What would be a convincing purpose for embedding social media like Twitter into a college course?
Our students live in a world of constant sound bites of communication. They post in Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and many other micro- and video-blog sites. We’ve heard the adage before: To engage our students in class, we should use the tools they are already engaged with outside of class. While it would be ridiculous to work all of the social media tools into a single course, it may be worthwhile to incorporate at least one. Doing it well, with sound pedagogical purpose and follow-through is the key to experiencing success.
Let’s take Twitter as a case in point for now with the understanding that what much of what is mentioned here can be applied to other social media avenue. The most basic and easiest method for using Twitter in a course is for the instructor to share their handle with students and the students to follow their instructor throughout, and possibly beyond, the duration of the course. Twitter, because it is used so widely in professional arenas, is great for connecting students with leaders in their field of study. As students follow recommended people that instructors suggest, it can help facilitate and enrich in-class discussion. Of course the great thing about using Twitter in general is that it brings the classroom discussion outside of a set time period or LMS and into everyday life.
But are there other ways for using Twitter with our students? Yes! Twitter can be used for collaboration. A class or group of students could write a song or poem with each contributing a line via Twitter. Live chats can be held via Twitter with professionals in the field of study. Case scenarios can be analyzed while other scenarios can be posed with the question of what to do next. Based on student responses, the instructor then tweets out the result of the decision asking student “Now what?”. Again, running these types of Twitter activities outside of class can foster interesting and reflective conversations during class whether class is in-person or online.
So next time you’re thinking the blue bird is a symbol of micro-blogging craziness, consider how it, or another form of social media, could actually add another dimension to your in-person or online course.