learnE – My experiences in elearning

Twitter as a learning tool

I have only recently joined Twitter and am still ‘feeling’ my way around.  Aside from investigating its uses, I am part of a group investigating the possibility of using Twitter as a learning tool for university students.  My very limited knowledge of this tool focused on its use as a quick ‘communication’ device, restricted to 140 characters in each conversation.  This was confirmed when I watched the video from CommonCraft titled Twitter in Plain English.  I was struggling to envisage such an application (particularly with the character restriction) being a useful tool for educational purposes.

As Alec Couros mentions in Tip of the Iceberg, Twitter ‘has allowed people to more deeply connect to each, share resources, share online opportunities, collaborate more conveniently and has become the gateway to deeper, more meaningful communication’.  In fact this microblogging tool appears to have many and varied uses when viewed as a learning tool because of its instantaneous and ephemeral nature.  As Darren Kuropatwa states in his reply to Terry Freedman, when ‘Twitter is used as a learning tool it allows people to think transparently and consequently can help them learn by:

• levelling the playing field – the outgoing and verbally expressive student is heard at the same volume as the more reserved classmate without being stifled themselves;
• allowing novices to see how the better students conceptualize their learning; and
• encouraging people to contribute as the anonymity will allow expression of their confusions and correct their misunderstandings’.

In Twitter Me This: Brainstorming Potential Educational Uses for Twitter, Christopher Sessums highlights some ideas of using Twitter in educational settings.  These include:

• writing/ microblogging/reader response; and
• Collaboration/Project Management.

Although ‘Twitter is generally considered a social media network’, there are several academic advantages identified on 25 Twitter Tips for Colleges Students, Campus Life, Features, Tips and Tools, including:

• ‘chat with professors and students, whenever, wherever;
• use RetweetMe to set up reminders for various study purposes;
• track a professional to learn about a particular career;
• collaborate on a project;
• start a second discussion in class;
• quick reference tool eg keyword search, quick review for a test or presentation, etc; and
• start a dialogue with students around the world.’

The following are more examples of applications of Twitter as a learning tool:

• students tweet progress and difficulties while working through a complicated problem allowing for focus and concreted feedback instantaneously;
• students tweet thoughts during lectures;
• set up Twitter account with the name of a topic or question and then collaborate in a web page;
• use Twitter to replace logbooks for students by encouraging them to tweet and reply about their learning progress;
• use as an educational resource by linking tagging (Delicious) to conversation (Twitter);
• weekly questions posted so that each student can respond – then one student collate the answers and summarise in one post (this can be rotated within the student group);
• post a brief summary or précis on readings;
• sharing links for noteworthy news;
• plug real-time events;
• inviting participants to join online conversations or Webcast;
• providing lively back channel during official presentations, without the noise of passing paper notes;
• chat with lecturers, teachers, other students during and outside of contact hours; and
• facilitate ‘virtual classroom’ discussion using @username feature.

It is possible to tweet from a mobile device, Instant Messenger and many other websites including Facebook which certainly allows for versatility. There are various applications/directory that help integrate Twitter with other tools which allow more versatility for collaboration.  The following is not a complete list but will give some indication of what is available:

• TwitterCamp (a desktop application that allows tweets to be monitored and is best suited when run on large displays such as plasmas, LCDs, and projectors at conferences);
• TwitterMail (an application using email to enable status updates to be posted to Twitter and receive tweets sent to your username ie @username)
• TwitterBerry (an application to link Twitter to Blackberry) and Twitterrific (an application to link Twitter to iPhone);
• Tweetree (an aggregator to collects all of twitter information so you can see the various posts that people are replying to in context, shared images, and youtube videos);
• Twellow (online directory of Twitter users that are arranges profiles based on geographical and bio information to categorize profiles and find people with similar interests to you to follow and interact with);
• Twitterlicious (simple Twitter client for Windows that shows the latest Twitter messages in chronological order);
• TweetCube (a free file sharing service that allows tweeting of larger file including audio, video or images to be shared between followers); and
• Tweetscan (search facility to find particular discussions).

Twitter also provides tools that could be used to enhance Twitter as a learning tool for students.  These include:

• 12seconds.tv – share 12 seconds video clips;
• direct messages – send a message that can only be seen by yourself and the recipient;
• hashtag# – help make a tweet searchable;
• @username – to address a message to a public space; and
• favourites – saved tweets.

Anne Bubnic in Twitter as a Personal Learning Community mentions that ‘the Twitter community can contribute by accelerating the pace and flow of new information as educators from across the globe can provide first hand information on how they are using technology for teaching and learning and everyone will benefit from the experience.’

References:

Barrett, T, March 2008, Twitter – A Teaching and Learning Tool, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/2008/03/29/twitter-a-teaching-and-learning-tool

Bubnic A, Twitter as a Personal Learning Community, Tech Savvy Teacher, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://abubnic.blogspot.com

Boss, S, December 2008, Twittering, Not Frittering: Professional Development in 140 Characters, George Lucas Educational Foundation, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://www.edutopia.org/twitter-professional-development-technology-microblogging

Dura, D, April, 2007, TwitterCamp, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://www.danieldura.com/code/twittercamp

Kuropatwa, D, April 2007, Twitter: Ephermeral Learning Tool, A Difference, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://adifference.blogspot.com/2007/07/twitter-ephemeral-learning-tool.html

McBride, M, February 2008, Classroom 2.0: Twitter, del.icio.us and participatory learning, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://melaniemcbride.net/2008/02/10/classroom20-twitter-delicious-and-participatory-learning

June 2008, 25 Twitter Tips for Colleges Students, Campus Life, Features, Tips and Tools, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://www.collegedegrees.com/blog/2008/06/04/25-twitter-tips-for-college-students

Rowse, D, March, 2009, 10 More Must Have Twitter Tools, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://www.twitip.com/10-more-must-have-twitter-tools

Sessums, C. D, June 2007, Twitter Me This: Brainstorming Potential Educaitonal Uses for Twitter, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/179742.html

Wheeler, S, January 2009, Teaching with Twitter, Learning with ‘e’s, viewed on 9 May 2009, http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html

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