What is TWITTER?
Created in 2006, it’s a micro-blogging social media tool that provides real time information from real people.
Profile: Twitter page displaying information about a user, as well as all the tweets they have posted.
Tweets: messages of up to 140 characters.
Followers: people who subscribe to/receive your tweets; updates appear on twitter feed.
Lists: curated groups of Twitter users; used to tie specific individuals to a group or topic.
Hashtags: a word prefixed by a “pound sign” (#) to mark keywords or topics in a tweet.
Teaching with TWITTER
COMMON QUESTIONS
INSTRUCTORS:
Do I have to follow all of my students in order to teach with Twitter?
How often should I require my students to tweet?
What should my students tweet about?
How do I monitor who tweets what and how often?
How much of an investment of time will Twitter require (account set-up, tweeting, archiving, assessing tweets)?
STUDENTS: Are we being graded on this?
USING TWITTER IN CLA COURSES
2012-2013
CLA101: Introduction to Classical Civilization (200)
CLA201: Greek & Latin in Scientific Terminology (100)
CLA204: Introduction to Classical Mythology (250)
CLA231: Introduction to Roman History (120)
CLA237: Introduction to Greek Culture & Society (100)
(varying degrees of success and engagement)
TWITTER: MAKING IT COUNT
ASSESSMENT
1) Participation (10% of overall mark);
Classes will combine both formal lectures as well as tutorial-style discussion; as such, there will be ample opportunity for students to raise questions and engage dialogue. This will involve and require active participation from all members of the group in terms of preparatory reading, general questions and close textual and/or visual analysis. Students will be asked to complete a variety of activities to account for attendance and participation, both in class and via Blackboard Discussion Board and/or Twitter.
TWITTER: THE 5Ws
Who’s on it? Who can I follow?
What is it? What can it do for me?
Where can I find others?
When do I use it? When should I tweet?
Why use it? Why use it in the classroom?
STUDENT FEEDBACK
It gives me a voice when I can’t/don’t want to participate in class.
I can connect with other students in the class.
I don’t use Twitter because it’s intimidating. But I like that the Twitter feed is on Blackboard so I can see what kinds of things others tweet. I would maybe use it if it was required in other courses.
I don’t like Twitter. Not enough space to write what I need. I use Blackboard instead.
Twitter is good. Gets to the point. Don’t have to write so much (unnecessarily) as on BB.
Never used it in classes but I think it works.
KEEPING TRACK OF TWEETS
Create a permanent Twitter archive: monitor who is tweeting what, when and how often.
Most apps are free and can export archive into Excel or Office spreadsheets.
Try: HootSuite Archives; Tweet Archivist; TweetDoc; Twitter Archive Google Spreadsheet
Beyond the Classroom:
Why Should You Use TWITTER?
- make and maintain connections with others in your field,
- find out about interesting projects and research,
- crowdsource questions and technical problems.
- It’s the LinkedIn, Academia.edu of social media!
Helpful Resources…
Lehmann, K. and Chamberlin, L. 2011. “Twitter in Higher Education,” pp. 375-391 in C. Wankel, ed. Educating Educators with Social Media. Emerald Group Publishing.
Tyma, A. 2011. “Connecting with what is out there! Using Twitter in the large lecture,” Communication Teacher 25.3: 175-181.
Young, J. 2010. “Teaching with Twitter: not for the faint of heart,” in Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review.
Wright, N. 2010. “Twittering in teacher education: reflecting on practicum experiences,” The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning 25.3: 259-265.
There are also a slew of online resources under the blog “ProfHacker” from The Chronicle of Higher Education.