Twitter Becomes Class Involvement Tool
Monday, November 8, 2010
According to a study to be published in next week's Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Twitter is being used as means to improve class participation.
In an article by Sarah Kessler on Mashable, it is reported that this experiment conducted by Dr. Reynol Junco at Lock Haven University has seen great results.
According to the study students who were asked to complete assignments and join class discussion via Twitter raised their class involvement twice as much as the control group over a semester long period.
A 19 question survey was used at the start and end of the semester to determine each students involvement, which apparently was a success.
In addition the article points out that students who used Twitter saw a .5 increase in their GPA over the semester.
This to me seems like another point on how social media is taking over our everyday life. Using 140 characters to communicate in class seems crazy to me. I can see that this has advantages to get students of today to participate more in class by using new technology. But in reality isn't this hurting students?
It seems that Twitter and Facebook have done nothing but erase the grammar and punctuation rules that have been instilled in students heads by English teachers all over the world. Students are more apt to use slang terms than actually using proper grammar.
In my opinion this is just a dumbing down of our society. Yes social media is great for many purposes but as far as using it as a way to get students to participate, I think it is a bad idea. The only way it could be good is if students were forced to use proper grammar and punctuation which i think we all know would be tough to do.
I guess we'll just have to see if this idea takes off in more classrooms. I would really hope that it doesn't unless it is overwhelmingly helpful for students. Then it may be ok.
Photo courtesy of Carrot Creative/Flickr
5 comments:
I think it's great that a study showed Twitter improved class involvement. Yes, times are changing. I think it is important that teachers recognize this and use every tool available to them to help students learn. It seems to me that if you find something that works to help students you should use it.
Yes, social media is huge. The fact that it is being used in the classroom is great. I am assuming that the class didn't only consist of tweets. Therefore, it is used as one way of learning, not the only way.
I think texting has hurt students ability to use correct grammer more than Twitter. It came first, gave people bad habits, and people used these habits on social mediums.
I don't think making students use proper grammer and punctuation in tweets would be difficult. We do this in BNR class, and I think it is fairly successful.
I agree with Tara completely. Twitter and other social media sites, like Facebook, are beginning to pop up in the classroom. It's just another way to get students involved outside of class.
Tara also makes a very good point that texting has destroyed many people's ability to spell and use correct grammar.
I don't think social media will leave the classroom anytime soon. I can only see it growing and spreading to more classes.
I agree with both of you. The change in technology also calls for a changes in the resources that professors use. Not to say that the current methods are bad but an introduction to new teaching methods such as using Twitter is great.
I think that having students learn how to use Twitter is important. It is almost the professional form of texting depending on how you end up using it. Making students accountable for making sure that spelling, grammar, etc is correct in there Tweets is a great step for the proper grammar and punctuation.
I agree with Tara about our beginning news writing and reporting we have to use proper grammar and punctuation, and has personally helped me.
I am just barely noticing what Twitter is all about and I regret not being engaged on Twitter before I came to Simpson.
I think it's great for schools to incorporate the use of social media as a leaning tool, especially for the younger generations. As you all mentioned, as long as social media is being used in a proper way, I don't see the downside of social media in the classrooms.
Can you imagine if a similar class like BNR would had been taught in every highschool? We certaintly would have a better grasp of social media, thus, encouraging a better application of it as well.
It's very impressive that Twitter showed in an increase in students' GPAs. This has now become a tool in the classroom and I agree that if not using proper grammar it is useless.
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