Twitter use in higher education

TWITTER IN HIGHER EDUCATION

tim.smits@soc.kuleuven.be@timsmitstim

BASICS OF TWITTER – ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONVERSATION MEDIUM

In timeline of all followers (unidirectional following)Open to everyone via twitter.com

Automatically in my timeline/mentionsOpen to everyone via twitter.com

RANGE OF APPLICATIONS – IT’S NOT A FAD

Class Interaction

Study Monitoring

Motivate Motivated

Metacognition

Guests & Multicampus

Personal Branding

Lifelong Learning

EXAMPLES - INTERACTION

1. CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

Typically, class interaction involves 1 student at a time. Each interaction consumes class time.

Twitter provides opportunity to have mass interaction:

Character limit, so only little time per interaction Visualisation for rapid processing of opinions Incentive to provide a concise answer

Question types: Yes/No; Multiple choice; Opinion; Why; … Or even references and links to external sources

At the beginning of my advertising course (@KulAdv), I showed students two ads for the same product.

Question: Which one is better: #kids vs #badjas? Why?

Result: Within 12 minutes, there were 106 responses

of students following the class. Discussion of these tweets resulted in

teacher’s insight in students’ reasoning, and students’ insights in the correct, false and overlooked parts of their reasoning

These tweets were then sent to the makers of the ads, which they followed up with tweets to the class

1. METACOGNITION, MOTIVATION, AND INTERACTION

Students write an awful lot of papers. But know little about each other’s papers Are hardly pressed to really take a stance in them

So, for a group paper assignment, I ask my students to tweet their key conclusion. Suddenly students knew about each other’s work and

the popularity of their topic (often inverse to creativity)

They had to think about a conclusion They informed the world (and their subject) about

their opinion

Sixty papers, resulted in 157 tweets

E.g. @KulAdv De Wakkere Bakker-Campagne, humor op maat gesneden!

http://t.co/Gv2Ia1Tj #groep22 #wakkere bakker @kuladv #groep 17 My latest SlideShare upload :

AdCampagin_kul_groep17 http://t.co/fz6RYcws RT @charlotte_devos: @KulAdv Joint advertising: stehrk in aandacht

trekken, maar deze case blaast niet omver. Effectiviteit? #jointads #STIHL #Bel&Bo

De schandalig goede campagne maakt Euro Millions schandalig rijk! #groep2takehome @Kuladv @TimSmitsTim

@KulAdv @BinckBank_BE Wie laat u in uw douche? Wie mag uw rug masseren? Hoe BinckBank u overtuigt uw grootbank te verlaten. #ReclGroep41[@BinckBank_Be: “@BynensLaurens @RobRecule @KulAdv Benieuwd naar jullie resultaten! #ReclGroep41”

TIPS – TRICKS – ISSUES

Which language to use?Strictly professional?Strictly research & education?Personal account or course account?

Anxious/worried students?Trolls?Obligatory?

It is #openedu. Expect to feel uncomfortable from time to time

#TWEXIT

@timsmitstim - @kuladv - @kulmarcom@kulperscom - @ims_kul