Twitter
How would you utilize a class Twitter group? Opportunities to connect with students include encouraging thoughtful feedback and reflection and contributing new and innovative information relevant to your area of study.
For one of the areas of study within our classes, I believe the Nutrition course for Food service professionals would be an excellent choice to use Twitter. I would suggest that the instructor tweet to the class healthy cooking techniques and suggestions from sharing recipes and substitutions. For example, if I was at home cooking a healthy meal I would share that. If I was at a restaurant and was looking for healthy options I would tweet that. I would also tweet many news feeds pertaining to nutrition news and health. Keeping the class alwasy thinking about Nutrition and then able to apply discussion throughout the term.
I have created a twitter account for our program and have tried posting ideas, questions, etc with specific hash tags for linkings and responses. Some of the students have responded and it's been fun to see the comments with the hashtags. However, I really have no idea how to use it as a study medium. I am however using quizlet quite a bit for study/ homework assignments and student participation has been great. Our school has such strict social media policies that I find it difficult to navigate through those.
I have never used Twitter in my teaching or as a Program Director - but I plan too. We are getting more and more students who are technology smart and I feel that this will help them keep in touch with the real world. I plan on utilizing Twitter to keep my program informed of things going on at school and then have them connect to a business newsfeed and keep me updated to their findings.
Becki,
I am happy to hear you are planning to incorporate Twitter into your curriculum, a great tool to keep learners engaged. As a Program Director I am sure retention and student engagement are a top priority and a tool such as this would be a fantastic addition to the efforts you already have in place. Please share with the group how the students respond- I am eager to hear the results of your effort!
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
I would utilize a class Twitter group by starting discussions on course specific topics. If students can share ideas and thoughts outside of the class room, as well as link or photos relating to the topic, that will make class time much more meaningful and relevant. It would be a great way to introduce topics before covering them in class. Ask via twitter "what do you know about____" that way their minds are already in that zone when the next class starts.
Keegan,
Thank you for sharing- these are fantastic examples of how Twitter can be an effective teaching and sharing tool outside of the classroom.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
I set up a twitter account about a year ago, but I have yet to tweet anything. I have been inspired by this class and look forward to creating a outline for things to tweet as we go through the curriculum. I think it will be a great way to share information about upcoming quizzes and test. As well as getting a pulse of where students are at as far as understanding the course content.
Scot,
I am happy to hear you have been inspired by the course and plan on infusing a Twitter feed into your curriculum. You share an excellent example of how this technology can be useful to students as well as yourself. Please come back and share your experience with the group, I am eager to hear how your students react to the introduction of this resource.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
I too have been greatly inspired by this course. I have learned so much and have set as my goal to incorporate 2 new forms of interactive tech each quarter of the upcoming school year. I have decided Twitter to be one of the first ones to incorporate. I think I will start with introductory tweets and then use the forum to try to get discussions going about novels or activities done in class. I teach an 8th grade ELA class and then I teach college English at a local college. Students are often reluctant to discuss topics in the 8th grade class and I wanted to see if discussions would expand on twitter. In the college course, I may try another one for the first part or I may try another one like facebook. I need to print them off so I can review each side by side again. Did I say I LOOOOOOOVVVVEEE this class.
Carol,
I am very happy to hear this course has inspired you. Twitter is a fantastic tool, and a great way to incorporate more technology-based content delivery into your established repertoire. My personal experience has shown students are far more likely to engage with classmates when they can contribute via message board or a social media tool like Twitter. They have time to think through their comments, and for those who find it difficult to speak up in a group setting, it removes that barrier that may hold them back in the classroom environment.
Thanks again for your great feedback! Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
I think this is a fantastic idea. This class has really made me look at these social media technologies in a whole new way. Thanks for opening my mind!
Wendy,
I am glad to hear you are considering incorporating social media technologies into your curriculum. A Twitter feed is permitted by many schools as an acceptable form of communicating with current students, but it is always best to check with your Department Chair to review your school policy.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
I would utilize a class Twitter group as a tool for questions, answer, and concerns that students may refer to.
I agree with Keegan that this is a great way to embed formative assessments into a twitter group. In addition, you could keep your students aware of homework assignments, changes due to school cancellations/emergencies, upcoming quizzes/tests etc. It is a great way to stay connected with your students, and reduces the number of excuses they can give when unprepared.
We can make a twitter group with the students in the class.it is very innovative and provides means to them to post,follow the latest feed also to be able to interact.this way not only it keeps them all updated ,it also provides oppurtunity to give their input.
A Twitter account can be utilized to enable the teacher and learner to receive updated information from those in the same field of study.
This is actually a new concept to me. I had previously never thought about using Twitter in the classroom. But reading the material has got me thinking.
I think it would be a very useful tool to engage the students. They can ask questions at any time and those questions can be answered in class. I'm going to try and refine and implement this idea and think of other ways Twitter might become part of my classroom.
students use twitter, but fail to understand buzz. Getting them to think about applications of Twiiter in marketing or advertising classes helps them understand how to go beyond being a follower. It also helps them build up a sense of community when you are working with students who have a limited connection at the start of a course, and lets them help drive interest. I think the roughest thing is that many instructors really fall outside of the target age range for Twitter and really ned to adapt thier way of thinking when working with it.
HOnestly, I hadn't considered this before but it's such an excellent idea and I am going to incorporate this into my next Internet Marketing lesson. I see many advantages, but ease of communicating is #1.
