Wiziq

Twitter and Teachers: A

Mini Workshop

Enza Antenos-Conforti

Dept. Spanish/Italian

Montclair State University, NJ

Follow me: @iVenus

Image credit: http://www.distance-education.org/Articles/Top-75-College-Education-Tweets-133.html

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html

Many have criticised tweets to be “banalities” and “mindless”

What We Tweet• Tweets are a source of

information; people in certain places, at certain events, sharing at a global level

*GFW-great fire wall

Tweets in Education

• Tweets are – self-perpetuating– generative– authentic

• Tweeps / Twitterers (users)– interpret input– produce output – engage in conversations

An Educational Networking ToolClass chatter Classroom communityGet a sense of the WorldTrack a WordTrack a ConferenceInstant Feedback

Follow a ProfessionalFollow a Famous PersonGrammarRule Based WritingMaximizing the Teaching MomentPublic Note PadWriting Assignment Source: AcademHack

www.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

Italian Students & TwitterTwitterers can:• be engaged in either synchronous or

asynchronous modes of communication implementing the same Web 2.0 tool

• use and interact with individuals or community members in the L2; and

• participate in the virtual classroom and in the L2 culture

The full study is available in the 2009 Calico Monograph SeriesThe Next Generation: Social Networking and Online Collaboration in Foreign Language LearningEditors, Lara Lomicka and Gillian Lord. ISSN:1085-2999

Twitter as Individual & Community

Twitterers can:• micro-blog about what they are

doing (learner written output)• read what others are doing (learner’s

comprehensible input)• communicate directly with someone

they are following (negotiation of meaning)

The findings: Social media

Before this course• 89% reported visiting at

least one social media website regularly

• 76% visited three or more different social media platforms

• Only 1 student was already micro-blogging

Did not like it

Neutral

Liked it

Loved it

2

9

8

0

3

3

11

2

Opinion after 14 weeks Initial impression

The findings: Distribution of tweetsOf tweets posted, one was expected to be a reply (i.e., to engage others in dialogue)• 60% of tweeted replies

were to students• 25% were to the

professor• 14% were to native

Italians

Students’ Reflections

• Twitter can transform social networking to educational networking.

• Twitter helped reduce affective filters.

• Learners stated that twittering had them asking for more information and allowed them to clarify using the L2.

Teaching with Twitter• Create a Twitter handle for

academic use only• Use class time to have

students create their handle, follow classmates and tweet for the first time

• Prompt them initially to have them feel comfortable with Tweeting

• Develop your best practices for course objectives

Managing Multiple Identities

Community-building: Crowd Status

In & Outside of the Classroom

BEYOND• Have them talk about

themselves (recycle grammar and vocabulary)

• Have them investigate topics related to syllabi content

• Have them investigate language use (vocabulary building)

IN• Have them brainstorm

ideas and post them

• Get instant feedback on topics using it as poll device using hashtags

• Allow them to ask questions and get feedback instantaneously from a larger language community

Learn10.com

Some Great Ideas!

http://www.slideshare.net/travelinlibrarian/twenty-five-interesting-ways-to-use-tw

The Teacher’s PLN

• A Personal Learning Network is essential to implementing Web 2.0 technologies to teaching

Real-time Searches on Twitter

http://search.twitter.com/