A few weeks ago, I sat down for an interview with Toledo’s PBS affiliate (WGTE) about my classroom experiences with Facebook and Twitter. “Why do I use the social networking media,” the interviewer asked. “How do students take to it, and will I continue to use it in the future?” The short answers are as follows: I use it to connect with students and spark discussion; students are not as open to the media as I thought they would be; and yes, I plan to use both Facebook and Twitter next semester. You can see the full interview below or on WGTE’s site (my part begins about 1:35m in). And, yes, I’m from the South (i.e., the accent).
While I’ve always employed technology in/outside my classes — e.g., course websites, WebCT/Blackboard, online office hours via AOL, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging — this was my first semester to add Facebook and Twitter to the mix.
Over the summer I created a “professional” Facebook Page, not to be confused with the “personal” Facebook Profile, which I also have. What’s great about the Page is that it performs just like a Profile EXCEPT that its administrator and “fans” (like “friends”) connect only via that page. In other words — and this seems particularly useful for professors — I cannot see the personal profiles, pictures, and status updates of my students/”fans,” and they cannot see mine. Seriously, what professor wants to know THAT much about the day-to-day activities of his/her students and vice versa? You can reach my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/drkellimarshall.
Next, Twitter. I joined Twitter this summer, first because Ashton Kutcher told me to (well, why did you join?!) and second, because I had been researching it. I had watched Monica Rankin’s inspiring Twitter Experiment and had read through Dave Parry’s step-by-step guide Twitter for Academia. Incidentally, both of these professors teach at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I received my Ph.D; so I felt compelled to give this latest of form of New Media a whirl.
And I did. I even included a blurb on my syllabus, encouraging students to create their own Twitter accounts, to follow @Intro2Film, and (gasp!) to bring their cell phones to class. It went something like this:
This semester, our class will employ Twitter as one means of communication. Signing up for the service is NOT mandatory, but please keep in mind that Twitter will be a valuable communication tool for FILM 1310. Its “lightweight” format — expressing an idea in 140 characters or fewer — is perfect for course updates/reminders, in- and out-of-class discussions (you might be asked to bring your cell phone to class!), and even possible exam questions (yes, possible exam questions). In addition, Twitter allows you to “follow” film stars/directors, some of whom we might discuss over the course of the semester (e.g., Kevin Spacey, Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow).
Since cell phones are attached to the hands of college students like an extra appendage, I assumed I’d have no problem incorporating Twitter in the classroom, particularly within a large lecture-based class of 125 students. “Surely, they’d want to tweet during a movie,” I thought. “Surely, they’d be whip out those phones and respond as though ready for a duel,” I believed. But no, that’s not how it went at all.
This was the original plan. Before the film screenings, I’d tweet 4-5 questions on the day’s material, like this one on the representation of gender in Silence of the Lambs:
How is Clarice punished in SOTL for her independent nature? Or is she? Consider her final scene w/ Lector perhaps.
As they watched the film, the students were supposed to react to my tweet: right then, right there, in the dark, in the classroom. I intended it all to be very “in the moment” as they say, the students thinking critically about the moving pictures as they watched. But surprisingly, over the course of the entire semester, I may have received 2 real-time responses/tweets in my large class and perhaps 20 in my smaller film classes.
So what’s up with this? Why are students, some of whom consistently sneak their phones under their desks to text during class when they’re NOT supposed to (yeah, we see you, students!), so unwilling to text when they are actually encouraged to? An article like “Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens” suggests that teens and college students have no use for Twitter because they are already connected; “their lives [already] tend to revolve around their friends.” Additionally, some claim that the teens (particularly those under 18) “want to hide what they are doing.”
But using this particular form of New Media in a classroom has little to do with maintaining friends or concealing one’s activities from one’s parents. So here are some other theories as to why my experiment didn’t take off this time around:
- My directions weren’t thorough enough? (Two weeks before the semester began, I emailed all students directions on the use of Twitter, e.g., how to create an account, how to send a tweet, etc. Maybe I should have been more specific…)
- Students are too shy to tweet in front of others? (Honestly, I assumed that for some students, tweeting in front of 120+ other students would be easier than speaking aloud. Maybe not.)
- Students have limited text-messaging plans and do not want to “waste” their texts on a class?
- Students don’t have a cell phone? (True in some cases, but very few, I imagine.)
- Students are conditioned to think that using a phone is class is bad, wrong, disrespectful; so they feel weird about doing so?
And with that, I’ll quote Geoffrey Rush’s character from Shakespeare in Love, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” At this point, it is indeed a mystery why my students haven’t taken to Twitter. (Facebook, however, is another story; they’re much more willing to interact with me there.) Nonetheless, I’ll press on and try it all again with my students this spring. Perhaps in May 2010 I’ll have a different story to tell..
