory of more than 1000 learning professionals on Twitter.
Twitter truly is a paradigm shaking technology platform, but Rankin's use of it at the University of Texas also illustrates some of its shortcomings. Most importantly, Twitter search and archiving are notoriously short-lived. The service was really intended for fleeting tweets about casual activities, and it seems to have been architected that way. Short lines of poetry, ruminating about the history of the world, penned by young scholars standing in the doorway to the rest of their intellectual lives? Not so much. These students will be lucky if they can retrieve their earliest Tweets at the end of the term.
Asking students to discuss their classes in a very public forum has got to raise concerns for some people as well. Rankin says participation isn't required, but it's because of these kinds of concerns that private, education focused services like EdModo have a market. That closed communication comes at the expense of public knowledge sharing, but classroom innovators may not be able to have it both ways in the long term.
The tide certainly seems to be turning though, in favor of education augmented by these kinds of technologies. A March draft proposal for UK primary school education guidelines, for example, includes nationwide instruction in the use of tools like Wikipedia and Twitter.
For many other ideas about how to use Twitter in the classroom, check out this presentation deck on the topic.
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Sean Ammirati, Doug Coleman Dana Oshiro, Steven Walling and Lidija Davis.
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wish I had a teacher like this.
Great experiment. I've had success with the concept too, at Michigan State
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/bringing-back-channel-forward.html
I am a professor at Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!) and use twitter in my Social Media Class (of course) but will integrate its usage into all my courses next semester. I wrote about some of the benefits here http://billhandy.com/2009/04/18/the-social-media-classroom .
I have always been a fan of social media in the classroom, using wikis, blogs, etc. But Twitter is definitely the killer app for the moment.
In my opinion, the relationship of social media and education is a match made in heaven. Using social media and specifically Twitter I found many of the students were much more engaged, learning truly occurred 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the students providing an enormous amount of content, all the knowledge was collected into one place (one of the greatest values of social media), there was a stronger sense of community among the students in the class, and I could go on and on... I would argue though, those students who had access to smart phones, to integrate this learning tool into their daily lives, gained more from the class.
In my perfect classroom every student would have a smart phone to occupy their hands during class and their minds afterward. True, not every student will take advantage of the technology but not every student takes advantage of the book they buy.
A quick plug, if anyone would like to partner on any social media in the classroom research, initiatives, partnerships, etc. please let me know. All my contact info is on my website.
My own effort is at http://cit499.info
Check out Eminem's new single Beautiful on The Video Tube http://fli.gg/50Qtpgwb #musicmonday
Posted by: Alexander Maxham
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June 1, 2009 8:11 PM
I congratulate my Latin American professor for taking the initiative in using social media as an educational platform. That is why I posted her video and conclusion on Twitter.I agree with the others that social media is a welcoming addition to the academic world. I hope other schools take the same initiative and other professors break from the status quo and help adapt the educational system to today's emerging technology.
Suggest the students use it or forces?
I've had many teachers blackmail students into contributing to the forum on blackboard. Contribute (even if it is crap) and get the percentage points. Don't contribute and your grade suffers.
the coolest thing I saw on the Internet today, there is some hope for innovation in the education systems
Posted by: Dobromir Hadzhiev
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June 2, 2009 1:44 AM
I think this is a really cool idea, students can really be pulled into the academics by use of these tools that they are sure to love!
This is a great example of a teaher who "gets it". Surely there are shortcomings in using something like Twitter as a way to encourage classroom participation. But just as surely it's a new way to do so that might perfectly reach tech saavy students. And perhaps those that might be a little shy. Most importantly, it's taking advantage of new communication avenues that will continue to evolve.
I recently started encouraging SMS messages during presentations I give to groups of small business owners/managers and have found that it is a way - even on a small scale - to encourage a question that might not have otherwise been asked!
Kudos to this example of out of box thinking in the classroom!
Good to see this sort of thing happening - i wrote about discussing this exact topic a few days ago: http://geetarchurchy.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/twitter-in-schools/
Using Twitter as a front channel in the classroom must be a way for educators to engage their students in and out of school/college
I thought Monica's use of Twitter for the history course was very unique and she seems to have very positive feedback from her students (& really put together a fantastic video).
I have been using Twitter outside of the classroom (published in the CALICO 2009 Monograph, chapter 4 and then continued the study this past semester with Seth Dickens (Twitter @SethDickens) and his English students in Trento, Italy. You can read about that on my blog.
I wish we have such a teacher! I bet students would participate and pay attention even more than they used to.
