Teaching+With+Twitter+Precis

Young, J. R. (2010). Teaching with twitter. //Education Digest//, //75//(7), 4-12. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.temple.edu/ehost/detail?sid=cf854eb6-c2f0-4ead-837a-cd9a742b26a3@sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl .

The article “Teaching With Twitter” by Jeffrey R. Young explores whether or not twitter will be useful in education rather than a disaster in the classroom. By giving different testimonies for educators he starts to build a case for whether or not it is a good idea to use social networking in Higher Education.

Professors at different universities are already experimenting with using social media in the classroom. Purdue is using software called Hotseat that lets them asked question via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It helps students feel more comfortable asking questions because, students that are too shy to ask certain questions in class can ask them on via Hotseat and be labeled as anonymous. Also students might have had the same question therefore one-answer can benefit the whole classroom instead of one student being answered at a time via email.

Since this practice is placing the students in control, professors have to be more mindful in what they say in class and on the websites, and also have to monitor them as well. A Purdue Professor was administering an exam and a student asked for an answer via Twitter using Hotseat. He was easily tracked down even when tweeting anonymous because you must log into Hotseat before using the software. Being that students will be using mediums of media technology, it could distract them even more when they are now all using the same network during class time as well. Professor Chakravarty uses the program in his course and noticed that there was a mixture of posts. There were meaningless things like jokes about certain parts of the lecture and there are genuine questions that need to be asked as well. Even though you may get a tweet of two that don’t pertain to the lecture, the questions that do are usually beneficial to the rest of the class because those are usually the questions that don’t get asked.

Although social media can be positive and beneficial in some cases like at Purdue, Professor Rankin of the University of Texas says it can become a disaster in the classroom as well. Her students have started arguments from an ethic class discussion that became nonacademic. Also there are students that don’t have laptops or smart phones so how will they be able to engage with the rest of the class during a lecture. Rankin said that only three out of ninety students had a twitter so that causes a conflict with class because students will need time to set up a profile and learn how to properly use it as well.