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,
Fascinating.
This is a little late, but I thought I'd add that my students had ZERO INTEREST in using Twitter. I tried to encourage them to use it to ask me short questions out of class (instead of sending me emails); I tried to encourage them to use it DURING class to ask short points of clarification. It's not that they don't want to interact with me — it's that 95% of them didn't use Twitter at ALL. The vast majority started their accounts because I forced them to; even now, they have very limited followers/following and rarely, if ever, tweet. I'm going to encourage it again this semester at Whitman, but I do still doubt it'll work.
It's still early, but I WALKED THEM through the process the first day of class. They sit in a lab with 24 online computers. I'm going to emphasisze Twitter as both a way to communicate out to the world but also as a tool to GATHER info. I'll let you know how it goes. Half are signed up as of today.
Ralph–ahh, if you walked them through it, then they should be better prepared than my students! Yeah, do keep me posted. Good luck to you this semester…
I came across this piece following a link from Ari's blog post about education and Twitter. Having left a comment there before reading over here, I said that I suspected lack of interest in Twitter to be the major contributing factor for poor number of tweets. Coming here to read that you agree was encouraging. Can I have a gold star?
I'm just a substitue teacher so I have no power or influence. However, I just suggested to Ari that I'll see if I can use the 140 character limit principle tomorrow in school. If you like, I'll let you know how that works out.
Fascinating post. Thanks for sharing.
Eleanor
Thanks for your comment, Eleanor. And, yes, please do let me know how Twitter works for you and your students if you decide to use it.
Kelli,
First off, I'm impressed with the production skills demonstrated in the story itself. Is that for public TV or just the web?
Well, we're almost to spring break and the students are more engaged now than at first. But I must say that a lot of them still aren't using it.
I have a guest speaker tomorrow. I'm going to make them tweet their questions…which I will then ask the guest.
It should expand that public timeline!
And we are both so early that it was easy to create accounts with just the class name.
The more web 2.0-savvy students thought using Twitter was really hip. But in a class of 25 only 4 were using it before they got accounts to talk to me.
Now–
Have you used google wave at all yet?
Hi, Ralph. The interview was initially for television; it aired on Toledo's PBS affiliate, WGTE.
Thanks for the update on your class and Twitter; I appreciate it. While my current students have engaged with Twitter more this semester than last semester's, there are still many who are not using it. Perhaps it will eventually grow on them…
I am signed up for Google Wave, but no, I have not used it. Don't really understand it all that much at this point. =)
Kelli,
I just found your blog. I'm pulling as much info as I can about using SM in the classroom. This was the first semester I attempted to use Twitter to enhance the classroom experience. It wasn't a total loss, but I have lots of ideas for upcoming semesters. Would love to share thoughts and ideas with you.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Look forward to more!
~ Erin ~
Absolutely! Would love to know how things worked out for you re: Twitter in the classroom. What subject matter do you teach?
I'm way late to this party, but great stuff! Seriously, we were meant to connect. I am launching a new website right now that you were made for. There's so much good stuff here. Can't wait to pick your brain.
I found this post from Mashables most recent Twitter article. It's pretty interesting that your students didn't react too well. There's a great article/research by @reyjunco on How Twitter improves college student engagement & grades (http://blog.reyjunco.com/twitter-improves-college-student-engagement-and-grades)
In regards to your theories, I don't think their too shy…doesn't Twitter provide the opposite affect? It means you don't have to raise your hand in front of the entire course which can be scary.
We've done similar experiments with SMS in the classroom and feedback coming in was that students simply didn't know the service existed, so maybe it just wasn't advertised well enough. There was no overwhelming feedback that said they loved/hated it but many students simply didn't want to integrate SMS into their academics lives…could be similar with Twitter.
SMS plans: I would think most of them have unlimited plans.
Thanks for sharing!
-Brett
Hi, again, Brett — thanks for commenting!
I introduced @reyjunco's article on engagement/grades to my spring 2011 classes (I didn't know about the study before then), and they seemed rather intrigued by it. Then again, that group took to Twitter MUCH better than the students I wrote about in the post to which you're referring. As I mentioned to you on Twitter last week, this write-up is a bit old; you might check out some of my others that are a bit more positive in nature:
— Teaching 200+ Students to Tweet: The Rewards
— Favorite Student Tweets series
You think most college students have unlimited SMS plans? Even I don't have that! =)
No problem! I'll check out the other posts. Yes, I do. I just graduated a few years back but moreso for the most part the student have unlimited sms with the pilots we've ran (with remind101).
Of course there will always be exceptions.
-Brett