Dr. Monica Rankin, Professor of history at University of
Texas, decided to try an experiment using Twitter in her classroom. She found it to be a very effective tool to
engage her students. She reported that a
class discussion (in her class of 90 students) would normally equate to a
handful of students participating. With
90 students in class, there is not an opportunity for each student to be
heard. As a result, many students “tune
out” because they feel left or they do not feel comfortable interjecting.
When Dr. Rankin assigned the discussion to be held on
Twitter, participation skyrocketed.
Suddenly, every student had a voice.
Twitter leveled the playing field by giving each student equal
opportunity to contribute. The 140-character
limit eliminated the problem of one student taking over the discussion. This also taught students to be concise.
Students enjoyed the Twitter class discussion much more than
an in-class discussion; they could participate on their own time, could comment
on remarks as they came up and the discussion could take off in a number of different
directions. They could also review the
trail of comments at anytime. Students
could respond on their phones or computers.
In Dr. Rankin’s class, the students without internet access could give
handwritten responses to the teaching assistant to post for them.
Dr. Rankin reflects upon this assignment, stating that she
barely knew what Twitter was when she decided to do this experiment. She knew it would be a challenge to try
something new but decided to jump in and do it and see what happens. She was very satisfied with the results, as
were the students as well.
I have thought about using Twitter for similar discussions. I felt that it could also be used as a sort of backchannel while learning new topics. Perhaps, in math class, I could have the site running and students could respond with "I don't get why we subtract that number" or something similar when they would probably remain silent and just give up.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. It would be a great tool to use during a computer lab time for the k-12 setting, especially for students without internet. I wonder if each student had to create a twitter account first or if there is a way for students to access the classroom account without their own? Some parents might not like their children creating their own accounts, even for school use, because of the access to everything else online.
ReplyDeleteWith any technology there are always hurdles, but this seems like a great tool! I especially like that students do have to really think and be more concise while trying to get their point across.