UT Dallas History Professor Dr. Monica Rankin, @monicarankin, wanted to know how she could reach and include more students in the class discussion. She had heard of Twitter... The following is a short video describing her "Twitter Experiment" in the classroom with comments from students about the pros and cons of Twitter in a traditional learning environment.
I am Graduate student at UT Dallas pursuing a Masters in Emerging Media and Communication (EMAC) and collaborated with Dr. Rankin to see how Twitter might be used in her US History 2 class. This experiment was both exciting and a bit daunting...
The video is one of my projects for a digital video class with Dean Terry, @therefore, and part of a class project in my content creation and collaboration class with Dan Langendorf, @dlangendorf.
http://emac.utdallas.edu
@kesmit3
Thursday, April 30, 2009
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22 comments:
Great experiment and video. Thank you for sharing!
Awesome video of a great use of twitter in the classroom.
Really interesting video. One of the things I like about experiments like this one is how they force educators to rethink students' use of personal communication devices (like computers and cellphones) in the classroom. Many educators see these devices as a distraction, and actively try to discourage their use. But, of course, these devices are just tools, so to see them as fundamentally distracting and ban them would make as much sense as banning students from using pen and paper to take notes. Analog communication technology like writing contains the same potential for distraction as do computers (ever passed a note in class?). Recognizing this fact, instructors need to be more proactive in harassing new technologies for learning by bringing them into the classroom conversation.
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Any unforeseen (or foreseen) drawbacks? The video seemed to be mostly positive, with face time given to students who are clearly enthusiastic. I'm all for it, but I'd like a little more info on the whole picture.
I'm tempted to try this for my own large classes, hence the interest.
Nathan, Kim asked me to comment I suspect in regards to your concerns about drawbacks from using Twitter in the classroom.
I used Twitter in my graduate seminar, Information Architecture, this past semester in much the same way that it was used in Dr. Rankin's class. During discussion, students commented on the discussion via Twitter with the hopes that it would result in an in an interesting meta-discussion.
The result, however, was not at all what I expected. Because we were such a small group--only 8--each of us really needed to be dedicated to the oral discussion. When we weren't, Twitter became a bit of a distraction and the oral discussion suffered without the Twitter discussion getting any better. So, I would not recommend for smaller classes.
The one place it did benefit, and was not at all expected, was that it gave me insight into how students were working on projects outside of the classroom. I asked students to use the #ias09 hashtag for all tweets relating to the course. As a result, they started tweeting about the assignments, the readings, questions about both, and engaging in conversations about the course on Twitter completely naturally with no push to do so. Reading their discussions was both enlightening (as to how they approach work) and maddening (when they asked questions that were clearly covered in the syllabus). Mostly, however, it resulted in students engaging with each others' learning 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, which was very nice. It created a real bond between them.
If we're thinking of drawbacks, I guess access and comfort putting themselves out there online would be two things to look out for. One of my students was clearly not comfortable with Twitter, but she did what she had to to get by.
I didn't go over the importance of Twittering with the cell phone. Next time I try this I will because it allows for even greater access.
Hope that helps!
This is a groundbreaking work in that it explores social media beyond the three dimensional world of networking and searching. Twitter is demonstrated as a productivity tool that can foster multitasking in a learning environment, thus fully exploiting the potential of each student, and the classroom as a whole. Furthermore, it is a pure work of social media in itself given that the story is a wiki woven from the comments of the participants rather than the opinions or interpretations of the producer. Great work Kim!
Great video. Looks like it was a TON of editing. It's super smooth and you have pieced it together in a great story.
What a great piece! Hopefully this will prompt more proliferation of technology in classrooms, and quell the technophobia that seems to hold an eternal grip over institutions (or adopting archaic systems like WebCT). This video shows that tools like Twitter can be bigger than Oprah, they can help educate.
nathan,
I think you bring up a valuable question and one I will try and address in a follow-up video. Twitter and new technologies bring to question many things including boundaries. One of the drawbacks, which I have on video, was the use of the english language via Twitter. I asked Bill to comment on the cons because he said it did not work in his smaller group. What struck me about Dr. Rankin is her willingness to try something new.
Joseph,
I find it encouraging that you understand the implications. So much work to do... education in the US is an important issue and there are so many tools and resources that we can think of in new ways to use in service of this.
Brandantonio,
As for WEBCT, yes - I will do a special video on that one day.
Did I mention how much I liked this video?
Or how grateful I am you shot the footage of me?? xo
Excellent experiment, and I do hope you continue it in future classes. This type of textual integration is a great way for many more students' voices to be "heard"! We've been working with a similar service in a set of middle school classes: www.edmodo.com - give it a look. It's very similar to Twitter, but is a more "closed" educational environment. (In case you might need a "closed" system for whatever reason.)
Your video is very well crafted. I teach two sections of 50 student in HIST-1301 or -1302 each term.Mmany of these have limited oral skills in English and are reluctant to speak up in class. Several of them commented that the use of Discussion Board on eCampus (WebCT) gave them a chance to "talk" without being intimidated. Using twitter offers a way for me to pull more students into a discussion. I will incorporate it into my classes this fall and let you know how it goes.
Any chance you could post the URL to the YouTube video so I could download via ZamZar? YouTube is blocked in my school but I would love to share this video...
jerthebear,
Hi! Yes, here's the YouTube link. Also, what school are you at? Love to hear what y'all are doing re: new media and tech in the classroom.
Kim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
Great video. I used it as part of my latest blog post - "Engage Student Discussion: Use the Social Network in Your Classroom"Hope I can drive some traffic to your site so that others can see your creative approach to teaching and student film making.
I am the prof behind the twitter experiment. Kim did a great job with the video and she helped me figure out how to use twitter and make it work in the classroom. After receiving quite a few questions through email and twitter, I wrote up an informal summary with more info on how the twitter project worked. You can find it at: http://www.utdallas.edu/~mrankin/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm
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What an awesome story and thanks for sharing!
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Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!
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