"In your post you write, "The tide certainly seems to be turning though, in favor of education augmented by these kinds of technologies." Whether you subscribe to this or not...I couldn't agree more.
I blogged about a concept called ambient awareness as it relates to the Twitter community. Check it out.
http://blurthelines.typepad.com/weblog/2009/05/ambient-awareness.html "
Something like this is perfect for the new Google Wave.
As a lecturer in a college in Nottingham, we've been using twitter to engage students for about a year now.
The use of a social networking system where students can access a project from several sources whether in college or at home has seen project interest more than double from previous years.
We have other other plans for social teaching in the planning and looking forward to developing a more engaging learning experience with our students.
Derek O'Brien
Lecturer in Interactive Social and Dynamic Media
New College Nottingham
Definitely interesting to see such innovative use of Twitter which occurs most in the open space (except for protected tweets). Would this have worked with Yammer?
I tried this at Mason for my marketing class and was mostly met with blank stares from my students. I finally had to test them on my posts to get them to actually read and use Twitter.
There was some data today that Gen Y doesn't get Twitter. I have seen that in reality. Link to data here:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/twitter-falls-flat-for-78-of-gen-y-9296/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink
Shaun Dakin
--
Shaun Dakin, MBA
GMU Faculty
MSOM 303, 003 Spring 09
Class Twitter - http://twitter.com/MS0M303
Personal Twitter @IsCool
Business Twitter @EndTheRoboCalls
This is a greatidea. Creating dialogue where there may otherwise be less or none. I wish my lecturers did this.
Two Words: GOOGLE WAVE
That'd be the best application for something like this.
For those interested in a private Twitter-like backchannel, they might want to check out Today's Meet as well: http://todaysmeet.com/
It's so interesting.
I'll try it .
Very interesting application.
Twitter when combined with other services like video from ustream could make for some more interesting scenarios and the opportunity for out of work folks to make money tutoring more than one person at a time.
BU students Boston Marathon coverage project featuring twitter http://digg.com/u14oEk
That's interesting. I think its a great way to encourage participation from students using twitter - a tool that young people nowadays enjoy using.
This is awesome. I wish more teachers would do this!
I too have been using Twitter in my freshman comp classes here at UW-Stout and posted my findings this week on my Twitter Research page
I must say really great interesting experiment.
How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom http://bit.ly/jBxgW (cool video from UofT) [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/1997191288]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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June 10, 2009 3:51 PM
I need to try this...
Very cool.
Posted by: Bryan Entzminger
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June 22, 2009 8:20 AM
Interesting commentary, Marshall. I was lucky enough to interview Dr. Rankin regarding her use of Twitter in the classroom, and I was able to gather some insight into her processes.
The real question for education seems to be how they will adapt as students continue to use the internet as an education resource. Social media can be an extension of this learning potential, if it is used to facilitate discussion and increase collaboration between peers.
Take a look at my commentary, and let me know what you guys think!
http://interfolio.com/blog/post.cfm/twitter-in-the-classroom-how-monica-rankin-uses-technology-to-enhance-discussion
Twitter is really a very simple concept conceptually. But its incredible how it can be used so effectively in a myriad of ways.
Sounds very interesting and innovative. Students need to be motivated. This might just be the tool to do it.
http://veryveryblessed.livejournal.com
Some hope for innovation in the education systems
Teachers are always trying to combat student apathy and University of Texas at Dallas History Professor, Monica Rankin, has found an interesting way to do it using Twitter in the classroom.
im a young male college student that had always assumed twitter was for old people trying to stay young, about 8 minutes ago i looked up the age demographic for twitter and its like 35 through 50yrs old or osmething and im like wow i was right, and then i remembered someone talking about their teacher made everyone sign up for twitter (probably assumed most students were on there already) so they could check their homework assignments or some bull, i was like HAHAHA HELLA LAME
I've found Tweets for UCLA and IBM Research. I was wondering if anyone had directories for such news sources...
I have found these tweets to be very informative. However, I don't like following a million tweets every day, especially since I've connected it to my Pidgin messenger, so what I do is take news sources that I want the ability to check without any kind of clutter on my twitter account, I subscribe to the RSS inside of iGoogle, that way I can go to the page and have all of their stories available at a glance.
I never cease to be amazed at the wide variety of applications twitter can be put to. I guess this is what they term as a "freeform" solution. It can be molded for endless uses.
wow! I will show this post to my college teachers.
Are there any studies of Twitter in elementary education?
Perhaps we had the wrong teachers, maybe we needed a teacher like this