The twittering classroom
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8]
An excellent video clip (5:18) that reports on an experiment using Twitter in the classroom by Dr. Monica Rankin, a professor of History at UT Dallas. It seems to be a good way of engaging students but, more importantly, of enhancing inclusiveness and participation levels, both in and outside of the classroom.
I didn’t get how Rankin uses Twitter. She asks students to Twitter WHILE they are in the classroom discussing a topic???
I have yet to try this myself (… I plan to next month), but if I’m going through some slides at the front of the class, for example, I’ll be encouraging students to twitter while I’m talking or, indeed, while anyone else is talking. This can be in the form of comment, query, question or reference (to a relevant url). The beauty of it — as I see it — is that class participation is maximised during class, and the participation does not stop at the end of the class because it can continue on their hand held devices while they are on the bus going home!
Hmmm……I wonder if the Tweeting comes at the expense of actually speaking out in class. Anyway, please do let us know how your experience with it goes.
This is Jorge 🙂