Twitter in the Classroom: How Dr. Monica Rankin Uses Technology to Enhance Discussion
Earlier in June, I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Dr. Monica Rankin, PhD in Mexican History and Professor at University of Texas: Dallas, who implemented Twitter in the classroom as a conversational utility to enhance seminar discussions. Since the class completed in the Spring 2009 semester, Monica has received national news exposure for her work, which also included our own blog commentary.
The class was a large U.S. History course that enrolled 90 students from all educational backgrounds. Taking into account the size of the class, Dr. Rankin sought to find a tool that would allow for more efficient seminar discussions on the subject matter. Posting to forums and continual moderation was considered, but Twitter was ultimately chosen for its ability to engage all students through laptops, mobile phones or hand-written notes.
Students were hesitant at first, but slowly began posting their thoughts on lectures and smaller group discussions online. Those who were unable to attend certain discussions were then able to follow the conversation from another part of campus, contribute to it, and even continue to do so once they returned to their dorm or off campus housing.
The ability to continually contribute to seminar discussions, despite being in such a large classroom setting, is one of the great benefits I see for implementing Twitter as a technological aide in higher ed courses. There are limitations too, the most obvious being the 140 character limit that Twitter imposes on all posts, but as students continually become more digitally savvy, and as educators ask themselves questions around student engagement, they should consider more non-traditional solutions that technology can offer. Google Wave received much coverage when it was demoed in June as a potential education resource, but it remains to be seen where these trends are going.
UT: Dallas Emerging Media and Communications Graduate student, Kim Smith, produced a short video documentary on Dr. Rankin’s experiences, which I have included below. Let us know your thoughts and experiences with using collaborative technologies in classroom settings and we look forward to observing these new practices as they develop.
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Andrew Pass wrote on 07/15/09 8:46 AM
Thanks for posting this article. I had thought about the advantages of engagement for teaching and learning. However, I had not previously considered how useful this extra engagement might be in a large university seminar. It would certainly add a new component to the class. Yesterday in a conversation on the use of Twitter in a classroom somebody asked about the chance of somebody using Twitter for a non-academic related purpose while sitting in class. I'd say that if I was an instructor that wouldn't be my greatest concern. For it would be the student's responsibility to ensure that they understood class discussion, including the appropriate Twitter discussion.