[Web4lib] Engineering Ed > Learning In 140-Character Bites

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

David Zax / ASEE Prism Magazine / October 2009 / 

 

Twitter can improve teacher-student communication, in and out of class. 

 

In most respects, Prof. Natasha Neogi's aerospace engineering class is
like any other. It's a large, hour-long lecture-style course at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. But at the halfway mark,
Neogi's class takes on a new twist. She invites her students to log on
to Twitter - the "micro-blogging" service that limits messages to 140
characters - and write in with questions. Neogi sifts through the
"tweets," in Twitter-speak, addressing the most common sticking point at
the end of class.

 

Of course, plenty of professors - engineering and otherwise - have long
been using Twitter. They tweet about interesting links they've come
across; they complain about their flight delays; they keep us updated on
their cats. But there are also professors who, like Neogi, have begun to
bring Twitter into the lecture hall or seminar room. [snip]

 

[snip]

 

Gordon Snyder, who directs the National Center for Information and
Communications Technologies at Springfield Technical Community College
in Massachusetts, has also experimented with the back channel. He
assigned his class a "hashtag",  [snip]

 

He also has found Twitter useful for getting a read on a room.
Professors are familiar with the inscrutable sight of a lecture hall
full of mute students. Are they listening? Understanding? Many
professors have adopted "clickers," polling devices used to quiz
students on a topic recently covered or to gauge students' opinions when
venturing into politically sensitive subject matter. Snyder, whose
center is funded by the National Science Foundation, considers Twitter a
"modern and much more effective" clicker. 

 

Of course, skepticism in academia remains the norm ... . But Twitter
evangelists have ready answers for skeptics. Does it erase a necessary
distance between professor and student, eroding professional authority?
That depends on your view, says McDonald: If you think, "'Well, I'm the
teacher, and people just need to listen to what I have to say'... then
Twitter is not useful for you." Does Twitter distract students? "I see
it as a way to keep students engaged," says Snyder. Besides, some argue,
students often are already using these technologies in class; professors
are simply co-opting a tool that would otherwise serve as a distraction.
"If you can't beat 'em, might as well join 'em," sums up Kathy Schmidt,
director of the Faculty Innovation Center for the College of Engineering
at the University of Texas - Austin. 

 

[more]

 

Links To Full Article Available At 

 

[ http://tinyurl.com/yad4e7b  ]

 

!!! Thanks To My ISU Colleague / Dr. Jacob D. Schroeder / For The
HeadsUp !! 

 

As Previously Requested > I Am Greatly Interested In Any / All Library ;
Educational Uses / Applications Of Twitter / Other Microblogging
Technologies || Please Post As A Comment(s) On The Blog Entry ... Thanks
A Million !!!

 

Regards,

 

/Gerry 

 

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University Library

Ames IA 50011

 

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

 

There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

 

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed

Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace