Discussion
The links, powerpoint, and matrix on this page offer just a few ways in which Twitter can assist learning. What other best practices have you heard of / created / incorporated into your instruction?
Pros
- Focus on brevity - cut to the chase
- Share announcements, ideas, links
- Ask questions, get answers
Cons
- Same risks of all third-party software apply
- Content is public - no privacy for students' work within the medium
- Content on the site is not stored indefinitely; content that users want to save should be archived elsewhere
- Important information can get lost in the stream unless managed
Best Practices
- Announcements to students
- Micro-writing assignments, discussion
- Take notes / backchannel during lectures
- Build students' online presence in their field, network professionally for future career success
- Teach students to maintain a positive, professional online identity
Resources for using Twitter in Education
The links below include articles, videos, and other guides for instructors using Twitter.
Links
“Tweeting Students Earn Higher Grades Than Others in Classroom Experiment.” Paige Chapman. The Chronicle of Higher Education. November 12, 2010. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/tweeting-students-earn-higher-grades-than-others-in-classroom-experiment/28172
"25 Ways to Teach with Twitter." Sonja Cole. Tech & Learning. June 4, 2009. http://www.techlearning.com/article/20896
“Twitter in Higher Education 2010: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty.” Faculty Focus. 2010. http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/twitter-in-higher-education-2010-usage-habits-and-trends-of-todays-college-faculty/
“Using Twitter to Deliver a Collaborative Keynote.” Jane Hart. Jane’s e-Learning Pick of the Day. May 23, 2010. http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2010/05/using-twitter-to-deliver-a-collaborative-keynote.html
“7 Things You Should Know About Microblogging.” Peggy Kurkowski. Educause. July 7, 2009. http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutMicro/174629
“Twitter for Adults.” Darek Powazek. November 3, 2010. http://powazek.com/posts/2754
“A Framework for Teaching with Twitter.” Mark Sample. ProfHacker. August 16, 2010 http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-framework-for-teaching-with-twitter/26223
“Practical Advice for Teaching with Twitter.” Mark Sample. ProfHacker. August 25, 2010 http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/practical-advice-for-teaching-with-twitter/26416
“More Professors Are Using Twitter—but Mostly Not for Teaching” Bernard Schuster. Comment. The Chronicle. October 4, 2010. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/more-professors-are-using-twitter-but-mostly-not-for-teaching/27354
“The Difference Between Thick and Thin Tweets.” David Silver. Silver in SF: Teaching and Learning in a City Called San Francisco. February 25, 2009. http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2009/02/difference-between-thin-and-thick.html
“Thin tweets are posts that convey one layer of information. Thick tweets convey two or more, often with help from a hyperlink.” Encourage students to use 140 characters or less to make a link so interesting that people will naturally want to click on it.
"Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags." Ann Smarty. Search Engine Journal. March 24, 2009. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-hashtags/9419/
Using Twitter for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development in Higher Education. Teaching with Twitter, presented as part of Wicks, D., Via, S., & Rhode, J. (2011, January 27). Presented online for the Northwest eLearning Community January 27, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3qYj4Mdaw
"Eight Videos to Help Teachers Get Started Using Twitter." David Wees. 21st Century Educator. August 26, 2010. http://davidwees.com/content/eight-videos-help-teachers-get-started-using-twitter
These videos explain how to set up a Twitter account, adjust profile settings, and how to download/customize Tweetdeck for desktop Twitter management. There is not as much information about the actual process of tweeting, or pedagogical strategies, but this is more of a back-end tutorial: assuming the teacher already knows what Twitter is and how to tweet, these videos will help make the rest of the minutiae more manageable.
“Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter.” Laura Walker. Blog Post. March 29, 2009. http://mrslwalker.com/index.php/2009/03/29/nine-great-reasons-why-teachers-should-use-twitter/
“More than a third of Higher Education Faculty are on Twitter.” Kelly Walsh. Educause. November 1, 2010. http://www.educause.edu/blog/kwalsh1/MorethanathirdofHigherEducatio/217894
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